Changing WiFi router settings and connecting devices was a struggle

Diary for December 1, 2024

I signed a contract to switch my home internet provider last month, and the installation was finished around 5:00 PM today.

This is where the real struggle began.

I had to update the connection settings for all the WiFi-enabled devices in the house: 5 smartphones, 2 tablets, 2 PCs, Alexa, Fire Stick, printer, air conditioner, washing machine, refrigerator, and so on.

Some were easy to set up, while others were a real headache and wouldn't connect properly.

I somehow managed to finish all the connection settings in about two hours.

Just as I was feeling a sense of accomplishment, my second and eldest sons complained, 'The PC games are lagging and I can't play!' (The latency was causing the screen to stutter, making the games unplayable).

I suspected that the band steering feature, which automatically switches between 2.4GHz and 5GHz, was causing the issue, so I Googled how to fix it.

I connected to the router via a wired connection, disabled the band steering feature in the router's settings screen, and saved the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks under different names to make them easier to distinguish.

Because I saved them under different names, all the devices I had just set up lost their WiFi connection.

Suppressing my shock, I went through the connection settings for all the devices again.

Since I had just done it and the kids helped me out, the reconfiguration was finished in less than an hour.

The PC games are working fine now too!

I'm exhausted.