Your diagnosis is right, the R6700v2 is too old and too small for a 2-story 2100 sq ft home. The dropping 5GHz, daily restarts, and inconsistent speeds are all classic signs of a dying router, not a Cox issue.
You want a **Wi-Fi 6 mesh system (2-pack)**. Three solid options:
- **TP-Link Deco XE75** (~$200–230) - best value, Wi-Fi 6E kills the 5GHz interference problem
- **Eero Pro 6E** (~$250–280) - easiest setup, very reliable if you just want it to work
- **Asus ZenWiFi Pro ET12** (~$350–400) - best for gaming, has QoS traffic prioritization for PS5
One thing to check: if you're using a Cox-provided gateway, put it in **bridge mode** after setting up the mesh or you'll get double-NAT issues that hurt gaming latency.
Currently rocking an old Netgear Nighthawk AC1750, but I'm sure the end is probably soon.
All of my heavy internet usage (mainly gaming and large file downloading on main PC) is done on ethernet, the rest like streaming is done over Wi-Fi.
The problem I am running into is I can barely get a signal to my disconnected garage. From router to where I need a strong signal is about 50 feet.
Should I get a new router? Would a new one be good enough for further reach?
Do I need to get a... mesh? system?
Any recommendations would be helpful!
The other scenario I was thinking was, in between my garage and house is a covered patio. Could that be of any assistance? Would I be able to run a second (covered) ethernet cord through the top of the patio, into my garage if that would make anything cheaper? [Here is a diagram to help](https://imgur.com/R0nqZNB)
Any help is appreciated. Thank you!
**Edit**:
I appreciate all these great and helpful responses. I will say if you didn't notice from the diagram I made, I am a dumbass. So some simplified language may help.
My Nighthawk AC1750 died last year. I replaced it with Netgear RAX36S and it's been fantastic. I use my computer as a media server, so I opted for a Netgear router without a NAS (the new gen Netgears work better without it). After swapping to the RAX36S, I was able to upgrade my Spectrum from legacy 400mbps to 500mbps.
For what its worth I was having annoying minor issues with my fiber services. I'm work in field ops for spectrum so I checked things out and everything is good with light. So I disconnected the wifi7 they gave me tossed it in a closet and grabbed my 6 year old Netgear AC1750 and haven't looked back.
Always, always get a seperate modem and router. As far as netgear specifically, I used one of their NightHawk AC1750 for 8 years with no problems as a standalone router. Only just deprecated it for something new because they stopped doing firmware updates for it.
fissible
