Having a sluggish home Wi-Fi network can feel like
trying to eat a delicious fruitcake one raisin at a time.
Luckily, there are ways to improve the speed and range
of your home internet connection to help you take a full bite out
of those tasty browser
games without knocking down all of your home's internal
walls.
Sometimes just a small tweak is all that's required to
boost your Wi-Fi speeds, so we kick off with some free quick fixes
- before moving onto the relative merits of more heavy duty
solutions like powerlines, boosters and repeaters further down.
Time to don those biggles goggles and get
tinkering...
image:
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1. Change the channel
If your connection is unfathomably bad, it’s probably
because everyone within 100m is using the same Wi-Fi channel.
That’s a bit like 600 radio stations all trying to use the same
frequency.
You can fix this in about 30 seconds by logging into
your router. Find your router's address on the bottom of the case
(it's usually something like 192.168.1.1) and type it into your
browser window. Your channel settings will be in a Wi-Fi settings
menu. To help decide which channel to change to, use an app
like Wi-Fi
Analyzer (free, Android) to see the Wi-Fi channels being
used around you.
2. Take the cable route
If there’s a gaming PC or set-top box that needs
bulletproof internet, why not move your router nearby and use an
Ethernet cable?
Long cables like this
one don't cost too much and flat ones are also dead easy
to hide in and around carpet. Cables are always faster than
Wi-Fi.
3. Move away from the TV
Some gadgets don’t like other gadgets. And routers make
almost no friends.
RF and electrical interference from other tech, and
even some cables, can trip-up your router, sending your wireless
reliability down the tubes. Keep your router away from your TV and
other home entertainment gear to be sure.
4. Stay centered
Wi-Fi signal blooms out in all directions, so your best
bet is to try and position your router as close to the middle of
your house as possible.
Bunging the thing in one corner and hoping for the best
is a one-way ticket to dead zone hell. An extension cable costs
just a few dollars: it’s worth it.
Tried those tips but still experiencing death by patchy
Wi-Fi? Time to draft in the heavy hardware artillery...
read one