There is nothing more frustrating than a poor and slow Wi-Fi signal. Loading a page or trying to watch a video can be agony, even more so in those areas of the house that for some strange reason do not receive even a signal line from your router, the dreaded dead zones. In this article, we are going to see how to improve the WiFi signal at home.
There are many DIY (Do It Yourself) tutorials online that explain how to make homemade antennas to boost the WiFi signal of your Router with just a can of beer or even simple cardboard. But we want to think that we are not yet so desperate to start doing this type of craft.
We present 5 simple and cheap tricks to improve the WiFi signal throughout the house. But we warn you… if you’re stealing your neighbour’s signal, it’s going to be a bit difficult for you to carry out these tricks… and that’s without counting the crime of breaking and entering.
5 Keys to improve the WiFi signal at home
1. Place your router in an appropriate place
Routers are not exactly the most beautiful and elegant devices in the world and that is why we constantly try to hide them so that they are not seen too much. But one thing is to hide them and another thing is to hide them in the most remote drawer or closet of the house, that drawer that never sees the light and in which cables and dust accumulate in equal parts.
If the situation of your router is this, the first thing you should do is take it out of the drawer. Look for the most central area of the house, if your home has two floors, it is preferable to place it on the top floor, if it has more than two, it will always be more convenient to place it on the central floor.
Be careful with the walls that the signal will have to pass through, main walls or those that are wider mitigate the signal a lot. Also, make sure that the position of your router is completely horizontal and level. If this is not the case, the signal, instead of going through the walls perpendicularly, do so diagonally, therefore it loses much more intensity as it has to cross more distance from the wall.
Finally, try to place your router at a minimum distance of one meter from those devices or appliances that can interfere with the signal, such as microwaves, speakers, refrigerators or halogen lamps.
This simple trick will help you to improve the Wi-Fi signal drastically and in a few minutes.
2. Stop letting your WiFi be stolen
Do you have neighbours? Haven’t you ever changed your router’s settings since it was installed? Congratulations! You have earned the title of “good-natured neighbour” which is awarded annually to all those who inadvertently share their WiFi connection. It’s time to block them and improve the WiFi signal.
Making a few small changes to your WiFi settings so it doesn’t get stolen is very easy and will not only increase the strength of your connection but also reduce the risk of private information or personal data being hacked.
There are two ways to greatly improve the security level of your router in less than an hour: Change the passwords that come by default in the Router and disable the SSID broadcast (Hide your network). To make these two changes, you have to access the router with its IP from your computer, log in with the default username and password and look for both options in the configuration panel.
Depending on the Router you have, the IP and access codes vary, so we recommend that you search on Google how to access specifically your Router model and how to make these adjustments.
3. Change the broadcast channel
All Routers can work on different broadcast channels, just like other gadgets in your house and your neighbours. Normally these channels are numbered from 1 to 11 and your router will come with one of them as default.
The most common WiFi channels are usually 1, 6 and 11, try switching between them to see which one works best for you. If none of the 3 works correctly for you, you can continue testing among the rest of the channels.
The less used a channel is, the less interference your router’s signal will encounter and the better your internet connection will be. To change the channel, search Google for the specific instructions for your router model.
4. Buy a more powerful broadcast antenna
Almost all routers come by default with one or more antennas to broadcast their signal. Except for some high-end routers, most do have not very powerful antennas that we can perfectly replace with higher quality antennas.
Many online electronics stores sell these high-gain WiFi antennas that will allow you to extend the range of your signal and achieve higher data transfer speeds.
They are also quite cheap, for less than Rs. 2000/- you can get a fairly decent antenna.
5. Buy a signal booster
Even more powerful than the antennas are the signal boosters (Also more expensive). These devices work as repeaters and what they do is create new emission points in the house. It is as if we had several routers, although all of them actually broadcast through the main router.
These amplifiers are connected through the electrical network, only by means of a current light socket. There are many models on the internet that start at Rs. 5000/-. Before buying one, compare and review the opinions of other buyers.
If you have any more tricks to improve the WiFi signal of your router, do not hesitate to share it with us on our social networks: Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
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