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- [00:01]
Joel Santo Domingo
The New York Times app has all this stuff that you may not have seen.
- [00:04]
Kyra Blackwell
The way the tabs are at the.
- [00:05]
Christine Cyrclassette
Top with all of the different sections.
- [00:07]
Joel Santo Domingo
I can immediately navigate to something that.
- [00:09]
Rosie Guerin
Matches what I'm feeling.
- [00:10]
Kyra Blackwell
Click wordle or Connections and then swipe.
- [00:13]
Joel Santo Domingo
Over to read today's headlines.
- [00:15]
Christine Cyrclassette
There's an article next to a recipe next to games, and it's just easy to get everything in one place.
- [00:21]
Joel Santo Domingo
This app is essential. The New York Times app. All of the times all in one place.
- [00:27]
Kyra Blackwell
Download it now@nytimes.com Apple.
- [00:33]
Joel Santo Domingo
Hook up an ethernet cord to your laptop. Everything will be great. And I promise you that.
- [00:40]
Christine Cyrclassette
That feels so 1990s.
- [00:41]
Rosie Guerin
Like, yeah, getting the wayback Machine.
- [00:48]
Christine Cyrclassette
I'm Christine Cyrclassette.
- [00:50]
Kyra Blackwell
I'm Kyra Blackwell.
- [00:51]
Rosie Guerin
I'm Rosie Garant and you're listening to the Wirecutter show.
- [00:56]
Kyra Blackwell
This episode is called why is your Internet so bad?
- [01:07]
Rosie Guerin
Christina and Kyra and my friends. This episode really is a public service. I'm thinking of it that way. We've secured an interview with the man who can answer the question. I and so many of us have. Why is my Internet so bad? What are your setups at home?
- [01:27]
Christine Cyrclassette
What's your drama?
- [01:27]
Joel Santo Domingo
You.
- [01:28]
Christine Cyrclassette
Do you know that my setup is terrible? You regularly are on video calls with me where I'm glitching out and it's domo arigato, Christine.
- [01:35]
Rosie Guerin
Roboto.
- [01:35]
Kyra Blackwell
It's impossible to hear you sometimes.
- [01:38]
Christine Cyrclassette
It's really. It's embarrassing.
- [01:41]
Kyra Blackwell
Don't be embarrassed. It's not your fault. Maybe.
- [01:43]
Christine Cyrclassette
Well, I'm hoping this episode I'll learn how to fix it, though.
- [01:46]
Kyra Blackwell
I'm proud to say that this is my first episode where I don't have this problem.
- [01:50]
Christine Cyrclassette
Oh, so you just are. You have no problem with your Internet?
- [01:53]
Kyra Blackwell
I have great Internet.
- [01:54]
Christine Cyrclassette
It's the one.
- [01:55]
Rosie Guerin
Yeah, but she doesn't have oven mitts or fire extinguisher. Fire extinguishers.
- [01:59]
Kyra Blackwell
So I also live in a basement, but I have good Internet, you guys.
- [02:03]
Christine Cyrclassette
Great. I love that, you know, Internet. It's so central to everything most of us do every day. It's basically a utility at this point. And I think a lot of people have this problem or this complaint that their Internet is terrible and they don't necessarily know why. They just know it isn't good. If you're like me, you usually blame your Internet provider. But honestly, that's not always the problem. There can be lots of things that caused your Internet to not be optimal. You know, it could be the hardware in your home, how you are connected in your home. And it can also be kind of like the way you're getting your Internet. So today on the show, we're going to tap into the mind of our colleague Joel Santo Domingo. Joel is a writer at Wirecutter who covers WiFi and home networks, Basically all of the tools that keep us connected to our digital life.
- [02:51]
Kyra Blackwell
Yeah. Joel is full of hacks and tips and tricks about how to better understand and improve your Internet at home. And we're going to get into all of it right after the break.
- [03:00]
Christine Cyrclassette
Be right back.
