The Wi-Fi gives out before it reaches the back bedroom.
Long brick ranch houses and big two-story builds are both hard on Wi-Fi. Most trouble comes down to the router's spot, the router's age, or something that turns out not to be the Wi-Fi at all, and sorting out which is most of the work.
It's $39 to book a visit at your house, and that $39 comes off the visit's price. A remote session runs 30 minutes for $39. Cards only, and the rate is settled with you before any work begins.
It starts with where the router is
Wi-Fi is radio, and radio doesn't get far from a closet behind the TV. The router usually lands wherever the internet line came into the house: a corner, the garage, the closet under the stairs. A router in a corner sends half its signal out into the yard.
Brick, plaster over wire mesh, foil-backed insulation, mirrors and water heaters all stop it cold. An older house with plaster walls can be harder on Wi-Fi than a much bigger new one.
A long one-story house in Wichita Falls with the router in the front room, or a two-story in Frisco with the box in the garage, ends up with rooms the signal never reaches.
Faster internet won't fix a dead spot. If the signal doesn't make it to the back bedroom, a bigger plan changes nothing there.
When one router can't cover it
In a big house, or one with thick inside walls or a second story, a single router often falls short wherever you put it. The usual answer is a mesh system: a few small units, two or three, that pass your devices from one to the next as you move around.
A cheap range extender is a different thing, and it often makes matters worse. It cuts the speed in half and sets up a second network that your phone keeps holding onto long after you've left that end of the house.
Sometimes the equipment you already have can do the job with a better spot and new settings. When that's true we'll say so, and the visit costs you an hour and nothing at the store.
Worth a try on your own
Give these about ten minutes. Now and then one of them clears it up completely, and you won't need a visit at all.
- Find out whether it's one device or all of them. If only the tablet struggles, start with the tablet.
- When a thunderstorm has knocked the power out, or any time the Wi-Fi acts up, restart the two boxes in order. Unplug both the router and the modem. Plug in the modem by itself and give it about two minutes, until its lights settle. Only then plug the router in. Doing it the other way round is why a restart often seems to do nothing.
- Test the speed right beside the router, then again in the room that gives you trouble. Fast by the router and slow in that room means coverage, and no internet plan fixes that. Slow in both spots points to your internet service.
- Get the router up high and out in the open: on a shelf, out of the cabinet, clear of the fish tank and the microwave, and as close to the middle of the house as the wiring lets you. That alone cures more dead spots than you'd expect.
- Write down the router's model number if it's more than about five years old. It may be worn out, and knowing ahead of the visit saves you time.
What a Local Nerd won't take on
Hardware repair, meaning anything that calls for new parts or a soldering iron. It's better you hear that before you book.
- No drilling through walls, no wiring run inside them, and no electrical work. If running a cable through the attic is what your house really needs, we'll tell you, and that part is a job for an installer.
- An outage on your internet company's side is beyond us to fix. What we can do is tell you whether the trouble is theirs, and that's good to know before you lose an afternoon on hold.
What you pay
A visit at your house takes $39 to book, and that $39 is subtracted from what the visit costs. The hourly rate depends on how far your address sits, in a straight line, from downtown of the city it falls under: $110 an hour inside 25 miles, $130 an hour from 25 to 50 miles, and $145 an hour from 50 to 75 miles. Nothing is added on top for travel.
A remote session begins with us calling you at the time you chose, and it is $39 for 30 minutes. For help a few times a year, there is Nerd on Call: $14.99 a month, with two remote sessions and one in-person visit included every year.
Payment is by card. Local Nerds can't take cash or checks, so nobody will ask you for either at the door. The FAQ has the rest of the detail.
Want to talk it over first? A Local Nerd will call you at no charge, and you aren't signing up for anything.
Where Local Nerds come to you
A visit can reach as far as 75 miles from downtown of each Texas city with a page below, and every one of those pages lists the towns it reaches. To see what your own address gets, put it in the ZIP checker. Remote sessions don't depend on where you live.
- Amarillo
- Austin
- Beaumont
- College Station
- Conroe
- Corpus Christi
- Dallas
- Denton
- El Paso
- Fort Worth
- Frisco
- Houston
- Katy
- Killeen
- Laredo
- Longview
- Lubbock
- McAllen
- Midland
- San Antonio
- Tyler
- Waco
- Wichita Falls
Questions we hear a lot
Why does the Wi-Fi keep cutting out?
Usually it's one of three things: the router is in a poor spot, it's old enough to struggle with how many devices a house has now, or something nearby is interfering. If it drops in one room, that's coverage. If every room loses it together, and especially if it happens at the same hour each day, look at the router or the internet service.
Would a faster plan get rid of my dead spots?
No. Speed and coverage are separate problems, and a faster plan doesn't carry the signal any further into the house. Test the speed beside the router, then in the weak room. A big difference between the two means your money belongs on coverage.
Mesh or a range extender: which do I need?
For most houses that need more reach, mesh is the right buy, and an extender is money saved now and lost later. An extender usually halves the speed and adds a second network name your devices cling to, while mesh units hand your phone along cleanly.
Can a Local Nerd install mesh Wi-Fi?
Yes. We set it up, put each unit where your house needs it (often not where the box says), move your devices over, and check that the smart TV and the printer come along too. Those two are the ones people tend to forget.
Who buys the equipment?
You do, and it's yours to keep. We'll tell you what to buy for your house and what to skip before you spend a dime, and we take no cut on anyone's hardware.
What does in-home Wi-Fi help cost?
It's billed by the hour, and the hourly rate goes by how many miles your address is, in a straight line, from downtown of the city it falls under. The three rates are listed under What you pay. Most Wi-Fi visits take between an hour and an hour and a half.