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Wi-Fi is the backbone of the home internet experience and if you’re not getting a strong signal between your router and your phone, smart TV, or other devices, then you’re not having a good time. Here’s how to improve your Wi-Fi experience.
Consider upgrading your router
By all means, follow all the tips on this list to get the most out of the equipment you have. But we’re leading in dismissing the idea of ​​upgrading your router in the first place because in our decades of experience with wireless in both corporate and consumer settings, it’s proven to be a panacea.
If your router is relatively new (or straight out of the box!) and you’re not getting the signal strength and Wi-Fi experience you expect, then all of these tips will come in handy. But if your router is long in the tooth, you’ll only get a big improvement with minor tweaks and changes. No amount of tips and tricks can magically make a ten year old router not a ten year old router.
What was a perfectly serviceable router when people had just a handful of Wi-Fi devices just doesn’t work in a modern home where everything from the TV to the thermostat is Internet-enabled. If it seems like your old Wi-Fi router is working under the load of all those new devices and their increased bandwidth demands, there’s a good chance it is.
Rather than suffer from a poor Wi-Fi experience with slow speeds, lag, and dropped connections, we recommend replacing your old equipment. Wi-Fi technology has improved exponentially and you simply can’t compare early Wi-Fi routers to modern budget routers, let alone premium Wi-Fi routers.
For many people buying a mesh router system like Eero or Nest Wi-Fi clears all of their router issues (weak signal, poor coverage, devices overloading the router, etc.) all in one go.
move your router
Without a doubt, one of the easiest ways to improve Wi-Fi coverage and signal strength is to move your router, as most people have their routers in sub-optimal locations.
Why is it so effective to move the router? Think of your router like a light bulb. The Wi-Fi radio signal radiates from there just like visible light radiates from a lamp (the radio topography of Wi-Fi signals is a bit more complex than that, but you get the idea).
If you were trying to read a book on the couch in the middle of your living room, you wouldn’t put the lamp in the far corner of the room because the light wouldn’t be where you wanted it.
Likewise, if you want a strong Wi-Fi signal while playing on your phone on the same couch, it doesn’t make sense to put your Wi-Fi router in the far corner of the basement on the opposite side. of the house
Ideally, your Wi-Fi router should be placed in a location that is central to the activity and devices in your home and not just where the cable or fiber line enters your home.
Switch devices to Ethernet
This is perhaps one of the most overlooked tips because when people are troubleshooting their Wi-Fi, they aren’t thinking about things other than wireless connections.
But one of the easiest ways to deal with Wi-Fi device congestion is to find devices that you can disconnect from the Wi-Fi network and switch to Ethernet instead.
We understand that not everyone has an Ethernet-connected home, and in many cases Wi-Fi is the only way to connect some devices, like an Xbox or a smart TV in a second-floor bedroom.
At the same time, however, we’ve been to many homes where the Wi-Fi modem and router are in the living room or office and there are many devices with Ethernet cable right there (such as a desktop computer, game console, etc.) games or TV) that use Wi-Fi instead of Ethernet.
If you have a stationary device like a computer or TV that can be easily connected to the network via Ethernet, there’s no harm in doing so. You’ll free up space for other Wi-Fi devices and enjoy a faster connection with better ping time.
Remove unnecessary devices
Switching devices to Ethernet where available is a good start to disconnecting devices from your Wi-Fi network. You should continue that by turning off devices that no longer need to be on your home network.
For example, if you find that you never use the smart features of your smart TV because you have a Roku or Chromecast connected, why have it on the network? The same thing happens the other way around. If you no longer use your Chromecast because you like the convenience of using your TV remote with the Smart TV interface, unplug the Chromecast to take it off the network.
The same goes for anything you’ve added to your Wi-Fi network but doesn’t actually need to be on your Wi-Fi network. For example, I have a sous vide cooker that has Internet connectivity via Wi-Fi. I set it up when I got the device years ago, but I don’t really use the internet features. That’s a prime candidate for being banned from the network.
Update your firmware
Router firmware updates are important for two big reasons. First, and far more important than getting a strong Wi-Fi signal, keeping your router up to date ensures that it’s running the most secure firmware available for your particular model. That’s important enough that I recommend getting rid of your old router and upgrading it if it no longer receives security updates.