- [03:10]
Audra Diaz Birch
My name is Audra Diaz Birch, and I am a national correspondent covering race and identity for the New York Times. Race coverage is complicated. It can be joyous and affirming. It can be uncomfortable, but I feel like it's still absolutely necessary. Race and identity are not just understanding who you are, but who the person in front of you is and wanting to understand more about them. We're trying to wrestle down these really hard subjects and maybe not answering the question, but asking the right questions and listening, listening, listening a lot. The Times is dedicated to ambitious and deeply reported coverage of race and identity, and they're willing to back it up with resources. If you are curious about the world in which we live. If you're interested in who you are, where you come from, and how you relate to others, I would encourage you to subscribe to the New York Times.
- [04:18]
Kyra Blackwell
Welcome back. Our guest today is Joel Santo Domingo, and Joel is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter who covers consumer tech, which includes things like WI fi, routers and hard drives. Joel's fun fact, which I love, is that he kind of technically shared a stage with Aretha Franklin, but she was on stage and he was downstage left working the computer.
- [04:37]
Christine Cyrclassette
Joel, I love that. Welcome to the Wirecutter Show.
- [04:40]
Joel Santo Domingo
Thanks for having me.
- [04:41]
Christine Cyrclassette
It's really nice to have you here. Before we get started, we need to start this episode with just a little disclosure. I have an in law, my sister in law who works for Spectrum, the Internet company. And Joel, your wife works for Verizon. We are not going to be giving any preferential treatment to any Internet service providers, but we did want to get that out of the way so our listeners know that we're gonna talk today about how to improve the Internet in your home, regardless of where you get your Internet.
- [05:10]
Rosie Guerin
That's right. So, Joel, simple question. I need and want to know if you have an incredibly high threshold for pain or the patience of a patron saint, because I don't know how you test Internet connectivity every day and not wanna pull all of your hair out, truly. What's your secret? What's your process?
- [05:31]
Joel Santo Domingo
It's a fun process, essentially. Taking my, which is a regular two and a half story home with wood framing and adding another WI FI network to it. Basically every WI FI router we get in, I set it up as per the instructions and using the app or website as the case may be, just like a normal user would. Setting it up, hooking up a desktop computer to it to act as a web server, simulating, streaming 4K videos or surfing the web or taking zoom calls, that sort of thing.
- [06:11]
Rosie Guerin
So it's like the Sandra Bullock movie the Net?
- [06:14]
Joel Santo Domingo
Pretty much. Pretty much. But it's all, it's all self contained, it doesn't actually go out to the Internet because the Internet always adds extra problems with traffic. And you know, your neighbor down the street, he's streaming something, so I isolate it from the Internet and I'm just testing the radio signal going back and forth between the router and these laptops.
- [06:36]
Rosie Guerin
Joel, how long have you been doing this? How long have you been testing?
- [06:39]
Joel Santo Domingo
I've been testing for Wirecutter for about six years now. But before that I tested PCs and other technology, including Wi Fi for almost 25 years. And prior to that I was an IT tech and tech manager. So I've been doing this for a while.
- [06:55]
Christine Cyrclassette
Can I ask a really basic stupid question? Sure.
- [06:58]
Rosie Guerin
Do you want to know the plot of the Net? I love that movie. Go on.
- [07:02]
Christine Cyrclassette
This is what I'm embarrassed to ask, but I honestly, I'm going to be a proxy for, I think many listeners. You know, a router is what gives you WI fi, right. And then modem is what's actually connecting you to the Internet. Right?
- [07:13]
Joel Santo Domingo
Right. Yeah, they're both magical little boxes. Basically. Modem connects you to your Internet provider, whatever that company is, and. And the router is the box that tells all your devices to connect wirelessly to that Internet. Sometimes they're combined in one box called a gateway.
- [07:30]
Kyra Blackwell
Joel, if people walk away with one thing after listening to this episode, what is the one trick to improve the WI FI in their home?
- [07:38]
Joel Santo Domingo
Probably the easiest thing to do would be to stay close to your router. Sitting next to your router if you're not connected to it with a cord is probably the best thing. The WI FI signal from your router is best in the same room the router is in, strangely enough, is the.
- [07:56]
Kyra Blackwell
Router the thing that usually has the WI FI passcode on it.
- [07:59]
Joel Santo Domingo
It's usually the thing that has the WI FI passcode on it. Sometimes it'll have antennas sticking out of it. Okay, but that's your router. It's usually a black plastic box sitting next to your cable modem.
