The WiFi networks They are already an inseparable part of our digital lives, offering us access to the Internet and its many services. The problem is that performance inside the home is not always optimalsuffering from slowdowns, connection cuts, areas of the house that remain without coverage, etc.
In these cases, the most common thing is that we think directly about changing the router or buying an additional, more modern and powerful device that allows us to achieve a faster and more stable network. However, it may not be necessary in all cases, as there are a number of tips and basic actions that we can do to try to improve the WiFi at home without spending a single euro.
Choose the location of the router well
In its day we already saw more thoroughly the theory about how to install the router properly at home and how to help us with a series of applications to map coverageobtaining a series of conclusions:
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First of all, it is convenient to place the external antennas, if the router has them, perpendicular and not pointing directly at the devices. In the event that the house has several floors, we will be interested in place it in an intermediateavoiding the lowest or highest floor to achieve better signal distribution.
- In a single-story home, you should try to keep the router at least up to the devices that are going to connect to it. This generally assumes at table height and not on the floor or completely hung from the ceiling.
- It should not be installed in the furthest room in the house, but rather centered with respect to all roomssince otherwise we will be losing a good part of the energy emitted towards the exterior walls instead of towards the interior of the house.
- It should never be installed inside a piece of furnitureeven if it is made of wood, nor on the shelf of a shelf with others full of objects or books around it.
- We don’t have to place metal objects such as large appliances or large volumes of water (such as fish tanks) around them, since they can block the outgoing signal from the router and the incoming signal from devices such as mobiles, laptops, etc.
Find out if we have interference from neighboring networks
One of the most important problems when it comes to achieving a good WiFi connection is the interference with neighboring Wi-Fi networkswhich can saturate the communication channels and degrade the quality of your wireless network, preventing you from connecting stably and with good speed.
WiFi networks work thanks to what are called “channels” of electromagnetic spectrum. They are like lanes on a highway that our data travels on in each frequency band. Each wireless access point or router establishes a WiFi connection based on one or several of these channels, directing all the traffic it handles through them.
If this channel is saturated by the WiFi networks of the neighbors the connection will suffer problems of lost packets, a reduction in speed, increases in latency and therefore a worse quality that can sometimes even cause micro-cuts or speeds much lower than those theoretically achievable with our equipment.
In fact, if the interference in the WiFi channels is very high, it is probably you will never achieve a good connection speed no matter how good your router is or how much additional equipment you buy.
To have a good WiFi connection at home, the first thing you can do is a mapping or drawing of the general situation of the WiFi channels around you to see which ones are freer and find out if there is one that offers you less interference. It is something that we can do room by room, since in general the connections of the neighbors will strain with different intensity through the different walls of the house.
To perform this task there are many applications available. One of my favorites is WiFi Analyzeravailable for free for Android and Windows 10 (in this case you just have to look for it in the app store), software that gives us this information by showing the signal strength of each frequency band.
Once the situation has been analyzed, it will be convenient for us switch to a channel that is free or have the least possible interference. To do this, you only have to enter the router through the classic link http://192.168.1.1 in the web browser (or a similar one, for which we recommend you see the instructions for each specific router), search for the Wi-Fi network settings and find there the option corresponding to the channels.
In the menu we will choose the one that best suits us in each case and thus we will improve the quality of our wireless connection (here you have a more detailed manual to do it).
Choosing the best band available
Currently, the usual thing is that we have in our router the possibility of connecting in two frequency bands, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages and whether we choose one or the other will depend on whether we will have a stable and fast WiFi connection.
The 2.4 GHz band is capable of easily pass through wallsceilings, floors of different floors, furniture, windows, etc., however, its access speed is generally lower due to having a lower bandwidth available in the channels, being, depending on the standard, less than half the access speed of 5 GHz.
In equipment such as connected speakers, sound equipment, smart home devices, to browse the Web from a PC or mobile, instant messaging services, email, access to social networks, etc. It is usually advisable to use the 2.4 GHz band for its better coverage and stability, since we will not need high access speeds.
If what we want is to have the maximum speed, then 5 GHz is the winner. very useful to see 4K videos large files, download or transfer files from one PC to another. But of course, its optimal operation will depend on each router and will be limited to the room where we have the wireless access point or, hopefully, to the adjacent ones.
If our router and devices allow it, we also have the option of using the technology called Band Steering (although it sometimes has other names such as “smart WiFi”), a system that is capable of automatically switch between the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands depending on the one that offers the best coverage, which will prevent us from having to change manually.