Home WiFi Tips You Need To Know

Now that we are stuck at home “for the greater good” of the community, the importance of having a good WiFi signal cannot be overstated. We rely on the internet to keep our phones smart, our TVs useful and our jobs secure. Ensuring that we have a good online experience, depends entirely on having good WiFi.

We aren’t going to get too technical here, but there are certain things you need to know to ensure that you get good WiFi coverage throughout your home, not just a portion of it. Better WiFi signal strength, equals faster internet speeds.

Here are a tips that might be beneficial to you:

Place Your Router In A Central Location
The best analogy for router signal strength is witnessing a burning candle in a dark room. Ideally you would want to place said candle in an open space, so that its able to efficiently illuminate an entire area. Now, while radio waves (WiFi signal) can travel through walls, the general principle of its propagation isn’t that far off from said burning candle.

For the best results, keep your router in the centre of your house with the least number of obstacles in its path such as walls or pillars. This way, it can cover a wider area of your home. Placing it in an obscure location will not only reduce signal strength but limit your internet speed. It would be pointless to subscribe to a 300Mbps plan if you’re only getting 40Mbps.

Analyze Your WiFi Signal
Before you attempt to make any drastic changes to your home network. It would be wise to use a WiFi Analyzer app to gauge your signal strength throughout your home. The app, which is available for Android, provides you with an idea of your WiFi signal strength as well as how crowded the channels are for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies.

Once you’ve determined the least crowded channels, access your router and adjust the channel settings that best suits your environment. Most users will have their router channels on Auto. But having yours set to manual, should make a world of difference because while the rest of your neighbors are crowding around a single channel, you could make use of one that is free.

2.4Ghz Vs 5Ghz

Try To Use 5Ghz instead off 2.4Ghz
With reference to the WiFi Analyzer picture above, using the 5Ghz frequency would provide you with the least amount of interference. Remember that besides other WiFi routers, many appliances run on the same 2.4Ghz frequency, which include baby monitors, microwave ovens and cordless phones. A router placed in such a ‘crowded’ space won’t offer good WiFi.

Besides this, the 5Ghz frequency has a higher bandwidth limit compared to 2.4Ghz. But the caveat is that the former isn’t as good at penetrating walls as the latter. That is why the 5Ghz frequency will be worse for you if you’re in another room or on a different floor. This is why I stressed the importance of placing a router in an open space.

For Better Coverage, Buy A Mesh Router
They are significantly more expensive than a conventional router, but are worth every penny. As the name suggests, Mesh routers operate in a group of two or more. Think of it as an interconnected web. They (nodes)provide you with the best signal reception. Placing one on each floor will guarantee that you receive a good and consistent signal throughout your home.