- [08:12]
Christine Cyrclassette
I'm realizing my router might be in the worst possible place. It's in the middle of my apartment, not in a room that I work in, not in a room I watch T. But it's, like, positioned to try to access equally the places in my home where I am using Internet.
- [08:24]
Joel Santo Domingo
Middle of your living space is actually the best place for it. That way the signal is spread out. It comes out in a sphere, basically, or a circle. You want to be somewhere within the circle of coverage.
- [08:38]
Kyra Blackwell
And if your router is basically beyond your line of sight, that's going to be interfering with your WI fi. How?
- [08:46]
Joel Santo Domingo
It's kind of like trying to talk to someone. If you're in the same room, things are going to be great. But if you're trying to talk to them and there's a wall in between you, you're not going to be able to hear them or not hear them as well. And if there's more than two walls or three walls or a brick wall, for example, it's going to block that signal. And just like if you're trying to talk to someone, WI fi doesn't like going through more than a couple of walls or a brick wall.
- [09:14]
Rosie Guerin
Joel, I want to be greedy and ask for one more juicy hack, please.
- [09:18]
Joel Santo Domingo
Turning on and off your router and modem actually will cover a multitude of sins.
- [09:25]
Christine Cyrclassette
What do you mean by sins?
- [09:29]
Joel Santo Domingo
Let's use the talking analogy again. If you are in a living space that is surrounded by other living spaces, like an apartment building or a condo complex, you're going to have anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen to three dozen other WI FI routers in the area. And all of those routers talking at the same time will basically stomp on each other. Even if you are not connected to their network, their network is affecting you. It's kind of like when you're in a quiet bar versus a jazz bar that is really, really hopping. You're going to have a lot of noise around you, and that's going to interfere with your conversation, which is the WI FI signal between you and your router.
- [10:14]
Kyra Blackwell
And so turning your router off and on again does what exactly?
- [10:18]
Joel Santo Domingo
When you turn your router off and then on again, it actually looks around and sees what other signals are in the area and finds the signal that works best in that room at that time. So it can get a strong connection between your laptop and your router or your phone and your router.
- [10:38]
Kyra Blackwell
So it's kind of. To take it back to that restaurant analogy, it's like if you had moved to a private room that's quiet again.
- [10:44]
Joel Santo Domingo
Pretty much if you'd move to a private room and it's quiet again. Or another way I like to describe it is if you're thinking about the WI FI network as you're speaking English to your router, and the other routers on another channel, on another network name are speaking French, for example, you don't speak French, so you're kind of ignoring it. But if that other router is strong enough or is close enough to you, even though they're speaking French and you don't understand it, their conversation will still impinge upon yours. So clearing the router, turning it off, turning it on again, will get you to a place where you're speaking again. You're just checking with your friend, hey, can you hear me now? That's really what the router is doing. It's turning it off, turning it on again. And then your laptops and your smart cameras and your phone will check with your router again. Say, hey, can you hear me now? Oh, I can hear you now. Let's keep going.
- [11:44]
Christine Cyrclassette
I'm seeing, like, a little Pixar animated show about this situation. But, you know, Joel, from what you're saying, it sounds like if you're in an apartment building, say, like I live in, this might be a bigger issue. Right. You've got a lot of people around you at different apartments that have their own routers that are trying to speak to their owner's devices, and that can get really crowded. Right. If you're in a house, like out in the country, where you're not picking up anybody else's WI FI signal, that's gonna be less of an issue.
- [12:11]
Joel Santo Domingo
That is absolutely true. It's kind of like moving to a quieter room. When you're in a quiet room, you don't have to yell at each other. You can just speak in a normal voice. The person can be sitting across the room from you, or the person can be sitting next to you, and you'll probably be able to hear them quite equally there.
- [12:29]
Kyra Blackwell
So if you have a more expensive router, will it work better?
- [12:33]
Joel Santo Domingo
Yes and no. An expensive router might have newer features like Wi Fi 7. And Wi Fi 7 has some features in it that will work better with crowded WI fi. But if there's two brick walls, for example, between your family room and your home office. And if your router's in your family room, there's still going to be a good chance you're going to drop WI fi connections. You could install a mesh networking system, which is basically multiple routers connected together either by wires or wirelessly to improve your WI fi in a larger home. But that, as they say, is a topic for another show. We do have a guide for that if you're interested.
