We're upgrading our wifi (the current modem/router Is dying and we barely get range upstairs). The onl thing is atnt customer service is hard to deal with on the phone and in real life.

I've personally never had any issues with AT&T but it may be my patience level.  Internet, (Albeit slow but that's what you get in a rural area like mine), long-distance landline phone service (Local service is ACS; Alaska Communications Systems) and my cell phone (a GoPhone, I don't want contracts, I only use it rarely anyway since cell phones don't get a signal where I live).

Here everyone else complains about the Internet speed.  I heard they (AT&T) is going to upgrade us, so we'll see...

They are talking about tv and Internet through fiber since the merger with directv and atnt. That would be graet since the satellite sucks during storms when we need to see the weather.

@Icefoglights, when you say "Yagi" antenna are you talking about those ones that look sort of like the old TV antennas? 
Actually I think AT&T has great cell service.  Granted there's no coverage from any carrier at my house, I'm in the "dead zone" LOL.
BTW how do I embed an image in a post? (To show my Internet speed test).

Yes it looks like a little TV antenna turned on its side.

I have dish for satellite and it works fine for me.  Granted I spent a year and a half installing them, and have slightly oversize dishes (by local standards).  If it's storming hard enough to block out the satellite, the power isn't far behind.

That's the bad thing about satellite tv. If it is storming badly and you need to see the live radar or if there's a tornado, you're royally screwed if you can't get your tv in. You can listen for sirens, but they get knocked out by lightning.

Good point Solanaceae!
Here my dish is huge too, it's at least 4' across and rather unsightly IMO.

My friends have one like you speak and they live out in the country. It is from the analog days, so now it's only use is a giant sled. And they live on a hill so that's work out. 

I have a dish 500.  In the lower 48, that can be received with one 20" dish with a 2-headed feedhorn.  For Alaska, the dishes have to be larger, and they didn't make a dish or LNB setup that size that would work, so I have to use two separate dishes.  One is 48" and the other is 60".  The old C-band dishes used here could be up to 12 feet wide!

You're Dish Network then?
Back in the 80s my dad had one of those huge dishes like that, it took up much of the yard at his then-current house.  Pole is still there but the dish isn't.  (I pass that house every day and know the people who live there).

He was also I think the first or second person in town to have TV (a town of about 100 people at that time).
Ironically, people voted down getting cable (or maybe it was over-the-air analog) here, yet at least half of the 45 people here now have DirecTV! Funny how things change!

I wonder what the potential cuts to public broadcasting will do to areas like Fairbanks? Here we could get crippled, the FM dial will be totally blank if that happens since the two NPR translator stations will go off the air (And they're local stations that also do neat local programming; even "real" music on an public radio station...don't get that in the major cities!

12 feet wide? I wish my wifi antenna was that big so I could get signal. 

I think it's not only the router you have, it's the sensitivity of your device! My Samsung Galaxy tablet doesn't "keep" my wifi connection very far from my router, even some places inside my house! (But I also have a fairly big house).  My old iPod Touch 64GB had much better reception, with the same router. 
Another thing: if you can, plug your laptop directly into Ethernet.  That's what I do with mine. (13" MacBook Pro).  The internet connection seems faster and more reliable that way, being hardwired as opposed to wireless.  Granted, my Internet isn't all that fast anyway and I haven't tried speed-testing both at the same time but it's my theory and it totally makes sense. 
Same for cell phones reception-wise.  My dad had an old Nokia he got right after the analog-to-digital cell phone service transition in 2006 which actually had pretty good reception (Living on the "fringe" and often going places with no cell service at all).  It even had a "patch" on the back where a booster antenna could have been hooked up.  He had some issue with that though and quit using the booster (I forget why). 
A few years later, in 2011, he was pretty much forced to upgrade to a Motorola...I think it was a Quantico...flip-phone. By comparison, that phone, on the same carrier, in the same places, (It was ACS; Alaska Communications Systems, whose cellular division has since been bought out by GCI, another Alaska telecommunications outfit) had much worse reception.  Finally, last year, he got a new Sonim.  He calls it the "hockey puck".  It's supposed to be one of those life-proof, back-over-it-with-a-car-type phones I think.  It has much better reception at least!

My phone (AT&T) has decent reception for what it is...I've never had any issues with AT&T.

I can barely get service up in my room yet I do get three bars in the backyard (but not on the deck!) 

I know the feeling of stepping outside for the phone to get any sort of reception...

I'm talking about wifi. I barely get one bar out back either way.

With my tablet it barely makes it outside of the house.