Your home Wi-Fi network is now as essential to everyday life as electricity and
running water. So when you have problems connecting to the network from your
laptop or your smartphone, you feel the impact in many different areas of your life—
whether you’re trying to download important emails from work, research your next
vacation, or watch the latest episode of your favorite TV show.
It is also clear that connectivity expectations are higher than before. You shouldn’t have to exercise patience while waiting for files to download, for jittery video, or for Internet/Wi-Fi
service disruptions.
Here is a video with a few tips and tricks for optimizing your Wi-Fi.
To dive deeper, read on!
On rare occasions when issues do occur, turning your Wi-Fi router off and then
back on again usually solves the problem. But when you’re constantly having trouble
connecting, or experiencing very slow performance, there’s a good chance there are
other problems you need to address.
Is your router out of date?
One potential cause of your Wi-Fi problems is an old router. Wi-Fi technology has
improved a lot recently, so if your router is a few years old, it won’t work nearly as well
as a new one. For example, newer Wi-Fi technology uses stronger wireless signals
and allows multiple users to connect at the same time. If you think that your router
might be out of date, contact Silver Star and ask about a replacement.
Move your router to a new location
If your router itself is not the problem, its location might be. For you to enjoy the best
possible online experience, your router needs to be able to send out a strong signal
to your wireless device, wherever you are in your home. In general, the signal gets
weaker the farther you are from your router, so it’s important to install it in a central
location, so you’re never very far from it. If possible, you should place the Wi-Fi router
on a table or a shelf. The ideal position is halfway between the floor and the ceiling.
The physical features of your house may also be contributing to the problem. For
example, certain materials used in your interior walls can reduce the strength of your
signal. If your router is located near walls (especially those made from concrete or brick) these
materials can block some — or all — of your Wi-Fi signal.
Metal surfaces can also weaken your Wi-Fi signal, so placing your router in a kitchen
or laundry room that has a lot of metal appliances is not a good idea either.
Finally, one of the most obstructive materials for your Wi-Fi signal is mirrors. If you have a
sizeable mirror near your Wi-Fi router, it may negatively impact Wi-Fi performance.
If your router is located in a room with any of these characteristics, try moving it to a
different room in your house to see if your Wi-Fi performance improves.
Check for interference from other electronic devices
Another factor that can cause poor performance is interference from other electronic
devices. Certain non-Wi-Fi devices — like baby monitors, Bluetooth devices,
microwave ovens, and cordless phones — may share the same frequency as your
Wi-Fi router. As a result, when these devices are in use, you may notice your Wi-Fi
performance getting worse.
The most likely source of interference is other Wi-Fi routers located nearby.
There’s a good chance that one or more of your neighbors has a Wi-Fi router that
operates on the same frequency as yours. In this case, the signal coming from your
neighbor’s router may be interfering with the signal from your router, and that may be
contributing to the connection and performance problems you are experiencing.
If you think that interference from nearby routers is affecting your Wi-Fi network,
contact Silver Star for technical support. We can help you reconfigure
your router to limit the impact of nearby routers and help you get your Wi-Fi
performing the way it should be.
Another option is to purchase a mesh Wi-Fi system. Please
contact Silver Star to see if this is an option that applies to your situation.
Check for outdated client devices
While your Wi-Fi router is an important part of the Wi-Fi network, the wireless
devices that you use to connect to the Internet also impact the quality of your Wi-Fi
experience. As with the router, older devices are going to have outdated technology,
resulting in slower connection speeds. You may have a better experience if you
can upgrade to a newer device, such as a smart phone or tablet.