Today we all have a wifi router at home and a wireless connection that allows computers, smartphones and smart devices to connect to the internet.Both in the case of fiber connections, both for ADSL and especially for those with a slow connection, it is always possible increase and improve the speed of the wifi connection making small configuration changes or replacing some apparatuses and devices.
In this article we will not see special and magical tricks, but the simple and correct way to set up your home wifi internet connection to exploit it to its full potential and to solve existing performance problems, which you may never have noticed.
For example, even having the fastest internet connection in the world, it may be that the pc connected via wifi antenna is too far from the router and receives such a poor signal as to cause enormous slowdowns, or that the router is old and needs to be replaced.
Other more technical measures may concern the router settings themselves, which by default are never optimized for the current situation.
Let's see then how to improve your home wifi to increase the speed of your internet connection trying to minimize problems that can cause slowdowns.
1) Buy an 802.11ac router
If you have an old modem router or one of the poor ones provided on loan for use by Telecom, Fastweb or other operators, it is worth buying a new one to increase and improve the speed of the wifi in a very sensitive way, especially if you choose the latest technology, that of 802.11ac routers.
A modern router offers more noticeable and visible improvements in internet connection speed and even signal range than a very old 802.11n router.
The performance boost could turn the slow internet line into a fast line by discovering that you can download at download speeds of, for example, 40 or 50 Mbps.
We have seen, in another updated article, I best WiFi routers to buy today, even for less than 50 Euros.
2) Replace the network card of the old laptop or PC with a new one
If we have a PC from a few years ago, portable or fixed, we can improve the data transmission speed with the router by replacing the network card with a modern 802.11ac.
Without doing any complicated work, you can buy a 802.11GHz 5ac network adapter.
In another article, i best 5GHz WiFi adapters for PC, for faster connections.
3) Wifi repeater
If your home or office is large or with thick walls that block the full signal from reaching all rooms, it is worth buying a wifi repeater.
The repeater is a stupid device to be connected to the electricity that must be placed halfway, away from the router but so that it receives the signal well, to bounce the signal at full strength.
We talked about repeaters among the ways of extending wireless reception and amplifying wifi.
As explained in another article, instead of the repeater (more convenient and cheaper) you can also connect a second router to increase the wifi signal.
4) Restart the router every now and then
Restarting the router is only good for network and internet speed because it updates all router settings, clears the cache and clears all empty packets.
There are those who recommend restarting the router once a day, but even just once a week can be fine.
In another article, the guide for restart the router or reset it from the PC, even automatically.
5) Enhance the antenna and signal range
It is possible to increase the strength of the wi-fi signal by about 1,5 times with a very special trick, by placing a can cut vertically around the antenna of the router.
In this video there is the practical guide to cut the can and to position it.
Keep in mind that the signal, in this way, is directed from the empty side and muffled on the other side, so this solution is good if the router is kept to one side of the house.
If you have a modern router with three antennas, you can try the trick on one of the antennas, leaving the others free to expand the signal 360 degrees.
Alternatively, you can always buy an enhanced antenna on Amazon by replacing the basic one.
6) Find the best location for the router
Depending on the shape of the rooms, walls and doors, a router can spread the signal for the wifi connection more or less uniformly in a room or room.
Ideally it should be placed in a central location at home so that the signal spreads to every room.
Certainly, the router should never be placed inside cabinets or drawers and it is not even necessary to hide it behind furniture.
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In another article, the guide to find the best location of the router and have the most wifi signal coverage.
7) Change the transmission channel of the wifi
This is probably the most important point of this article and the main cause of problems in a wireless network.
The big problem is that regular 2,4GHz routers only broadcast on 3 non-overlapping channels out of the 14 available.
This means that if you live in an area crowded with wifi networks, everyone will use these three channels and the signal will be full of interference.
The only way to solve this problem is a router with a 5 GHz band, which however has the drawback of having a shorter signal.
The whole discussion about what wifi channel means and how to improve speed while avoiding slowdowns has been explained in two different articles on:
- Connect to the wireless channel of the wifi network with the strongest signal
- How to avoid wifi interference from neighbors' networks
8) Protect Wifi from external intrusion
Sometimes the reason for a slow internet connection is simply that someone else is using it without our knowledge, scrounging the internet.
It is therefore important to check if someone steals the wifi internet connection, to protect the wireless network as explained in this and in other articles on:
- Find out who is connected to your wifi network and connects wirelessly
- Security configurations on the wifi router.
The basics of wifi network security are:
- Keep the router firmware updated
- Use WPA2 encryption for passwords of wifi networks
- Change login and password to access the router (not "admin" / "admin" or "admin" / "password")
- Disable the WPS function unless the router can be configured to use the push button method only.
- Use a DNS service other than the default
- Disable all "remote management" services offered by the router
9) Avoid interference from other equipment
It is good to know that some appliances such as microwaves or cordless phones interfere with the wifi signal.
It is therefore advisable to keep them away from the router.
10 ) Avoid using bandwidth-sucking programs
Unless you really want to, your internet speed can drop dramatically if you use programs that download or share files such as BitTorrent or Emule clients.
The same can be said for streaming services such as Netflix, which obviously can reduce the speed of internet downloads on your PC.
Conclusion
Finally, I refer to the general guide that explains what slows down the network speed (wifi or wired) and the internet connection, explaining all the factors that can cause network performance degradation.
How to increase and improve the speed of the WIFI
