Going home for the holidays usually feels familiar in the best way. The same house. The same rooms. The same routines. The Wi-Fi is familiar too. Mostly because you’ve connected to it before and never really thought about it.
At first, it works. You get online, check a few things, and move on. Then you try to watch a video or join a call. It takes longer than usual. A page stops loading halfway through. The call drops and comes back. You wait for it to improve.
It doesn’t.
After a while, you stop expecting it to. This is just how the Wi-Fi is going to be while you’re here.
The moment you realize the Wi-Fi hasn’t changed.
The router is right where it has always been. Behind the TV. On a shelf. Somewhere out of the way. No one has touched it in years, and there was never a reason to.
For a long time, it worked fine. Email. Browsing. One person streaming at a time. The difference now isn’t the router. It’s everything around it.
More people are home. More phones, laptops, tablets, and TVs are connected at once. Someone is watching a movie. Someone else is on a video call. Another person is trying to get work done. The network slows down, and suddenly everyone feels it.
It’s not broken. It was never built for this.
When the internet gets slow, it’s easy to think something is wrong. Most of the time, nothing is actually broken. Older home networks were never designed for this many devices doing this much at once—video calls, cloud work, streaming, syncing — all happening in the same space.
During the holidays, that load increases fast. The Wi-Fi just can’t keep up.
Why touching the router is rarely worth it.
This is usually when someone suggests restarting the router. Then comes the password hunt. The blinking lights. The “it worked yesterday” conversation. Sometimes the internet goes out completely, and now everyone is waiting. No one wants to be the person who accidentally takes the Wi-Fi down for the entire house, especially during the holidays.
A simpler workaround
There’s an easier option that doesn’t involve fixing anything. Instead of changing the home network, you bring your own connection. A personal hotspot gives you separate Wi-Fi that doesn’t rely on the house's internet at all. No setup. No changes. No family debate. You connect your devices and move on.
It’s simple, temporary, and easy to live with while you’re visiting.
The goal isn’t faster Wi-Fi. There are fewer conversations about it.
Holiday visits don’t need to turn into tech support sessions. Having a backup connection gives you one less thing to manage and one less reason to troubleshoot. You’re not fixing the house Wi-Fi. You’re just giving yourself a simple way to stay connected while you’re there.
Sometimes, that’s enough.
Bring your own connection this holiday season.
See how Solis devices help you stay connected without touching the router.