Are you experiencing issues with the functionality of your wireless network? In such a case, you are not the only one. There are many wireless networks, and many of them occasionally experience slowdowns or temporary breakdowns. Your productivity will suffer as a result of this bad performance. The following hints and ideas are offered if they assist in enhancing your wireless network’s functionality; nonetheless, there is no single unbreakable law for repairing problems with wireless networks.
1. Select a somewhat central place.
Positions at the building’s center give the best signal coverage across the structure. For example, if your router or access point is located on the first level of a building with two stories, you may improve the signal strength for devices on the second floor by elevating the router or access point to a higher shelf.
2. Raise your wireless router off the ground.
Walls, floors, and other metal objects might cause interference and decrease the wireless signals sent out by your network. Find a spot for your router that gets you as far away from these sorts of impediments as feasible.
3. Switch out the antenna on your router.
In most cases, the antennas on routers are omnidirectional, transmitting in every possible direction. Therefore, if you position a router such that it is next to an exterior wall, you will end up sending out fifty percent of the wireless signals that you have. However, many routers may have antennae that may be removed. Therefore, you will be able to point the router’s wireless password in the direction of your choice if you remove the omnidirectional antenna and install a high-gain antenna.
4. Decrease the amount of wireless interference
A frequency of 2.4 gigahertz is used by the most used wireless technology, 802.11g (wireless-G) (GHz). This frequency is utilized by many wireless electronic devices, including cordless telephones, microwave ovens, baby monitors, and garage door openers. As a consequence of this, the noise from their signal might disrupt the connection that exists between your device and the router.
Investing in cordless telephones and other gadgets that operate on the 5.8 GHz or 900 megahertz (MHz) frequency is one way to reduce background noise. In addition, these higher GHz devices may create less network interference since 802.11n (wireless-N) operates at the more often used 2.4 GHz frequency and the frequency used less frequently, 5.0 GHz.
5. Swap out the wireless network adapter that is dependent on your device’s card
Signals from the wireless network are delivered to and received by your computer. In most cases, the antennas on devices with built-in wireless networking capabilities are high quality. However, there are occasions when the router can broadcast to your device, but you cannot send signals back to the router from your device. To rectify this problem, you will need to switch out your card-based wireless network adapter with a USB wireless network adapter that uses an external antenna.
6. Install a wireless signal booster.
Repeaters for wireless signals are convenient devices that rebroadcast a wireless signal, amplifying the signal from your router to other floors or the other side of a building. You may put one anyplace there is an outlet, but try to choose a spot about in the middle of the distance between your device and your router, modem, or access point. Before purchasing one of these goods, you should research them. Some wireless repeaters are notoriously tricky to set up and can significantly slow down the performance of your network.
If none of the aforementioned solutions work, it’s conceivable that your home is simply too large for a single router to effectively provide a strong signal across the whole building. It’s also possible that your router has an excessive number of corners to travel around and walls to penetrate. If this is the case, you will need an additional solution in order to increase the range of your signal, such as a range extender or a mesh network.
The signal is received from your router by the range extender, which then rebroadcasts it to the devices you have connected to it, and vice versa. Your wireless router’s range may be increased by using this low-cost option, which can function as a repeater and save you money at the same time. Mesh Wi-Fi systems, on the other hand, completely replace your current router and are typically more effective than traditional Wi-Fi systems.
Multiple units collaborate with one another to intelligently route data back to your modem. This results in your home being covered in a single Wi-Fi network that extends to all of the necessary locations, rather than just repeating the signal of a single router. Stick to the same guidelines for figuring out location while you are putting up these mesh points: one node should be linked to your modem, and each of the other nodes should be close enough to pick up a robust signal, while still being distant enough to extend coverage to dead zones.
7. Make sure your wifi channel is set correctly.
Wireless routers can transmit their signals on a variety of channels. If you experience interference, you can try changing the wireless router’s track through the router’s configuration page, which you can typically find by opening your web browser and typing the IP address into the address bar. You will need to replace the router if this does not resolve the issue. However, you do not need to adjust your device’s setup because it can automatically identify the new channel.
8. Ensure that your firmware and network adapter drivers are up to date.
Routing device makers frequently make available free software upgrades. There are situations when these upgrades might result in a performance boost for your router. Visit the website of your router’s manufacturer to obtain the most recent firmware updates for your router.
The software or driver that Windows employs to connect with your network device may also require periodic updates from the company that manufactured the network adapter. These upgrades could make the performance and reliability of the software better. You may visit your vendor’s website for updates, or you can sign up for email newsletters to be notified of changes automatically.
9. Only purchase your equipment from one particular company.
Even if network adapters and routers from various manufacturers can communicate with one another, the performance of the components may be improved if the same manufacturer creates them. These upgrades may be helpful if you utilize wireless-G devices to broadcast over a long distance or reside in an older house where thicker walls might block more of the signal.
10. Upgrade 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n devices to 802.11ax
In most cases, wireless-N technology should be purchased when purchasing new equipment. Wireless-AX is at least twice as fast as wireless-G, even though wireless-G may be the most widespread type of wireless network. In addition to this, its range and stability are enhanced. Because 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g are all backward compatible with Wireless-AX, you may continue using any wireless equipment you own even after upgrading to Wireless-AX. However, you won’t see much of an improvement in speed until you either upgrade your device or the network adapter you’re using to wireless-AX.
Even if it’s a good idea to get the most out of the equipment you already have, you can’t expect the best performance if you’re using outdated gear. When it comes to back-end equipment, especially networking hardware, we frequently fall victim to the idea of “if it ain’t busted, don’t repair it.” On the other hand, if you purchased your router many years ago, you could still be utilising an earlier, slower version of the 802.11n standard (or God forbid, 802.11g).
