Verizon Actiontec GT784WNV help

[Cvan41890]

So in my house there’s 6 people, each have their own smart phones, tablets, etc. Our modem is an Actiontec GT784WNV modem, being used as our access point. Point being there’s 16+ devices on our network at any given time. Our connection is Verizon’s high speed internet, not fios. My usual downstream is 7840Kbps and upstream is 864Kbps, and that’s not too bad when one or two of us is on the network. But when everyone’s online 2 people can’t stream Netflix without stopping the other.

So what I’m asking is instead of only using the modem for my internet access point, would adding a router help with balancing the network load? I know internet speeds wouldn’t probably get any better. I was thinking of a Netgear Nighthawk or equivalent so I could at least turn off connection to certain devices when they aren’t being used easier.

What are your thoughts? Any and all help appreciated.

Thanks 

[Edg1]

Unfortunately not really. The 7.8 mbps speed is just not enough for what you are trying to do. Netflix requires 5 mbps for HD quality. You need 25 mbps for 4K. When your streaming one shows at 5 mbps you don't really have a enough bandwidth to stream a second. 

[smith6612 · Accepted solution]

Bridging the ActionTec and using a router that supports downstream and upstream QoS can certainly help even out the load. Or for that matter you can apply per-device bandwidth restrictions on some routers to ensure one device can't consume the entire connection. With 7Mbps, you should expect 1-2 720p video streams, one 1080p video stream, or a combination of 720p and light web traffic. It's hard to say given each video is different and based on encoding/action/etc the data requirements can be different.