Wi-Fi coverage that ends just before the place where you need it can be as annoying as a lack of cellular network coverage or an insufficient amount of GB on your account. 📶 While we can (almost always!) solve the two latter problems ourselves, the main one is an issue you have to deal with on your own – with our little tips. See how and if you can increase your Wi-Fi range at all.
If you've landed here for the first time, allow us to introduce ourselves: we are Mobile Vikings, a community-based mobile operator that is successfully rescuing more and more unfortunate souls from the clutches of other operators and long-term offers. ⛓️ If you can't manage to save your coverage within your own four walls, you can always rely on a sufficient mobile data reserve. As it happens, with us, this internet doesn't disappear at the end of the month, but carries over to the next ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) What, how, where? You'll find out everything on the Mobile Vikings operator website.
Alright, so how do you improve this Wi-Fi coverage? 🔧 Here are the most proven methods:
1. Ideal Placement Affects Wi-Fi Coverage 🛏️
Let's start with the basics. Since it's usually said that the darkest place is under the lamp, the problem of poor coverage at home/apartment can be trivial. Specifically – the wrong placement of the router. If you want to increase your Wi-Fi range – first, remove all metal objects or those that emit electromagnetic waves from the router's surroundings.
The router should also be placed in an open, unobstructed space, aiming for the widest possible signal coverage. 🏞️ Sounds simple? In practice, yes, but you have to keep in mind that not all routers are created equal, so the signal quality may simply depend on the quality of the product that is transmitting this signal.
See also the article: How to check Wi-Fi router speed?
2. Ideal Security 🔐
This is also one of those issues that seems elementary, but we prefer to mention it out of caution. Similar to other accounts, applications, and accesses – a strong password is the foundation. If you're still using a relatively easy-to-guess one, don't be surprised if your neighbors are equally interested in benefiting from your router. 🦹♂️
Good practices? You probably know them perfectly: a long password, uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, special characters, and definitely don't sneak in your dog's name, which you so loudly shout outside.
3. More Power to Increase Wi-Fi Coverage! 🌪️
Another thing that seems basic, once the previous methods have been verified, is… increasing the modem's signal range. 📡 We can do this with Wi-Fi signal boosters or with antennas, which, obviously, provide significantly more power than those that modems come with by default. Uncle Google will surely offer many suitable solutions for these phrases, so we won't point to specific products here. It all depends on the power and the area you want to cover.
You might be interested in: How to boost GSM signal at home?
4. THAT FEELING when you turn into a Hacker 💻
Okay, time to step up a notch. Don't worry, we'll spare you from restarting the router (in fact, if you haven't done it – it's worth ticking off), we're going a step further, namely – to the router's settings themselves. 🤓 Here, we'll again refer you to Uncle Google for instructions on how to get there. What can we edit to improve Wi-Fi coverage? What should we pay attention to?
- Updates – another of the basic aspects worth paying attention to. The latest software is not only the already-famous stability improvement but also (and most importantly) patching security vulnerabilities. 🕳️
- Quality of Service – an option that allows you to prioritize data usage for specific devices and applications. In this case, you can cleverly place your online gaming above YouTube streaming and Whitney Houston playing at full volume in the bathroom, turned on by your significant other. ⚖️
- Switch to 5 GHz – obviously, higher frequency is definitely better (i.e., faster) than the base 2.4 GHz. The only downside to this solution is that this frequency has significantly less "penetration power" through objects than the aforementioned 2.4 GHz. If you don't have any solid walls and obstacles in the way – feel free to use it. 🧱
- Find another channel to operate on. Many modems in the vicinity use the default Wi-Fi channel (1, 6, 14), hence the traffic is high, and bandwidth is severely limited. Therefore, it's worth checking out other alternatives, specifically channels that are not as occupied. 🆓
All the steps mentioned above are basics, starting from checking the router's placement and everything related to settings. Did we miss anything? Do you know other ways to increase Wi-Fi coverage and improve router performance?
