Besides more merriness and more holiday cheer, there are probably a few other things you can expect at your house this season: more guests and more electronic devices. So, besides more caroling, more treats, more ugly sweaters, and more togetherness, you’re probably also expecting more buffering time, more waiting for uploads to complete more dead spots throughout the house, and more competition for bandwidth on your home’s WiFi. Why not take some of the frustrations out of the holidays? Get your home WiFi holiday-ready with these simple tips you can do yourself so you can get back to baking, ornamenting, snowball fighting, card sending, gift wrapping, and cheer spreading.
First, to discover how your internet is performing, check out speedtest.net to perform a quick test. This free website will help you see what your download and upload speeds are, to determine if your times are lagging. (Even though there’s more to the internet than speed, speed is the primary metric most people use to determine the quality of their internet.) There are also free speed test apps for your mobile devices to check for internet performance as well. If you’re stuck with some less-than-optimal results, keep reading for a few easy things you can do yourself to speed up you’re at-home Wi-Fi. If technology is overwhelming for you, the best part is that these small steps require next to no technical knowledge!
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Location, Location, Location
First, check out the physical location of your router. Is it in a closet or a dark corner of the basement? Moving your router to a more centralized location in the home could bring you the most dramatic improvements to your home WiFi performance. Next, think about possible obstructions your signal has to go through to get to your devices. If the signal has to travel through walls, floors, or other obstacles, consider this: materials like brick and concrete can impair signal strength by up to 90%. Additionally, when you add any metal like ductwork or the wire mesh underneath the tile, that metal layer can act like a sponge, sucking up the signal strength from your router. Therefore, if your router is in a metal enclosure, taking it out will likely be a huge help. Other materials that suppress WiFi signals are water (think fish tanks) and, surprisingly, books (is your router on a bookshelf in the home library?). Like metal, water is a great conductor and can absorb your signal; books are dense and can be quite thick, making it very difficult for a signal to get through.
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Adjust Antennas
Because your router has one antenna that sends a signal and one that receives, having both antennae pointed in the same direction gives you more consistent performance from your WiFi. Having one laying down and the other standing up, for example, put the two antennae at different angles, which affects their ability to communicate with each other. Some new routers don’t have external antennae; rather, they have them internally so they will remain at the correct orientation. So, if your router has external antennae, make sure they are pointed up, towards the sky, and that nothing is touching or obstructing them. This will give them the best chance for a clear signal path. If your router doesn’t have antennae, try to make sure nothing is touching it and it is clear of as many obstructions as possible.
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Reset Your Router
If your Wi-Fi seems to be struggling, try resetting your router. Why? Consumer Reports states, “Routers are like small computers: They use memory, a processor, and an operating system. And that means they too benefit from a fresh start now and then.” Also, because your internet provider will often assign temporary IP addresses to each of your mobile devices, your router can sometimes miss these temporary IPs, which work like a sort of address. If your router seems to be out of sync with your devices, a reboot can help get them all back on track. (Source: https://www.consumerreports.org/wireless-routers/why-you-need-to-reboot-a-router/)
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Add a Router to the modem
If you are just using a 2-in-1 modem and router device supplied by your internet provider, it might be a great idea to separate the functions to help the two components do their jobs more effectively. Consider adding another router to your setup and then shutting off the router function in your 2-in-1 modem device. Now, rather than multitasking two jobs, your devices can just focus on doing one job, bringing you greater reliability. This is the step that requires the most technical knowledge, so ask a tech-savvy friend or teenager to help you if you’re not comfortable.
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Consider a Wi-Fi Tune-up
In addition to these steps, there are more advanced techniques you can try. However, for the layman, if you aren’t happy with your speeds or performance, you’ve tried fixing a few things yourself, and your Wi-Fi is still underperforming for your needs, Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air has developed something we call a Wi-Fi tune-up. The reason the Smart Home Pros at Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air developed this service was to help our homeowners get the most out of their internet service. Our Smart Home Pros can help ensure your Wi-Fi is as strong and reliable as it can be so that you can get the most out of the speed you’re paying for. Some people think more speed is the answer but if you don’t have a reliable signal, it doesn’t matter what your speeds are. Our Smart Home pros have special software that can analyze the signals and interference in your home. This information helps them change the settings in your hardware to make sure that you are transmitting and receiving on the optimal channels and frequencies, ensuring your WiFi signal is as reliable as possible.
If you think you might need a Wi-Fi tune-up, call Any Hour Services, Electrical, Plumbing, Heating & Air and we’ll schedule one of our Smart Home Pros to come to your home. Call for details: (555) 555-5555
