The best move is to add cables where possible. I’ve got a slightly upper scale consumer mesh network (with Ethernet backhaul) for anything that moves, everything else is connected via cables (have to admit that I only had to draw one cable from the fiber outlet to the other side of the room where an Ethernet outlet was ready) and gigabit switches, both of them at a very low cost. I get almost the same speed and latency at any wired device as I do at the router, even though the cables going to the rooms are 10+ years old.
Unless you’re living out in the wild with no devices to interfere, speed and reliability will be well worth the effort and save a lot on ineffective Wi-Fi gear.
If a network-attached device is always in one place and it has an ethernet port, it has a cable.
If it's always in one place and it doesn't have an ethernet port, there's a cable to the wireless point in that room or the next.
5-port gigabit switches are about $20 each. A 12-port gigabit switch anchors the whole thing. None of them take configuration.
This is harder but not impossible for people who live in apartments; white cable run along the edge of the ceiling or along the foot of the wall is a good bet.
Definitely this. I use any time where I have to open a wall as an excuse to put Ethernet in it. Bathroom getting renovated? Great, use the opportunity to run Ethernet up to the second floor. Garage has a drywall puncture with moldy insulation behind it? Great, run Ethernet.
The upside here is adding Ethernet has been very low cost for me: Literally the cost of the cable and the keystones. Downside is I've been here like two years and my Ethernet runs are still somewhat random/piecemeal.
In one case, which has performed surprisingly well for basically the whole two years: I used an existing coax run with a pair of Motorola MoCA adapters, which provides a gigabit connection from my basement to a room that's particularly hard to retrofit a connection to.
Wi-Fi is for guests and smartphones. Ethernet is for life.
Can't recommend this enough. WiFi is great for mobility but it's just not that reliable. For anything that doesn't have to be moving, pull some ethernet to it and be happy for the long haul.
I use the same Linksys WRT54GL since around 2006 and it never drops the connection. I flashed dd-wrt on it back more than a decade ago and it "just works".
Unless you’re living out in the wild with no devices to interfere, speed and reliability will be well worth the effort and save a lot on ineffective Wi-Fi gear.