- [13:11]
Kyra Blackwell
Always interested, Joel, always. But I do have a follow up to that. I've never actually bought my own router. I've always just rented it from whatever company services my area. But would you recommend that people go ahead and buy their own router so they're not doing that?
- [13:23]
Joel Santo Domingo
I get that question a lot. If you have a router that your cable company or a fiber company provides you and it works great, use it. If they are charging you 10, 15 bucks a month for using that router, or if the router isn't quite good enough for what you need in your home, then I would suggest purchasing a router. Over time, It'll take maybe 10 to 12 months for that to pay off.
- [13:53]
Rosie Guerin
In summary though, if I'm in my panic room, let's just say, and my $600,000 router is outside of doesn't matter that it costs $600,000. It's not gonna really necessarily be.
- [14:09]
Joel Santo Domingo
No. If you're in a steel cage, essentially, you're not probably not gonna get good WI fi signal from outside that room.
- [14:17]
Rosie Guerin
I think that's gonna be really meaningful to a lot of people.
- [14:21]
Christine Cyrclassette
One takeaway you take away from this section. Joel, you have written a lot about different ways to improve WI fi. We've covered like kind of the real basic ones here. And people can go read these pieces you've written. We're gonna put them in the show notes. But I find a lot of these steps that you've written about like a little bit advanced for me personally. They're kind of like 2.0, 3.0. So I'm wondering if there is one more tip that you think would outsized rewards for doing like one action somebody can take to significantly improve the Internet in their home.
- [15:02]
Joel Santo Domingo
This really applies mainly to desktops, laptops and things like gaming consoles. But wired is always better than wireless. If you take your laptop and hook it up to your router directly, there's going to be an ethernet port in the back. There should be a free one in the back of your router. Hook up an ethernet cord to your laptop, everything will Be great. And I promise you that.
- [15:28]
Christine Cyrclassette
That feels so 1990s.
- [15:30]
Rosie Guerin
Like it in the Wayback Machine.
- [15:33]
Christine Cyrclassette
Yeah. I mean, I feel like I haven't used an ethernet cord in more than a decade.
- [15:37]
Joel Santo Domingo
It's the one tip that I give all of my coworkers if they're having problems with zoom calls. If you clip in a ethernet cord onto your laptop, boom, you're on Zoom calls. It's gonna be steady. It's gonna be great. You're not gonna look like a slideshow.
- [15:53]
Christine Cyrclassette
I am.
- [15:54]
Rosie Guerin
Yeah, but it's not sexy while you're.
- [15:56]
Kyra Blackwell
On zoom, so nobody can see Rosie.
- [15:58]
Christine Cyrclassette
I mean, I have terrible video quality. You all know this on my calls from home.
- [16:03]
Rosie Guerin
So this is called BeatBorp.
- [16:04]
Kyra Blackwell
Christine BeatBorp.
- [16:06]
Christine Cyrclassette
I actually have gotten an annual review where the only negative part of the annual review is my WI fi. Is that spotty?
- [16:13]
Kyra Blackwell
That's so funny. They're like, get a. Get an ethernet cord.
- [16:16]
Christine Cyrclassette
Get a better Internet connection. You work at Wirecutter. What problem? But I don't have an ethernet port on my computer, so how do I connect?
- [16:24]
Joel Santo Domingo
Type this into Amazon Search or any search engine. USB to Ethernet adapter, and that will get you a probably 10 to $20 dongle, for lack of a better word, that will let you hook up Ethernet to any laptop. Also have another easy solution. You can purchase something called a powerline adapter, which basically allows you to plug your router into your power lines in your house and then connect those power lines to your computer with an Ethernet cable. Power line adapters are pretty simple to use, and we have a guide about them on the site.
- [17:07]
Christine Cyrclassette
My mind is exploding right now. That's a thing. You can just use the electrical wires in your home, essentially as what the Ethernet cord would have otherwise been doing.
- [17:16]
Joel Santo Domingo
Absolutely. You can do it.
- [17:18]
Christine Cyrclassette
Does it work well?
