How To Boost Your Home WiFi Signal?

How To Boost Your Home WiFi Signal? 5 Best Ways To Get Rid OF WiFi Dead Zones In 2021

We’re having Internet issues because of the increased frequency of working and using multiple devices at once. Therefore, here we will be discussing how we can boost our Home WiFi signal strength when everyone else is working from home.

how to boost wifi signal in your home

#StayAtHome, Yes, we’re following social distancing and staying at home. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Internet Service Providers are not able to respond to our frustrations. 

Let’s see some of the crucial Internet issues.

They might be caused by:

  1. An increased number of users 
  2. Your Modem and Router 
  3. WiFi Signal
  4. Bandwidth saturation
  5. Viruses and Malware

And there may be many other reasons too which cause a slow internet connection. 

1. Multiple devices and an increased number of users can be a bottleneck

Connecting multiple devices at the same time is one of the common issues when slow Internet is concerned. Even though, Netflix and Youtube have already said they are reducing the quality of videos — across the world — for a couple of months in order to minimize stress on ISPs, streaming from multiple devices is straining internet bandwidth and likely to slow down the internet. 

You might have heard that most smart devices utilize the 2.4GHz band — The band which offers more WiFi coverage compared to the 5GHz band — rather than using the 5GHz band. 

However, high-end routers offer dual-band functionality (802.11n, 802.11ac, and higher, come with dual-band functionality), allowing your router to switch automatically between them as per the connected devices. Or, you can connect to the 5GHz band manually. 

Related: Best WiFi Routers That Can Handle Multiple Devices At The Same Time

Let’s Compare These Frequency Bands

5GHz:

  1. It provides a faster connection.
  2. It gives a more reliable, stable, and consistent connection.
  3. Not good when it comes to penetrating objects and other physical obstacles. 
  4. It offers a shorter range of coverage. 

2.4GHz:

  1. It offers better WiFi coverage throughout the house.
  2. Easily penetrate walls and other objects.
  3. It delivers slower WiFi speeds. 
  4. Very crowded network. 

So it is always better to connect all of your devices to the 5GHz frequency band in order to avoid network interference. In other words, you should select the best frequency band according to your needs. 

2. Your Modem and Router: It’s time to upgrade to higher wireless standards

Let’s say your router operates on WiFi 4 wireless standard; it is hard for your router to handle multiple devices since WiFi 4 routers utilize only one frequency band, which is very crowded. 

If your router is old and not able to handle multiple users at the same time, you need to upgrade your router to the newest WiFi standard: WiFi 5 or WiFi 6 (introduced in 2019), depending on your needs. 

These high-end wireless standards are designed to handle multiple users with heavy-duty tasks. Let me compare them for you.

WiFi 4 vs. WiFi 5 vs. WiFi 6

WiFi 4:

  1. WiFi 4 was introduced in 2009 (4th generation). 
  2. It specs the 802.11n wireless standard.
  3. Its 2.4GHz frequency band offers a total of up to 14 WiFi channels (only 11 available in the US) with 20MHz channel width.
  4. The maximum realistic speed is up to 144Mbps for a 20Mhz channel (2×2 MIMO client).

Verdict:

The 2.4GHz band is crowded. In this case, you should operate your WiFi devices on channels: 1, 6, or 11. These are non-overlapping channels. 

WiFi 5:

  1. Introduced in 2013 (5th generation).
  2. It specs the 802.11ac wireless standard.
  3. The 2.4GHz has 11 channels (20MHz wide), while the 5GHz is ranging from 36 to 165 (Each 20MHz wide).  
  4. It can deliver maximum realistic speed up to 866Mbps for an 80MHz (4×4 MIMO client).

Verdict: 

It is less crowded. It has six non-overlapping 80MHz channels (42, 58, 106, 122, 122, 138, 155) to choose from. 

WiFi 6:

  1. It was introduced in 2019 (sixth generation).
  2. WiFi 6 specs the 802.11ax wireless standard.
  3. It offers an additional fourteen channels (80MHz 
  4. ) than WiFi 5 has. However, it requires WiFi 6 compatible client. 
  5. The maximum realistic speed is 1200Mbps for an 80MHz band (2×2 MIMO client with a throughput of up to 660Mbps). 

Verdict:

WiFi 6 router is futuristic and known for its high efficiency. Moreover, it uses ‘cellular’ technology into WiFi. In a nutshell, The WiFi 6 overs 50% larger service range than WiFi 5 and WiFi 4.

3. WiFi signal: Super-boost your WiFi signal 

It is very common to have signal problems throughout our house. Sometimes we blame our internet connection, but we forget that a bad WiFi connection can cause the same. However, there are many reasons that can cause a bad WiFi signal. 

For example, if your router operates on the 2.4GHz band, chances are its airwaves may be congested with other devices nearby that use the same 2.4GHz frequency band. This is a common issue in denser urban areas. 

Fix a weak WiFi signal by using the following devices

Switch 2.4GHz to 5GHz

If your router can be operated either on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz, then it will be better to switch your router to the 5GHz band. As a result, you’ll get a faster data rate. However, you’ve to reposition your router (in the central position of your house) for the best coverage.

WAP

The second option is to install wireless access points in your home network. We use these devices to create a wireless LAN (local area network), or WLAN. 

If you live in a large building or office, you just need to project its WiFi signal to a designated location. For instance, if you want to get WiFi access in your home’s dead zone — an area out of your router’s range — you may install a WAP there using Ethernet cable.

Note: Wireless access points are essential for businesses because of their safety performance, but they’re not good for home until we live in a large building or house. Instead, you can go for WiFi repeaters or extenders, which are easier to install and cheaper option. 

Advantages of wireless Access Points:

  1. They provide broad transmission range, more reliable signal (receiving/sending) capabilities, and better performance. 
  2. It allows you to scale the number of devices supported on your existing network. 
  3. An access point doesn’t require a separate power line; we can install an outlet near the WAP.
  4. Access points are cheaper and easy to install. 

Related: Best Wireless Access Points To Boost Your Home’s WiFi Signal

Range repeater/extender:

Range repeaters/extenders are also used to extend the reach of your WiFi network. An extender is connected to a WiFi router directly. 

Unlike WAP, it doesn’t require an ethernet cable as it is a wireless connection between your router and extender. And, it should be installed where the router’s signal is strong, not in the dead zone (which is a common mistake). 

Note: People get confused when they hear the terms range extender, repeater, and booster. However, they are the same and refer to the same thing. 

Related: Best Range Extenders You Can Buy In 2021

4. Bandwidth saturation: How to implement QoS? 

It is being very a common issue as our entire family is confined to home due to the spread of COVID-19. However, we can easily stop saturating our connection if we use the QoS feature. 

QoS helps to manage and control data traffic in order to reduce its parameters, such as latency, packet loss, and jitter on the network. In other words, it can let us set priorities for specific devices and types of data.  

Related: What Is QoS And How It works?

5. Viruses and Malware: How to avoid viruses for a better WiFi signal?

Updating the router’s firmware is as essential as other WiFi signal boosting factors. We should check for software updates regularly so that your router can avoid all types of viruses like Malware (it damages devices). In short, check your router’s firmware and update for a better WiFi performance. 

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