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Mike Wuerthele said:

DavidAlGregory said:

If your house is wired for Cable that you are no longer using, could you not re-purpose the wires to distribute your internet and avoid running Ethernet cable?
Maybe there is a business opportunity for making an adapter to allow Ethernet over TV cable.

In my current home setup the cable modem is right next to the eero base and the Apple TV 4K with a couple of satellites. Not seeing any issues streaming except when the issue is on the other end. I dropped DTVN because AT&T has issues streaming. Saw the same problem on wired and wireless on multiple ISPs. Not seeing that problem on YouTube TV.

Sure. MOCA adapters can be had, but they're just as prone to connection problems as Powerline adapters are -- maybe more so. Old splitters, sometimes behind walls, can be a big, big problem.

https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-MoCA-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6000K02/dp/B013J7L6BW

Good suggestion. I'll add a bit about it.

Powerline's biggest issue is this: in the US, our power is two phases of 120 in the fuse box, as opposed to one phase of 240 in Europe and ROW. The experience you get in the US is, if you plug one transceiver into an outlet on one phase, and the other to an outlet on the other phase, the signal can't cross between the two in the fuse box. Unless you know your fusebox really well, it's a recipe for frustration. Powerline works great in Europe and Rest of World. For North America, it's kind of a non-starter.

MOCA, Mike named the problem: a splitter takes a signal that is -2db and drops it to two legs of -5 or -7.5 db. Or three legs, with two different measurements of signal drop. And in US homes with multiple rooms, there are multiple daisy chained splitters, each dropping the signal even more. The internet signal really needs the purest run with the least signal drop, which is why cable modems tend to have one line from the street, one 2-leg splitter, one leg for the whole house, and one direct to the modem. If you're trying to use MOCA for runs that would ideally be Ethernet, you will have difficulties if there's a splitter (or two, or three) in the middle.

Mike Wuerthele said:

bestkeptsecret said:

Thanks for this article. It is really helpful. Can you also recommend some good WiFi survey apps for iOS?

Special shout-out to Victor as well, who had sent me details on setting up a roaming network using existing AirPort Extremes. Thanks!

We've got a few more articles in the pipeline about home networking, and we'll be talking about Wi-Fi surveys more in them.

Wifiner on the App Store.

It's basically a pared down consumer version of NetSpot, which is ideal for performing wireless surveys. I use it in all of my reviews. 

MacPro said:

volcan said:

MacPro said:

One tip I picked up a while back is to always name 2.4 and 5 GHz networks identically with same pass word.  That way modern devices from Apple seamlessly select either that is best suited and can flip between them should the need arise. 

I've had a slightly different but related experience. In my case I have noticed that an iPhone will try to maintain the current connection regardless of how weak it becomes even though there is another known network with the same password that is stronger. In order to use the stronger connection I have to manually select it in the wifi settings.

You say the same password but is the name identical? If so, if it were me, I'd delete them and start over in case there is a typo you are not seeing.

I've had both of your experiences, with different routers. Some support using the same name and switching between the two radios, and some do not, even if they allow you to give them the same name.

entropys said:

laytech said:

Apple CarPlay so needs to go wireless especially with many cars now offering wireless charging but it needs to be a Bluetooth or a software solution not new hardware for the cars as the chance of upgrading a new car hardware is doesn’t happen until you buy a new car. Ive just bought a car with wireless charging and the though of having to plug my iphone in every time I want to use AppleCar play puts me off wanting to use it.

Maybe Apple could release a wireless dongle for wired CarPlay head units? Apple likes dongles.


Actually, why hasn’t someone simply done that?

There -is- a chinese dongle that claims to add wired CarPlay to any android based headunit. We have yet to try testing it. Unfortunately, even though the android head units are likely touchscreen, the dongle provides a 5-way dpad, and you cursor around the CarPlay interface, pressing a button to select items. If you -could- make a dongle for wired carplay to make it wireless, it wouldn't be doing what wireless carplay is doing - you wouldn't get the battery icon on screen, you'd essentially be making wireless USB, which has been around for about ten years, but isn't great.

neutrino23 said:

I'm surprised you guys don't use the Apple Watch more. I use it every day. Now my wife is using one as well. I find that rather than one needed feature it is the basket of features that make it so attractive. I use it to unlock my MBP, as a heart monitor, as a sleep monitor, for notifications, for checking the weather, for getting alerts when driving or cycling. I ask Siri questions like simple math, getting sports scores and schedules and more. No one of these is necessary, but put them all together with strong integration with my iPhone and Mac and it is really useful for me.

I can't speak for anyone else: that's why I'm going to have to have one again.

I should mention, actigraphy, or the measuring of sleep through motion, is the least accurate way to measure sleep. Siri, heart, and notifications are the trifecta.