It was becoming apparent that our home network was a bit under-powered for all the stuff we stream and the plethora of devices connected wirelessly. The cable modem (Motorola SB6121) was from 3 years ago and the wireless router (Cisco E1200) wasn’t that fancy 4 years ago. The ISP keeps modifying how they pump data through our cable, so older modems, even DOCSIS 3.0 ones, can’t do the full speeds advertised for the upper tiers.

Thanks to a wicked deal on Amazon, I picked up a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and CM500 modem. After several hours of configuring while watching the Arizona Wildcats clobber ASU, I now have a modern high speed network. I can now get the full speed available to me from the ISP and I can achieve the same speeds on newer wireless devices.

In addition to the performance boosts, I’m really liking the new features available: remote access, VPN access, bandwidth usage logs, and robust parental controls.

After all that, my PS3 Media Server software stopped working. Then I found Plex and it’s about a million times better. It allows me to stream movies and music to my PS3 and other devices.

Now, I just need to upgrade to a PS4. 🙁