Do you want the strongest wireless signal you can get from your router, wherever you are, be it home or in your office, follow the guide i have written for you in this tutorial today?
Contents
Update Your Router Firmware
Maybe your router just needs an update in order to deliver stronger signals. Router manufacturers are always advancing software architecture of routers to render more router speed. Upgrade your firmware depends entirely on your device manufacturer and model, so i will not define how easy or hard it may be.
Currently, router manufacturers are rendering the upgrade process right into the administration interface, so it’s just a matter of hitting a firmware upgrade button, not like the older models that require you to go to the manufacturer’s website, download a firmware file from your router’s support page, and upload it to the administration interface. Well, that was time consuming, and a bit complicated.
Achieve Optimal Router Placement
Not all rooms and spaces are created equal. The fact is, where you place the router can affect your wireless coverage. It may seem logical to have the router inside a cabinet and out of the way, or right by the window where the cable comes in, but that’s not always the case. Rather than relegating it to a far end of your home, the router should be in the center of your house, if possible, so its signal can reach as far as possible.
In other words wireless routers need open spaces, away from walls and obstructions. So while it’s tempting to place it in a cabinet or behind a bunch of books, you’ll get a better signal if it’s surrounded by open air. Keep it away from heavy-duty appliances or electronics as well, since running those in proximity can impact Wi-Fi performance.
What’s Your Frequency?
Take a look at your network’s administrator interface and make sure you have it configured for optimum performance. If you have a dual-band router, you’ll likely get better throughput by switching to the 5GHz band instead of using the more common 2.4GHz band.
Not only does 5GHz offer faster speeds, but you’ll likely encounter less interference from other wireless networks and devices, because the 5GHz frequency is not as commonly used.
Most modern dual-band routers should offer you the option to use the same network name, or SSID, on both bands. Check your router’s administration interface, look for the 5GHz network option, and give it the same SSID and password as your 2.4GHz network. That way, your devices will automatically choose the best signal whenever they can.
Change That Channel
Interference is an important aspect especially for those who live in densely populated areas. Signals from other wireless networks can impact speeds, not to mention some cordless phone systems, and other electronic devices.
In the same vein, all modern routers can switch across different channels when communicating with your devices. Most routers will choose the channel for you, but if neighboring wireless networks are also using the same channel, then you are going to encounter signal congestion. A good router set to Automatic will try to choose the least congested channel, but many cheaper routers will just choose a pre-defined channel, even if it isn’t the best one. That could be a problem.
On Windows-based PCs, you can see what channels neighboring Wi-Fi networks are using. From the command prompt type netsh wlan show all, and you’ll see a list of all wireless networks and the channels being used in your vicinity.
At PCMag, for instance, most of our networks and those of our neighbors are using channels 6 and 11. In general, for 2.4GHz you want to stick to channels 1, 6, and 11 since they’re the only ones that don’t overlap with other channels. 5GHz generally uses non-overlapping channels, however, which should make selecting the right one much easier.
If you find the Auto setting isn’t working well for you, sign into your router’s administrator interface, head to the basic wireless category, and try selecting one manually. See if that provides a better signal and faster speed over the Automatic setting. Keep in mind that channel congestion can change over time, so if you choose a channel manually, you may want to check in once in a while to make sure it’s still the best one.
Control Quality
Most modern routers come with Quality of Service (QoS) tools to limit the amount of bandwidth that apps use.
You could use QoS to prioritize video calls over file downloads, in that way your call won’t drop just because someone else is grabbing a big file over the same network. Some QoS settings even allow you to prioritize different apps at different times of day.
QoS settings can typically be found under advanced settings in the network’s administrator interface. Some routers may even make it easier by offering a one-click multimedia or gaming setting, so you know those applications will be prioritized.
Don’t Rely on Obsolete Hardware
If you are running old hardware you can’t expect the best performance even if you want it so bad. We have a tendency to subscribe to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality with back-end devices, especially networking gear. However, if you bought your router years ago, you might still be using the older, slower 802.11n standard.
Even if your router is new, you might have some ancient devices that are falling back to older, slower standards. If you bought a PC within the last couple of years, you likely have an 802.11ac wireless adapter, or at least 802.11n.
Use the Wireless Range Extender
Distance is one of the more obvious problems, there is a certain optimal range that the wireless signal can travel. If the network has to cover an area larger than the router is capable of transmitting to, or if there are lots of corners to go around and walls to penetrate, performance will take a hit.
If all of the above fail, it’s possible that your house is just too big for a single router to send a good signal everywhere. All routers are only capable of broadcasting reliably up to a certain distance before the signal gets weak. If you want to extend your signal beyond that, you’ll need a range extender of some sort.
Range extenders looks similar to standard routers, but work differently. For starters, they pick up the existing Wi-Fi signal from your wireless router and simply rebroadcast it. As far as your network router is concerned, the range extender is just another client with an IP address, much like a laptop.
Even though it’s not a router, you should still use the same rules for figuring out placement; the extender should be close enough to your main network router to pick up a solid signal, but close enough to the weak spot so it can do its job of, well, extending that signal