- [17:19]
Joel Santo Domingo
It works reasonably well. It's not going to be as fast as actually taking a physical Ethernet cable and stringing that through your house, but it will get the job done. It's going to be good enough for a zoom call. It's going to be good enough even for playing games. Strangely enough, my son uses a power line adapter in our home because it's faster than the WI fi in playing games.
- [17:47]
Christine Cyrclassette
Okay, so just to summarize, if you're having trouble with your Internet connection in your home, it might be your wifi. And the first thing you should try is get close to your router because you'll be closer to a stronger signal. If that doesn't work, the next thing you should do is turn it off and on. We're never gonna say good advice.
- [18:05]
Kyra Blackwell
Oh, my God.
- [18:05]
Christine Cyrclassette
Yeah. Okay, so it's old school advice, but it's classic for a reason. Now, if you are still like me, having lots of issues with your Internet, the best next thing you can do is probably go wired. You should just go get yourself an ethernet cord and an adapter and plug it into your computer. Or you can try this fancier technique that Joel has explained, this power line extender, which uses the, you know, electrical wires in your home to connect you to your modem.
- [18:37]
Kyra Blackwell
Yeah, that's pretty cool, actually.
- [18:38]
Christine Cyrclassette
I think I want to try that.
- [18:40]
Kyra Blackwell
So now we're going to take a quick break and then when we come back, Joel will give us some insight on how to decide on an Internet package that's right for you. Be right back. Welcome back. This episode is all about how to improve your at home Internet. And our guest is Joel Santo Domingo. So we just talked about the hardware. Now let's talk about how you actually get the Internet into your home. Joel, I want you to run us through the options of Internet services in order of best to worst. What is the absolute best way to get connected to the Internet at home?
- [19:30]
Joel Santo Domingo
Probably the best way right now is Fiber, because it's actually a wired service that gets the fastest Internet from whatever company you're using, whether it's Verizon, AT&T Optimum, Spectrum, whomever, to your home.
- [19:49]
Kyra Blackwell
What are you really looking for when you're looking for a good, fast Internet service to get Internet into your home?
- [19:54]
Joel Santo Domingo
Well, Fiber is wonderful because its upload speeds are as high as its download speeds. Download speeds are great for streaming videos and downloading updates to games on your PlayStation, for example. And they're a really easy way to sell Internet plans because faster is better. Right? But upload speeds are important for things like sending photos and videos to Share Drive or Google Photos and Zoom meetings. The most basic Internet plans come with 20-30 Mbps download speeds, but only about 3 or 5 Mbps upload speeds. That's barely enough for one zoom call. And if you have an upload speed of 3 to 5 megabits, that would come to a screeching halt if you have two work calls.
- [20:42]
Kyra Blackwell
So it sounds like the average person doesn't really need to be looking at the download speeds. What you really want to be paying attention to is upload speeds. Right? So per person in a household, how fast do you want those upload speeds to be?
- [20:56]
Joel Santo Domingo
The average upload speed you Want per person probably is somewhere between 5 and 10 Mbps. 10 to 20 would be actually better. But 5 to 10 would be enough per person because each zoom call takes about 3 to 5 megabits upload speed. And if you have two Zoom work calls and your kids are remote learning at the same time, three to five total is not going to cut it. And the most basic fiber plans that I've seen out there are somewhere between 150 to 300Mbps.
- [21:34]
Christine Cyrclassette
Whoa. So that would be enough for like 15 people to be on a video call at home, right?
- [21:38]
Joel Santo Domingo
Absolutely. You could have your entire family on their phones on a FaceTime call, all at the same time. Talking to another dozen people online sounds.
- [21:48]
Christine Cyrclassette
Like kind of a personal nightmare. But yeah, we.
- [21:51]
Joel Santo Domingo
We did it during the pandemic, which.
- [21:53]
Christine Cyrclassette
Is why it sounds like personal nightmare.
- [21:56]
Rosie Guerin
So, Joel, you said that not everyone is set up to access fiber. So how do I figure out if I can based on where I live?
