Just over the weekend I paid my friend a visit at his workplace and being introduced as a person with an IT background, his boss was happy to engage me on the problem they are facing with their Wi-Fi connection. The Wifi signal wasn’t strong enough to reach all the four rooms in the building and people were struggling to share useful work resources which were his biggest concern at the moment.
Keep in mind, to take your computing to a far distance you will need to seriously boost your Wi-Fi signal and that might involve getting an additional range extender. I am going to share with you some of the tips and hacks I employed at my friend’s workplace to save you the trouble and have you connected to your phone or Mi-Fi hotspot all the time like how we did with improving your internet speeds.
Change Router settings
The first and the most straightforward method is to check your router settings. Many routers(including MiFi devices) support the old networking standards i.e. 802.11b and 802.11g. There are 3 more standards on top of this with the newer ones being ( Wi-Fi 4~802.11n and Wi-Fi 5~802.11ac). The common standard on most routers we currently use is always 802.11g and being an older standard it’s always slow and can clog up your connection speed. Turn it it off and leave the newer 802.11n or 802.11ac standard or the most recent standards supported by your router.
This should be able to add some few bars in your network but not the ultimate solution to further your signal beyond the outdoors areas surrounding your house.
Position where you place the router
Next on this list, is to check the placement of your router. Most people tend to hide their devices in corners and enclosed environments far away from their connected computers or phones. Remember, Wi-Fi routers work best without physical barriers like walls or glasses blocking their signals, so you need to place your router at an ideal location with minimal interference as possible.
Centralize your router in your home or office, ensuring the strongest signal will reach as far as possible, or position it closer to the room you’re hoping to boost. Just know other rooms may suffer, so best practices is to have the connected device as close to the router as possible. Do not keep any electronic device near the router and place the router at a certain heights to increase the signal strength and speed.
Get a Wi-Fi adapter for your older laptop
WiFi-5(802.11ac) is the latest Wi-Fi standard and most of us do not have the luxury to buy routers supported by such standards yet and the best hack is to purchase an enabled wifi adapter and use it for on our older laptops or desktops to give us a closer experience.
Some of our older laptops can’t even connect to wireless internet and a wifi adapter offers a much convenient alternative to enjoy the wireless technology.
Get a repeater or range extender
This is one of the least options to explore for any reason but if you’re looking to add more to your signal, you’ll need to purchase a repeater. Place a repeater between the router and the room you need the signal to be boosted, it will catch the original signal and repeat it further outward.
If your signal isn’t reaching as far as you’d like, you have options, many of which are free or relatively cheap. Remember, not everyone will have the same solution. Changes in something as simple as landscape can have a huge effect on your signal strength or reducing the number of people connected to your wireless network as well.
