WiFi is key in today’s homes. However, there are more and more connected devices, with an average of 7 per house in Spain. This means that WiFi may not perform well for many reasons, and there are things that negatively affect your coverage. Therefore, we are going to see what tricks we have at our disposal to improve WiFi coverage.
Change the location of the router
This is one of the most important points. It is possible that you currently have the router in an area that is not optimal for coverage . To begin with, if you have it close to the wall , you are losing a lot of range, since the wall absorbs part of the WiFi waves . The same thing happens if there are devices such as TVs, which, having metal parts, can greatly block the signal from the router.
wifi router offline
Open can or aluminum foil
Whether your router has external or internal antennas , it is possible to amplify the range they have. If you have aluminum foil at home, you can put it under the router to amplify the signal upwards, or stand it up against a piece of cardboard if you want to amplify it in a horizontal direction. With an aluminum can it can also be done, but it will only work well if we have external antennas. If they are internal, it is best to cover the largest possible surface of the router.
Change the WiFi channel
If your neighbors are using the same WiFi channels as you are, you may have interference issues. The most used channels in 2.4 GHz WiFi , the one with the greatest range, are 1, 6 and 11 . These channels are the only three that do not overlap each other, so they are the most used to avoid interference. Using applications such as WiFi Analyzer on Windows or similar on mobile, we can see in which channels there is more saturation, and choose the one with the least saturation. With this small change we can gain a few meters of insurance coverage.
2.4 GHz Wi-Fi channels
Check the devices that use the network
If there are many devices using the network, the little coverage you get may not be enough to make stable use of the network. Therefore, it may be convenient for you to reduce the number of connected devices , or limit them to the guest network so that they do not cause us problems in the main network.
Change the direction of the antennas
If your router has external before , you can change the direction in which they point to achieve a better range. Try different positions while keeping a log of signal strength with a program on your computer. With this, you will be able to know the best positions of the router.
If doing all this does not work for you, you will have no choice but to spend money. For very few euros you can buy WiFi repeaters or amplifiers , as well as a PLC to carry the connection through your electrical network without having to rewire your house. For just 20 or 30 euros you can forget about having performance problems with the Internet at home.