Suggestions for something better than Chromecast wanted.

We started streaming to the TV with an RCA streaming box when streaming boxes were something new. A few years ago when I mentioned that we were going to have to replace it because YouTube had anounced it would soon no longer be compatible our daughter gave us e Chromecast for Xmas.
It was pretty easy to set up from my Windows 10 tablet using the Chrome browser (other than the fact that I hate the Chrome browser) and works pretty well most of the time (as long as the microwave on the other side of the wall isn't running).
Last year I got fed up with the poor WiFi in the living room and installed an old router as a repeater, sitting right in front of the TV that the Chromecast is plugged into. When I tried to connect the Chromecast to the repeater through the Chrome browser the part that accessedd it's settings was gone and tech support told me that they discontinued that and you now have to use a smart phone to access the Chroimecast settings. I am not in the least interested in getting a smart phone (I hardly use the cellphone I have) so I have put up with this because I don't have a choice.

The router that it connects to is supplied by our ISP and without the ability to change the Chromecast's settings that means that the next time the ISP decides to replace the router the Chromecast will be useless to us.

So I have started looking for a streaming device to replace the Chromecast but I really don't know where to start. Here are our requirements:
- Something that plugs into an HDMI port on the TV that we can stream to from a Windows 10 laptop/tablet.
- My wife is happy with the Chrome browser but I preferably using Firefox so compatibility with both would be nice
- We mostly watch Netflix and YouTube but occasionally watch programs that are available through TV station/network websites (usually CBC Gem).
- It must NOT require an Apple or Android device to access settings.
- No subscriptions to thousands of stations that we would never use (there are lots of things where we watch now that we don't have time for).

Any suggestions would be welcomed

Until Google decides to change something without letting you know ahead of time...

I've been looking at the Fire Stick but all the listings say "with Alexa". I am unclear about whether that means they include an Alexa or if they need one in order to work. I am really not interested in having a digital household spy anyway....

Thanks. I'll start looking at them again.

I finally got around to ordering a Fire TV Stick Lite a couple of weeks ago. It works much better than the Chromecast and is much easier to use (once we figured out a few things about using it).

Thanks again.

Thanks again for your recommendation. The Fire Stick isn't perfect (actually it is some of the apps that aren't as good as they could be, especially the YouTube app) but it is so much better than the Chromecast that there is no comparrison.
In fact, we like it enough that I recommended it to my brother in law who recently retired and has time to watch TV.

Our experience was exactly the opposite. The Chromecast required a device to cast to it and since Google changed the rules you can't even access the settings from a Windows device.
That sounds pretty inflexible to me.

And re beating it, I can tell you that I came pretty close to doing exactly that and with the biggest stick I could find on days when it kept disconnecting from the router and I couldn't tell it to connect to the repeater 3 feet away from it instead.