- [22:04]
Joel Santo Domingo
There are like a dozen tools out there. To find what you can get at your home. You could go to each individual site, verizon.com, att.com, t mobile.com, for example, plug your address in, and they'll tell you what they can give you. But there's one tool that I like to use, which is broadband map. Enter your address and it'll tell you all of the Internet providers that are registered with the FCC that can give you service at your home.
- [22:37]
Christine Cyrclassette
If, like me, you cannot access fiber, what's the next best option?
- [22:41]
Joel Santo Domingo
The next best option is cable. This is the cable Internet that most people are used to. Back in the day, it was an add on to cable TV, but. But for the past 10 years or so, we've been seeing many cord cutters switch to Internet only plans. And leaving cable TV behind. Cord cutters are those folks that instead of having a cable box hooked up to their tv, they're just doing it through streaming boxes like an Apple TV or a fire stick.
- [23:09]
Christine Cyrclassette
Walk through the pros and cons of cable.
- [23:12]
Joel Santo Domingo
The pros of cable is it's really easy to find. A large portion of the country has been wired for cable because cable TV really was where we got tv. And if those cables are in your walls, you can get cable Internet service.
- [23:28]
Kyra Blackwell
And what are some of the cons?
- [23:31]
Joel Santo Domingo
Some of the cons are it can be slower, particularly on uploads. For the basic plans of cable, upload speeds are usually around 15-20 Mbps. And while those are good enough for a smaller family. If you have an extended family living in your house, for example, that may not be enough.
- [23:53]
Kyra Blackwell
Okay, Joel, so what is the last option that you might be presented with from an Internet service or provider if you don't want or don't have access to fiber or cable?
- [24:04]
Joel Santo Domingo
If you don't have access to fiber or cable, there are two wireless Internet services available. Those are satellite or 5G home Internet. Let's talk about 5G home Internet because that's easier. 5G home Internet uses wireless cell phone towers similar to the ones that connect your Internet to your cell phone. Basically, 5G Home can access the Internet where your phone has Service. Though a 5G home router will get better reception because it's plugged in all the time and it's in a stationary place. T Mobile, AT&T and Verizon all have stakes in 5G home service, and they are pushing it right now. Satellite, on the other hand, uses clusters of satellites orbiting the Earth to beam Internet back and forth from the surface. So satellite's big benefit. It works most anywhere in the country and around the world, even at sea. And it's available in rural spots where 5G and fiber are hard to find. Starlink is the flashiest of the satellite providers, but there's others like viasat and hughesnet. Those are the other big names in satellite. And they'll basically come and install a satellite dish on the side of your house, just like satellite tv, and drill a hole in your wall and hook that up to a router, and then you'll be able to get WI fi in your home that way. The benefits are it reaches everywhere, but it's less responsive than fiber or cable for things like gaming. But they are fast enough for streaming services. So Netflix will be fine, Zoom will be fine, teams will be fine.
- [25:34]
Kyra Blackwell
So when you have a WI FI name and it automatically has like, I don't know if this happens to you guys, but you get like two wifi names when you hook up to a new provider. It's like the regular name, and then there's one that's a duplicate, but it says 5G next to. What is that?
- [25:48]
Joel Santo Domingo
Yeah, that's one of the fun things. Or not so fun things actually about using WI fi is that older routers and sometimes the routers that you get from a cable company or a fiber company will have your network name, usually like ATT5363 or Free Britney.
- [26:05]
Kyra Blackwell
In my case, Free Britney.
- [26:07]
Joel Santo Domingo
And it'll see Free Britney and then free Britney 5G and what that is, it's the 5 GHz channel or band on your router. They separate that. So if you have older devices like smart cameras or a ring doorbell, you can connect to the regular network on that. And that's slower, it's got better range. Then you would connect your phones and your laptops up to the free Britney Dash 5G, and that's a little bit faster, but it's also short range. So that is the network that might have problems if you're three, four, five rooms away from the router. That 5G is not the 5G home that we've been talking about. 5G home is a totally different thing. It's 5G as it relates to cell phones. Dash 5G on your router's WiFi is the similarly named but also confusing thing that WI fi routers do.
- [27:14]
Rosie Guerin
They came up with a specific name for dongle, but they didn't come up with a different term. Both called 5G, but it's two different things.
- [27:24]
Joel Santo Domingo
They're both called 5G, but they are totally different.
