5 networking upgrades under $30 to try before replacing your router

Published Aug 31, 2026, 6:00 PM EDT Monica J. White is a journalist with over a decade of experience in covering technology. She built her first PC nearly 20 years ago, and she has since built and tested dozens of PCs. PC hardware is her main beat, and graphics cards and the GPU market at large are her main area of interest, but she has written thousands of articles covering everything related to PCs, laptops, handhelds, and peripherals. From GPUs and CPUs to headsets and software, Monica's always willing to geek out over all things related to computing. Outside of her work with How-To Geek, Monica contributes to TechRadar, PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, SlashGear, Whop, and Digital Trends, among others. Her ultimate goal is to make PC gaming and computing approachable and fun to any audience. Monica spends a lot of time elbow-deep in her PC case, as she's always making upgrades, testing something, or plotting out her next build. She's the go-to tech support person in her immediate circle, so she's never out of things to do. Whenever she has spare time, you'll find her gaming until the early hours and hanging out with her dog. Some network upgrades aren't worth your money. In fact, many are. But do you know what one of those unnecessary upgrades is? A new router you absolutely didn't need to buy yet. Fortunately, that pricey purchase can probably be avoided. Here are all the things I'd try first before buying a new router. Replace the Ethernet cable that's actually sus Old can still be good Replacing all your Ethernet cables every once in a while isn't going to break the bank, but why do it if they're all in good condition? On the other hand, replacing one that's past its best-before date can make your connection more stable. That's why checking all your cables before ever doing anything with your router is a good starting point. The easiest way to check whether your Ethernet cables need to be replaced is to swap each suspect for one you know for a fact works correctly. If you don't have such a cable, I guess buying one is an alternative. Pay particular attention to connection drops and sudden changes in speeds. If this same thing only happens through one cable, the obvious answer is to get a new one. Fortunately, it'll only cost you a few dollars. UGREEN Cat 8 Ethernet Cable These inexpensive Ethernet cables are a cheap way to test your network without replacing the router. Upgrade a Wi-Fi device with an Ethernet port The results are almost bound to be good Credit: Nick Lewis / How-To Geek I'm a huge fan of my cheap USB to Ethernet adapter. I use mine to add a second Ethernet port to my PC, but for most people, the best use case is to add an Ethernet port to a device that might not otherwise have one. When is this worth it? Well, first of all, I generally believe (as do most experts) that you're better off having most static devices plugged in via Ethernet, period. TVs, consoles, obviously PCs, and even printers all fall under that category of "skip Wi-Fi." However, I realize that doing this isn't practical in most homes, and having Ethernet cables going from room to room will drive any aesthetically-inclined person mad. So, to determine whether you should buy that little $10 adapter or not, figure out whether any of your static devices have spotty Wi-Fi. If the connection drops or constantly underperforms, switching to Ethernet might be a huge improvement. Upgrade the bad Wi-Fi client A USB Wi-Fi 6 adapter can beat replacing the router Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek Let's say you have a bunch of different devices all in the same room as your router, eliminating the likelihood of Wi-Fi dead zones. If one device has terrible Wi-Fi but all the other ones are doing fine, the problem most likely isn't your router, and you should try to fix it at the source instead of replacing the device that'll cost you $150-$600 to replace. If the device is older, such as an older laptop or PC, a USB Wi-Fi adapter is the easy fix. Look for something that at least matches the Wi-Fi generation your router already supports, ideally with external antennas to give reception a bit of a boost, too. Plug it in and check whether it helps—it should. Add a $20 Gigabit Ethernet switch Full LAN ports don't mean you need a new router Credit: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek Some routers don't give you a whole lot of Ethernet ports, and if you're anything like me, you probably need a whole bunch. But running out of ports isn't a reason to buy a new router when a basic unmanaged Gigabit Ethernet switch is right there, and those things only cost $20-$50. Once you buy one, connect one of its ports to a LAN port on your router, then plug your other wired devices into the remaining ports. A five-port switch basically turns one router port into four usable connections, making even demanding home networks easy to wire up. Move your Wi-Fi adapter with a USB extension cable Your PC case might be killing the signal Credit: Ismar Hrnjicevic / How-To Geek If you're using a tiny USB Wi-Fi adapter plugged straight into the back of your desktop, its location might not be doing it any favors whatsoever. PC chassis are giant chunks of metal, and beyond that, they're usually pushed up against a wall as much as possible. That leaves the adapter with a wall, the case, and surrounding cabling all interrupting its actual job. With that said, I know you can't exactly move your PC just to accommodate the Wi-Fi adapter. Instead, a cheap USB extension cable or desktop USB hub can move it a few feet away and give you much more freedom to position it. Just remember that USB 3.x devices can cause some interference around the 2.4GHz band, so you'll want to give that adapter some distance from the walls, from the case, and also from other USB 3.x hardware. Figure out the problem, then fix it Routers are nice in the sense that they can live on and on for years without needing replacements. Unless your home consists of several power users with a whole lot of hardware, you can get away with an older router, and many internet-related problems can be patched up with some of the fixes above. TP-Link USB to Ethernet Adapter This cheap adapter can help you add an Ethernet port to a device that normally doesn't have one, or add a second one to something that already does.