Using My Own Router with Cox's modem + Router Combo

I just moved into an apartment and I was forced to sign up with Cox for TV and Internet. I rent a modem from them which also includes wireless built in. After using it for a few days I have noticed the range or strength of it is terrible. In the living room where it is I have pretty fast speeds as seen below in the first speed test. But when I go two rooms over the speeds really drop well at least the download speed does.

Where I lived last I used my own router and I had consistent speeds pretty much every where I went and that was in a two story house. Now I live in a 1050sqft or so one story apartment and can't get consistent speeds anywhere in the apartment besides the room I'm in with the combo from Cox. My question is would it be possible to disable the wireless on the combo and connect my router without any issues?

Living room:


Bedroom:


The Speedtests from my bedroom really don't show how slow the internet is. When taking the test the needle was really jumping around. It started out fast but quickly dropped and sometimes it dropped to under 1mbps as shown in the last speed test I posted.

 

Your modem should have an option to be set to bridge mode (or it will switch automatically) if you plug a router in it. Go to the settings for your modem, disable the wireless and hook your router to it. With luck, it'll be all you need to do.

 

Yeah I tried it but it was actually worse. I guess there is a lot more interference then where I last lived. I tried to set the router up as a repeater but I couldn't get it to work. Probably because I didn't know what I was doing.

 

A repeater isn't going to help if you are in a congested area. Try doing a site survey with something like inSSIDer for Home – Discover The Wi-Fi Around You | MetaGeek

That will let you find a channel that is less used.

 

I'd buy a cable router / router with cat5 input for the modem/internet. Setup a new network and have them side by side or disable ISP router and leave it on modem mode. You can then use most routers to bridge mode. I would just use a new router and use the network you create by it. I have had good luck with apple airport extreme/express but they are a bit expensive though.

Some routers can't extend ISP modem/routers, I've had issues they can connect to them via ethernet and create a new network which works for me.

I would also guess the ISP modem has a set channel usually 7 or 1 which is default on most routers, so change it to auto or use inSSIDer to check which channels are empty.

 

I found something similar last night and I changed to an unused channel but it didn't really make a difference. My guess is one of the building materials in the wall is blocking the signal. Would a wifi booster help?

 

No need for guessing- if you use inSSIDer or a similar tool you can see signal strength on a recipient machine.
If you move around the house with a laptop you will notice if and when/where the signal changes (fades or increases)- that will help you figure it out.

Where is the router placed in the apartment- ideal it would be somewhere in the center of it. Also make sure that the router is high enough of the ground.

 

Well I figured it out. It was actually something in my room. I have my Xbox in my room and I have some wireless Turtle Beach headphones with them. I noticed after disconnecting my Xbox my speeds were as fast as they were in the living room so I thought the Xbox was causing the issue at first. But then I removed the USB for the wireless adapter for the head phones and my speeds were fine again. So I don't know why that's an issue now when it wasn't in the past.

 

It's probably a combination of a poor signal and just enough interference from the wireless headphones to cause the problem.