These older routers might have bandwidths that are capped at pretty low levels, and they could even have reduced ranges. For example, the highest throughput that 802.11g is capable of is 54 Mbps, whereas 802.11n can achieve up to 300 Mbps. When using one of these older devices, all of the customizations that we have discussed above will only go you so far.
You may, however, acquire support for 1 Gbps if you switch to a new router that uses the most recent version of the 802.11ac standard. Meanwhile, next-generation Wi-Fi 6 routers can theoretically exceed 10Gbps, and Wi-Fi 6E routers have access to even more spectrum that can give extra coverage. Both of these factors contribute to increased throughput.
Even if your network is brand new, you might still be using some antiquated hardware that are reverting to outdated, less efficient standards. If you bought a personal computer (PC) during the previous couple of years, there is a good chance that it has a wireless adapter that is either 802.11ac or 802.11n. But the likelihood that your older gadgets contain built-in new technology decreases in direct proportion to their age.
It’s possible that you’ll be able to boost the connectivity of these devices by purchasing a USB Wi-Fi adaptor that you may insert into a USB port. Because of this, you won’t have to buy an entirely new computer just so you can take use of the latest Wi-Fi technologies.
Keep in mind that a router of greater quality will not only handle faster standards, but it will also perform all of the functions that we have listed above in a more efficient manner. It will have a better channel selection, improved band steering for devices that operate at 5GHz, and higher quality of service characteristics.
Others, like the Editors’ Choice TP-Link Archer AX11000 tri-band gaming router, may contain capabilities such as Multi User-Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO). MU-MIMO routers are capable of sending and receiving numerous data streams concurrently to various devices without experiencing a loss in bandwidth. However, these routers require specialist testing with multiple clients, and the clients themselves must be MU-MIMO compliant.
11. Be sure to check your wired internet connection.
To determine how quickly your internet connects, you may check its speed by using a speed test (Opens in a new window). If the speed doesn’t match what it says on your internet bill, you may need to call your internet service provider (ISP) or change your router or modem. If the results of your speed test coincide with those on your internet bill, but the connection is still painfully sluggish, it’s possible that you need to upgrade to a more robust package. (I had to break the news to my grandmother that she was paying for a connection that was only capable of a snail’s-pace 3Mbps, but she insisted that her Wi-Fi was broken.)
If everything appears to be in working order, you should try performing the test once again while wirelessly connected to the router while standing in close proximity to it. If you obtain comparably strong speeds close to the router, but not anywhere else in the house, then the problem might be with the Wi-Fi coverage in your home. If you are standing directly next to the router and the speed of your internet is still poor, it’s possible that you have some obsolete equipment that needs to be upgraded.
12. Which Frequency Do You Belong To?
Examine the administrator interface of your network and make certain that you have it set up so that it performs at its highest possible level. If you have a dual-band router, it is quite likely that you will achieve a higher throughput by switching to the 5GHz frequency rather than utilising the more conventional 2.4GHz channel.
It is less likely that you will have interference from other wireless networks and devices while using a frequency that is not as widely utilised, which means that not only does the 5GHz frequency offer quicker speeds, but it also has this benefit. It is important to keep in mind, however, that because it does not handle obstacles and distances as well as 2.4GHz signals do, its range may not necessarily be as great.
You should be able to use the same network name, also known as an SSID, on both bands with the majority of today’s dual-band routers. Verify that your router has a 5GHz network option, locate it using the management interface, and assign it the same SSID and password as your 2.4GHz network. In this manner, your devices will automatically select the best signal whenever they are able to do so.
If your router does not give you the choice to use the same SSID, you may just assign it a different name, such as “SmithHouse-5GHz,” and then make an effort to connect to that one manually whenever it is able to do so.
13. Remove or Turn Off Any Unused Devices
It might be troublesome if hundreds of devices are simultaneously connecting to the Wi-Fi network. Connect anything that can be to the Ethernet, and unhook everything that is now attached that you don’t require (like that “smart” tea kettle you never once got to work). Make it so that only the objects that require internet access actually receive it.
Controls to prioritise a certain device or service are available on most good routers, including all of the routers listed above as an example. It’s a convenient technique to make sure that your games are never disrupted by other people streaming movies on Facebook, and it can be done in a few simple steps.
14. Restart Your Router?
It seems like an extension of the age-old bogus remedy to anything digital: Reboot it. If you restart your router on a regular basis, it sounds like an extension of that. Yes, we are aware that restarting your router can occasionally cure slow or non-functioning internet; but, we questioned the manufacturer of routers, Netgear, to find out if doing so on a frequent basis helps speed things up. To answer your question in a nutshell: probably not.
According to the vice president of product management at Netgear, Sandeep Harpalani, the business does not advocate restarting its routers “unless you genuinely notice difficulties with connection or slowdowns due to radio frequency interference.” In addition, he mentions that if you are still on 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi and you are experiencing performance issues, restarting your device can be helpful since it will force the router to pick the optimal channel with the least interference while it is loading up. If you have upgraded to the 5 GHz frequency, it will automatically change to the channel that has the lowest level of interference.
In any case, there is no necessity to do frequent system restarts. In the event that the issue persists, you should try restarting your router; but, for the most part, you should adhere to the solutions that we have provided.
15. Get in touch with your internet service provider.
If you have tried everything and are still having issues, you should get in touch with your internet service provider. They could choose to dispatch a service professional to the location. They might be able to identify a problem that has been neglected that is preventing you from receiving a fast Wi-Fi connection. Because the epidemic is still occurring, you might not feel comfortable inviting strangers into your home, and your internet service provider might not have any technicians available to send. However, if none of the remaining recommendations cure your issue, it’s necessary to contact your service provider in order to get some answers to your problems.
