Trying to figure out the home network

I have a pattern that I fall into, and I wonder if anyone else goes through this process. Your first answer (particularly if you’re in technology) might be to call me an idiot. That’s fair, but I suspect more people than me deal with this issue, and I equally suspect that the market plays on this confusion to increase sales.

The issue is the home network. I go through this cycle about every two years, and generally it goes like this:

1.  I become concerned my home network isn’t fast enough. Nothing is exactly broken, but I just feel like it should be faster. At times movies run into choppiness in the download, and I just feel like I could be doing better somehow. In the back of my mind, I remember that I last bought a wireless router about 2-3 years ago, and I think to myself that I change computers about that frequently, so odds are better technology exists.

2.  I go to the electronics store and lo and behold, I can’t find my current router there. Instead there are dozens of new ones, which increases my feeling that I’m using old technology. Knowing nothing about routers, I grab one at random based on stickers plastered to the front like “8x FASTER!”.

3.  Eventually I start looking at pricing and grab the most expensive one. I look at the features and make a decision around if it’s worth the extra $100 to buy the most expensive one. Making the internal argument that $100 would mean a performance increase of 12-16 times, I buy the most expensive router.

4.  I go home, install the new router, and discover that nothing is faster. I’m frustrated, and now I’m thinking that something else in the chain might be wrong.

5.  I go out and look at cable modems (the device that catches the coax cable prior to sending it to the router) and I’m mentally using the same argument I used before. The cable modem I have came from the cable company and I’m sure it sucks… I got it for free, after all. Once again, I see boxes with “12x faster” branding.

6.  I buy the new router, take it home, and discover that nothing is faster. I’m frustrated, as I’ve now purchased ~$400 of new equipment that hasn’t changed a thing. My biggest frustration is that technology generally gets faster and better over time… so why isn’t this improving?

7.  Frustrated I give up, knowing that in about 2-3 years time the cycle will repeat itself.

I don’t know why this cycle keeps repeating itself with me, but dammed if I don’t get suckered in each and every time. I think the flaw is that my internal logic tells me that technology is on a curve, like mobile phones. Now, I upgrade my phone every year, and I notice the upgrade. If I waited two years I would really notice the upgrade. Three years? Forget it about it. But routers and modems don’t seem to follow this logic, and it’s frustrating and befuddling to me. It defies the normal logic around how technology sales should work.