Generally speaking, your ISP-provided router is terrible. But I know not everyone is able to replace it, or willing to, and that's okay too. Your home network should cater to your individual needs, and offloading all technical support to the service team you're already paying for makes sense.

But you can get a better home network by upgrading other network devices, or changing some settings on your existing router. You don't need to buy a new router straight away when there are plenty of different things to try first to fix any problems you're experiencing (and there's no guarantee a new router would solve them).

Adding a Pi-hole (or other DNS-based blocker)

Block troublesome devices from cluttering up your network

A considerable amount of network traffic comes from sources you might not want on your network, like advertising, trackers, and noisy smart devices that constantly send broadcast packets across the network to every device that's listening. And that's where Pi-hole or any other DNS-based blocking software can help. They use list-based DNS blocking of known malware and advertising domains, and because they're blocked at the source, the traffic doesn't reach your home network.

If it's not on your network, it's not slowing things down for the devices you're actively using, which is a big win. It also keeps you safer online by blocking known bad actors from being accessed by your devices or browsers.

Changing the DNS servers

Gain performance, privacy, or both with a simple fix

If your router allows you to change the DNS servers it uses for queries, change it right now. The DNS servers your ISP added are not your friend, and your browsing habits are being monitored, both to block you from seeing any resources your ISP deems unacceptable and to sell to advertisers for targeted advertising campaigns. You're already paying your ISP for a service; don't let them make more money off of you while compromising your privacy.

Even changing the servers to a privacy-focused resolver like Quad9 (9.9.9.9) will make you safer and make your browsing feel snappier. Or you could self-host your own DNS resolver, which isn't that complicated to set up, and then you know the privacy settings you want are enabled.

Cheap managed switch

Add more connectivity and advanced features for less than a new router

Even the best consumer routers might not have all the features you want, but adding a cheap managed switch to your home network will get you those with the minimum of fuss. Whether you want faster networking ports to support a new PC or NAS, advanced features like VLANs, or more ports to add more hardwired network devices, a managed switch is the way to go.

While you could use an unmanaged switch, that might cause you issues in the future, and the price difference isn't huge. A managed switch lets you do things like limit bandwidth on specific ports, use VLAN tagging, and LAGG. You also get port-based mirroring to enable security monitoring without potentially deteriorating traffic flow or speed, cable diagnostics so you know if a cable is broken, and many other valuable features that will make your home network better.

Wiring more devices up

The more devices using Ethernet, the fewer clogging up your Wi-Fi bandwidth

Network pros often say to use wired networking wherever possible, and years of testing data show that's true. Wired networks are more stable, pass data in both directions at the same time (whereas wireless is half-duplex), and can support more devices at once than a wireless radio. It's not always practical to run wired networking, but it should still be your primary concern when planning your home network.

A good (and quick) rule of thumb is to ask if the device needs to move around. If it's staying in one place, plan for it to be wired into the network. The more devices that use wired connections, the faster your wireless network will be for the few devices that rely on it, and that will make your home network feel better to use.

Network segmentation

VLANs are your friend

Some types of networked devices take up more bandwidth than they really should, especially IoT devices and smart TVs. If they're badly configured by the manufacturers, they could saturate your network with broadcast traffic, and slow things down for everything else. But by setting up VLANs on your home network and segregating those devices into a separate network segment, they can't affect the rest of the network. Adding some bandwidth limits to that VLAN also helps clamp down on runaway usage, and then you'll have plenty of bandwidth for the devices that need it, like your computers and mobile phones.

Setting up VLANs isn't a complex process, as long as you follow a few guidelines, and you can pick the configuration that suits your needs. Maybe that's keeping wired and wireless devices apart from each other, or putting smart home devices on their own network segment, but whatever you decide, know that using VLANs will help your home network be at its best.

Adjusting the existing router settings

Not every router has optimized firmware out of the box

Sometimes you don't even need to add anything new to the mix. By changing a few settings in your router, you might not feel the need to upgrade. Fancy mesh networking might look appealing, but unless your router is really old, your existing Wi-Fi signal might be enough, once you've optimized the settings. Start by upgrading your router's firmware, because it might add new features, fix bugs that were causing your issues, or improve the security of your network.

MU-MIMO should be enabled if your router supports it, which allows it to send data to more devices simultaneously. This makes a huge difference when you have many wireless devices at home fighting for airtime. You probably already know to change your Wi-Fi channel to a less congested one (especially if you're in an apartment), but changing the channel width can also bring better results. 20MHz is all you need for 2.4GHz radios, reducing the chance of interference due to crowded airwaves.

And find the settings in your router for Quality-of-Service (QoS) and enable it, so that the traffic types that need low-latency connections get them, and the bulk file transfers can happen in the background. This will make your home network perform better and sometimes feel like a network several times faster.

You don't need to replace your router to get better network performance

The newest router on the market won't fix some network issues, and might even mask them so you never get to the bottom of why your network was sluggish. But by changing some settings and adding a few other network appliances, your home network will benefit, and you might find you don't need to chase that new router anymore. If you find you still have issues, by all means, replace your router, but you'll have learned a few things along the way and be better prepared for when it arrives.