How does it feel when your WiFi connection slows down or disconnects suddenly while doing an important task on your computer? It’s terrible, right? Though the entry of WiFi(Wireless Fidelity) has brought the world closer to your home, issues like weak signals and low speed are still frustrating. There are a lot of issues related to WiFi such as low speed, weak connection, low coverage etc. that disturb your work relied on the internet. However, the best part is you can resolve these issues using 10 simple tips.
10 Best Ways to Boost your WiFi Signal & Extend WiFi Range
WiFi Heatmaps
WiFi heatmaps are the first step through which you can boost your WiFi signal strength and improve coverage. A WiFi heatmap is a graphical representation of wireless signal strength and coverage across the rooms, floor, office, apartment or even a city.
The usage of heatmaps is not just limited to professional network administrators but also to regular users at home. These heatmaps help to find the dead zones of WiFi and let the users adjust the router or bandwidth to increase the WiFi speed. Before heatmaps people used to do a lot of guesswork to find out no-coverage areas, thank god, they were invented. The utilization of heatmaps isn’t that harder, you could simply walk around different areas to map or upload the area map. Thus you can create the heatmap and find out the dead zones within a few minutes using a WiFi heat map. Hence, you can try adjusting the coverage and strength in the dead areas which is a time and effort saving process.
Shift Routers to the Center
Firstly check if the problem is with your WiFi or the router, Wondering how? Connect your ethernet cable directly to your PC, if the internet speed is the same as the speed with the router, then there is no fault in your WiFi connection. If there is any slight difference then the problem is with your router.
The position and location of your router matters a lot on your WiFi speed and coverage. A router placed at the center of the house gives more coverage than a router placed in the corner. Hence, your router should be placed at the center where none of the objects intervenes with the signals coming from the router.
Also, electronic appliances such as cordless phones, smart TVs, washing machines, Bluetooth gadgets, baby monitors etc. interfere with the WiFi signals and make them weak. Therefore, try adjusting the router far away from electronics, but do not stuff it in your cupboard, instead keep it in an open place where no object comes in the way of your WiFi signal. Thus you can expect a boost in your WiFi signal strength and coverage.
Update your Router
By any chance, you have the older versions of the router, update it immediately with the latest version. Chances are there the older version doesn’t work properly. So, get the updated version of the router.
For instance, you can get different versions that provide a wide range coverage or a vertical range coverage with the same high signal strength. So, get a router that suits your requirements.
Adjust your Antenna
After you find the dead zones, you can adjust the direction of the antenna to boost the signal strength. You can extend or rotate the antenna as long as you can in a particular direction so that you get a full WiFi coverage even to the corners of your room.
Thus external antennas help in providing better coverage. But some of the routers may not have external routers by default. So, check if your router model has the ability to withstand external antennas and add them to the back of your router.
Get WiFi Extenders or Repeaters
One of the best but expensive ways to improve your WiFi signal strength and coverage is through extenders and repeaters. In fact, this is the simplest way to extend your WiFi signal range.
The extenders or repeaters placed at the edge of the coverage area act as the WiFi hotspots, thus extending the signals to the other end.
Create another WiFi zone by placing the extender adjacent to your existing WiFi zone and in the same electric circuit. Thus you can provide WiFi signals coverage to a vast area. If you are on a tight budget, you can use your old or unused router as an extender or repeater.
Check your Channel
Like radio signals, the WiFi signals are also transmitted through a different channel which usually ranges from 1, 6, 11, and 14 non-overlapping channels. Out of these channels, 1 and 6 are the most-used channels which means there is huge traffic on these channels.
So, check if your WiFi is occupied in any of the channels. If yes, then shift your WiFi to a low-crowded channel. This way you can speed up your signal strength. There are plenty of WiFi analyzer tools such as Netspot that allows you to check and shift your channel.
Deicide between Coverage or Strength
Plenty of issues while using WiFi broadband, but not everyone has the same issues. Some may have issues related to signal strength and some may have low coverage problems. Hence, the modern routers are designed with dual-band,i.e., 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The router manages on its own to pick up the best one every time.
Nobody wants a poor or weak signal strength, agreed. So set up your router with a 2.4Ghz band. This improves signal strength with high coverage. Whereas the 5GHz band is used for shorter bandwidth and high internet speed. Also, check if all the devices are able to connect to the 5GHz band or not.
If you have a large house, it is recommended to switch to 2.4GHz band for an increased signal strength in the whole area.
Secure your WiFi Connection
Do you still use your wifi name and password as “Admin” and “Password”? If yes, change them immediately. You cannot simply leave the door open for strangers to use your WiFi network. Not just your data may get consumed a lot by your neighbors but also an entrance is created for hackers to enter your network. A weak password simply means a vulnerable spot for hackers to take control of devices connected to your network.
Contact your Broadband Provider
If you have tried all these techniques to boost your WiFi signal strength or extend the range and failed, the best and only way is to contact your broadband provider. These days customer experience has become one of the most important factors in all businesses. Same way, your provider will try his level best to provide you with a better experience. They might visit your place to check and troubleshoot the issue or offer you the updated router to increase the signal strength.
Reboot
Whenever you see a sudden decrease in the signal strength, the first and foremost advice you might get is to reboot. Actually it works. Rebooting your router cleans its memory and automatically installs new updates, thus it might work efficiently again. If this process goes in vain, you can follow all the above-mentioned steps to gain back the WiFi signal strength and WiFi range.
