Whether it's because your home is too big, or because the walls are too solid, or because there are too many wireless devices in the area, there are many factors that can harm your router's WiFi signal, making the connection increasingly slower and causing you to experience seconds of interruptions every time you want to watch a movie or series via streaming.
Your operator's router will normally be installed in the living room of your home, or perhaps in another intermediate point in the house that guarantees a more or less similar distance to all the rooms in the home.
This is correct, but sometimes it is not enough, and we see that the router fails to provide a stable and strong connection to all the rooms and devices in the home, such as mobile phones, computers, smart TVs or consoles.
In this situation, you can use several methods, such as WiFi Mesh systems (a network made up of a base router and satellite devices) or simply buy a second router. Both options can work, but they are usually going to be much more expensive than opting for a repeater. However, a repeater can be more than enough to solve the problem, especially if you use it in a very specific way that we will explain to you below.
The right cable
You can usually get a WiFi repeater for a much lower price than buying a WiFi Mesh network, and it will also be cheaper than ordering another router from your Internet provider. Many people use a repeater by connecting it to the base router via WiFi, and this is the first mistake. If the WiFi signal is bad (which is why we are looking for a solution in the first place) connecting the repeater wirelessly will mean getting a weak signal, due to walls or obstacles in the house.
Instead, you should opt for an Ethernet cable, which connects your router to the repeater. Cables are more cumbersome than WiFi, but if you figure out a way to run the cable through your house invisibly (maybe you already have some walling in your living room or something similar), you'll be giving the repeater a strong signal without compromising the aesthetics or order of your home.
By connecting via cable instead of WiFi, you ensure that the booster will get the full speed you've contracted, whether that's 500Mbps, 1Gbps, etc., rather than just the proportion it gets via WiFi. Make sure you get the right cable, though: consider the length and, above all, that it's compatible with the maximum speed you've contracted: a Cat5 Ethernet cable would be suitable for speeds of up to 1Gbps. If you have more than this, you'll need to find an appropriate cable that can take advantage of the speed.
Avoid interference
Finally, consider the possible obstacles to placing the repeater in a good place, so that the same thing that happened to the router doesn't happen to it. If you have smart devices at home that use Bluetooth or WiFi, such as a smart refrigerator, an Alexa-type assistant or similar, try not to have the repeater near them. The idea is to have both the router and the amplifier in central places in the house, but far enough apart to reach everywhere. Perhaps having the router in the living room, and the amplifier in the hallway leading to the furthest rooms, would solve the problem, for example.
As I said, you can try an amplifier, but it will be much more worthwhile if you use it with a cable.