- [27:26]
Rosie Guerin
Explain that one to me. Actually, don't sue me.
- [27:28]
Kyra Blackwell
Forgetting about actually don't.
- [27:34]
Christine Cyrclassette
So, Joel, once you've looked up what's available in your area for an Internet provider and you've decided whether to go with fiber cable or 5G, which sounds like that's never the first choice, the next step is to pick a company or service provider. As a customer, do you have any leverage to get a better deal than the Internet providers are advertising?
- [27:55]
Joel Santo Domingo
You can to a certain degree. If you're lucky enough to have fiber and cable in your area, you can switch between one or the other if one is significantly cheaper for similar in package. You know, that said, you really have to check on each provider's website if your specific home or apartment unit has services. I've seen neighborhoods where one apartment building has cable, but units in another tower next door have fiber.
- [28:19]
Rosie Guerin
Can you explain how that could be the case?
- [28:22]
Joel Santo Domingo
It's essentially what happens with your building management or your landlord. They have to pay to have service installed in your building.
- [28:30]
Rosie Guerin
In a house, though, Joel, like if I buy a house, can I call one of the companies and ask them to set up fiber in my home? How does that work?
- [28:38]
Joel Santo Domingo
You can. They will do it if you pay. And sometimes it'll be as simple as, oh, you have to pay 150 bucks for them to drill a hole in your wall. But sometimes it could cost 10, $20,000. I've heard from some news stories that they will have to drill holes and run cable underground to get to people's houses.
- [29:03]
Christine Cyrclassette
That's some expensive Internet.
- [29:05]
Rosie Guerin
Do you want it? If you want fiber, Christine, I'll come, I'll come to your house. I'll drill it.
- [29:09]
Christine Cyrclassette
I, I will just say one point on this price. You know, getting the best price on Internet. I have in the past called my Internet provider and negotiated down. So there is, you know, there's even scripts on the Internet how to talk down the price.
- [29:22]
Joel Santo Domingo
You talk with what's called their customer retention department. And you mentioned scripts online. They actually have scripts. The customer service representatives have scripts that they go through to say, oh, Mr. Smith, you have Internet service at one gig at $60 a month. What would you say if we gave you two gigs a month for $90 or 500 meg for $30 a month? They have scripts all set up and figure out, okay, are you the type of person that will switch tomorrow if given a chance, or are you the type of person that would stay with that company because you're brand loyal, for.
- [30:02]
Christine Cyrclassette
Example, or too lazy?
- [30:05]
Joel Santo Domingo
That too.
- [30:06]
Rosie Guerin
Joel, I always find it rather demoralizing having to get on the phone. I always, always feel like I'm being sold things I don't need. So I want to know what should I actually pay attention to on a phone call like that? You know, you just threw out some words that and my heart started to pound. Cause I don' I think I understood them. So what do I need to pay attention to and what can I filter out?
- [30:29]
Joel Santo Domingo
Sure. You know, they always talk about things like high speed Internet and gig speed. And those are kind of marketing terms because the FCC defines broadband speed as being anything over 100 Mbps, which these days covers the most basic first tier Internet plans. Download speeds are the first thing they throw out at you because it's easy to say, oh, we've got 500. We can offer you 500Mbps and that's faster than 200. But if you drill down a little bit into the fine print, you'll find the upload speeds which are actually going to be more important for you, particularly if you work from home.
- [31:08]
Kyra Blackwell
And how do you even figure out what your current speed is?
- [31:11]
Joel Santo Domingo
Well, if you want to figure out what your current speed is, you can go to a couple of websites. The two that I like to use are speedtest.net, and fast.com, fast.com is run by Netflix. So it's a way to check if you can get Netflix in your home and if it's fast enough. But that said, go to either of these two websites and click on go or run speed test. Speedtest will automatically give you both the upload and download speed you can get from your device, from your phone, or from your laptop. At that moment, on Fast.com, you'll still have to click show more info to see your upload speeds. You really want to see at least 10, preferably 25 or higher, on your upload speed. And you know, Christine, actually this would be a good tip. If you're in your Office, go to speedtest.net and if your upload speed is 2 or 1 Mbps, move closer to the router.
