Rant: Blew $260 on a mesh wifi setup that did NOTHING for my signal in a 900 sq ft apartment
So six months ago my internet kept dropping in the bedroom and I was sure the answer was one of those 3 pack mesh wifi systems everyone talks about. I grabbed one for $260 at Best Buy in Columbus and set up all three units like the app told me. Turns out my problem was never coverage, it was a bad coax splitter behind the wall plate that the tech should have caught on the first visit. I kept the mesh kit anyway for a couple months telling myself it was faster, but speed tests showed maybe 4 Mbps difference and my old router was fine. The worst part is I paid a guy $75 to come out and he swapped the splitter in like 5 minutes and the drops stopped cold. So I'm out $335 total for a fix that cost the cable company basically nothing. If your wifi cuts out in one room, test the wiring before you buy gadgets, that's my whole advice. Has anyone else dropped real money on hardware when the actual problem was on their side of the wall?
Noticed this same thing with my car last year. Check engine light came on and I bought a $120 code reader plus a new gas cap and some fuel additive, turned out a vacuum hose had just popped off. Free to fix once a mechanic showed me. Feels like every problem in life has a cheap root cause hiding under an expensive solution, and we always buy the expensive thing first because it feels like we're doing something. Next time I'm googling for twenty minutes before I open my wallet.