This solution becomes less practical when the dead zones in your house are simply too far away from your router to get a good signal. If the extender resides 20 feet away from the router, it receives and rebroadcasts a degraded signal, translating to lower speeds. Why? Because all Wi-Fi signals degrade as they travel from the source. However, most Wi-Fi extenders broadcast weak signals. The best Wi-Fi extenders will stretch your Wi-Fi signal to your basement, the backyard, or simply around an unfortunately placed corner. You have two primary choices for dealing with these troublesome areas. They wonвЂ™t work if you try to use them in place of a standard straight-through Ethernet cable.Д¬onnecting with Wi-Fi is much more convenient than using physical cables, but one downside is that Wi-Fi networks often have dead zones. These cables have reversed pins on one side and are not commonly used in a home setting. If in doubt, you can always just replace an old cable with a new, reliable one, as theyвЂ™re relatively cheap.ДЇinally, special вЂњcrossoverвЂќ Ethernet cables can connect two PCs directly without using a router. Look for the words вЂњCAT5вЂќ or вЂњCAT6вЂќ to find out what kind of cable it is. But itвЂ™s harder to tell if a cable is suitable for the job if youвЂ™re just pulling one out of a tangle in your closet.ДЇortunately, cables usually have their information printed right on the sheath, including the manufacturer, bandwidth, certifications, and much more. If youвЂ™re buying a new cable, itвЂ™s easy to get the right kind. The latest generation, CAT8, can hit 40,000 Mbps at a longer span of 131 feet. CAT6 introduced shielding to reduce interference while CAT6a increased the maximum speed to 10,000 Mbps.Д¬AT7 cables are the newer generation, reaching up to 100,000 Mbps at a range of 49 feet. CAT5 cables support 100 Mbps while CAT5a maxes out at 1,000 Mbps.

We provide more information about cable types below.Д®thernet is the primary type of network connection, but there are seven different вЂњgenerationsвЂќ of cable that you might encounter.Д¬ategory 5 (CAT5), CAT5e, and CAT6 are the most common Ethernet cables today. The connection type depends on the internet you have.ДЇor example, cable internet comes into your house via a coaxial cable, whereas connecting to DSL requires you to connect your modem to a filter, which then plugs into any phone jack. If you have a wireless gateway (a combined router/modem)Д«e sure that you properly secure the wireless gateway to the internet connection entering your home. Make sure you plug the Ethernet cable from the modem into the correct Ethernet port on your router. It typically has a different color than the other Ethernet ports. Most routers have multiple Ethernet ports, but thereвЂ™s one specifically labeled вЂњInternetвЂќ or вЂњWANвЂќ (wide area network) used for connecting directly to the modem. But if youвЂ™re setting up your router for the very first time, you need this connection first before you tether your computer to the router.Д¬onnect your router to your modem using an Ethernet cable. Chances are, you already completed this step.