- [32:10]
Christine Cyrclassette
Oh, my gosh. I'm just going to have my phone out like a compass all day in my apartment like a radar.
- [32:18]
Rosie Guerin
The old can you hear me now?
- [32:20]
Joel Santo Domingo
Yes, basically.
- [32:30]
Kyra Blackwell
Well, before we wrap, we usually ask our guests one final question. What's the last thing you bought that you've really loved?
- [32:37]
Joel Santo Domingo
Actually, that would be the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro Toaster oven.
- [32:42]
Christine Cyrclassette
Whoa, fancy.
- [32:45]
Joel Santo Domingo
Yeah, it went on sale during Black Friday, so I really, I jumped on it because our 20 year old black and Decker toaster oven finally died. It works really, really well. Leftovers are great. My son cooks frozen pizzas all the time because he is a teenager and it's great.
- [33:04]
Rosie Guerin
Love it.
- [33:05]
Christine Cyrclassette
Love it.
- [33:05]
Rosie Guerin
Thanks, Joel. Thank you for demystifying this for us. You are an absolute gem and a wizard and we really appreciate it.
- [33:13]
Joel Santo Domingo
Thank you.
- [33:13]
Christine Cyrclassette
Thanks, Joel.
- [33:14]
Kyra Blackwell
Thank you.
- [33:18]
Rosie Guerin
Some real good tips in there.
- [33:20]
Kyra Blackwell
I never would have been able to understand it without him breaking it down to us like we're children.
- [33:24]
Rosie Guerin
He was very patient. What I need, what are you taking away from this?
- [33:27]
Christine Cyrclassette
All right, my big takeaway here is upload speeds. I hadn't really considered upload speeds before and I kind of always just assumed my Internet package was not good. And I think we were always looking at the download speeds. For me, I've just realized how important that is and I am gonna test my upload speeds in the room. I usually take my video calls and see what that speed is and I'm likely gonna try to go wired.
- [33:49]
Kyra Blackwell
I like that. Wow.
- [33:50]
Rosie Guerin
Old school.
- [33:51]
Christine Cyrclassette
Yeah.
- [33:52]
Rosie Guerin
For me, it's just his number one piece of advice. From the top. Get close to that router, stay close to that router, that your router is good at filtering what you need. But the further you are from it, the more likely that your neighbor's waves, especially in an apartment building, can affect your signal.
- [34:13]
Christine Cyrclassette
I had always assumed it was the walls that were the problem.
- [34:15]
Rosie Guerin
But, I mean, I think the walls don't help.
- [34:17]
Christine Cyrclassette
They don't help. But this point about the neighbors was really interesting to me, that, that the.
- [34:22]
Rosie Guerin
Worst thing for your signal is traffic. That is your neighbors.
- [34:28]
Kyra Blackwell
My takeaway is that I am moving again. Hooray. And I'm ready to negotiate this time for the right Internet provider. And also, you know what kind of Internet I'm getting because I've never even paid attention to that. So I'm ready to haggle a little bit over the phone.
- [34:45]
Rosie Guerin
Good luck. Thank you. If you want to find out more about Wirecutter's coverage or if you want to check out the guides Joel referenced Today, go to nytimes.com wirecutter or as ever, you can find a link in the show notes. That's it for us. Thanks so much for listening. Peace, Peace.
- [35:03]
Joel Santo Domingo
Bye.
- [35:03]
Kyra Blackwell
Bye. The Wirecutter show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Matty Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson, original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Alicia But Itup and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher and interim general manager is Cliff Levy. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor in in chief. I'm Kyra Blackwell.
- [35:31]
Christine Cyrclassette
I'm Christine Cyrclassette.
- [35:33]
Rosie Guerin
And I'm Rosie Guerin.
- [35:34]
Kyra Blackwell
Thanks for listening.
- [35:38]
Christine Cyrclassette
I feel like this is the move if you've decided to like become a homesteader or a back to the land person. Like, you're like, I'm moving to the country. I'm going to have a well and lots of land and goats. I'm basically describing my like, retirement plan.
- [35:53]
Rosie Guerin
But yeah, you want to go low tech in every part of your life except you want to connect to satellite orbiting the earth.
- [36:01]
Joel Santo Domingo
Yeah.