However, updating your firmware is not just about security. A firmware update can also remove bugs and improve performance. A bug fix that ensures your old router works well with your new phone can make it feel like you have a brand new router.
Change your Wi-Fi channels
Wi-Fi routers communicate over a portion of the radio spectrum. When you buy a dual-band router, for example, you’re buying a router that can communicate on the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band. Those bands are further divided into channels.
These channels are not unlike the individual channels on walkie-talkies. If everyone on a construction site is communicating on Channel 9 and everyone on the construction site across the street is also communicating on Channel 9, this prevents communication for everyone.
When multiple Wi-Fi routers try to use the same channels in close proximity, such as your router and your neighbor’s router through a thin apartment wall, the same thing happens and degrades the Wi-Fi experience for clients on both Wi-Fi. -Fi. -Fi routers.
Historically, messing with your channel mapping was a bigger problem than it is now. When all routers were 2.4GHz, the range and “width” of the channel and the resulting overlap often required you to adjust which channel your router used just to get a stable connection (channels 1, 6 and 11 are the unique non-overlapping). The channels on the 5GHz band do not overlap, so while you may encounter a situation where you need to manually adjust them, it’s not that common.
Also, most routers will automatically adjust the channel if congestion is detected. The vast majority of the time this is enough to avoid problems.
Though it’s worth noting that in rare cases, especially with a high density of Wi-Fi routers in a small area like an apartment complex, the auto-switch feature can cause more problems than it solves, as it can be too aggressive. when changing channels to optimize the connection. In such cases, it is worth disabling the function and manually setting the channel.
In the end, it’s still worth investigating if you suspect band/channel congestion is the source of your problem. Then you can rule it out by finding the best channel for your router to use.
Consider a Dead Spot Extender
In general, Wi-Fi extenders are very much a Band-Aid for Wi-Fi problems. For the most part, they are a poor substitute for simply using a better standalone router or mesh system.
If you want to avoid relocating your router to a better spot in the house and try to fix coverage issues by placing a cheap Wi-Fi extender like the TP-Link AC750 in the middle of your house, chances are you’re in for a bad experience. It’s just not powerful enough to repeat your entire Wi-Fi connection in half a house satisfactorily.
On the other hand, if you just want to get a stronger signal in a particular area that has a dead spot, it’s a useful solution. Let’s say, for example, that your Wi-Fi coverage inside your house is pretty good, but when you sit on your patio, your Wi-Fi connection drops constantly. Putting a repeater in the room adjacent to the patio (especially if it has line of sight to where you sit outside) will probably provide enough coverage to save you from upgrading the entire router.
That said, once you get past cheap Wi-Fi extenders, the price increases dramatically. By the time you get into premium extenders like the Netgear Nighthawk EAX80 ($200 as of April 2022), you might as well check out your entire setup. You can get a three-node Eero Wi-Fi 6 system for the same price.
Upgrade to high gain antennas
Not all routers have detachable antennas, but those that do typically use a standard accessory known as RP-SMA (which stands for Reverse Polarity SubMiniature version A, if you’re curious).
An increase in radio signal strength using an antenna is measured in dBi (isotropic decibels). Without turning this into a mini lecture on radio engineering, suffice it to say that it is beneficial to give your Wi-Fi router a little boost in the dBi department.
If your router’s antennas are low-gain (3-5 dBi) antennas and detachable, it’s worth replacing them with high-gain (8-10 dBi) antennas. It’s a pretty cheap solution at around $15-25 per game.
If one of the Wi-Fi issues you have is poor connectivity to a desktop PC, the same RP-SMA connector is used on motherboard connections as well as PCI-E Wi-Fi expansion cards. . Therefore, you might consider getting a new detachable antenna with a cable that allows you to move the antenna to an optimal location near the PC.
Hopefully some of the cheap and easy tips, like moving your router or connecting a few things, like your smart TV and Xbox, via Ethernet, will solve your Wi-Fi problems.
But if they don’t, we really can’t stress our first tip, upgrading your router, enough. We’ve been at this for a long time, and there’s never been a time when hacking our router’s firmware, swapping antennas, or patching up deficiencies in our setup was just a candle to buying better hardware.
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