Now a day, we have more and more devices connected to our local network and to the Internet in our homes.
This requires from us more and more bandwidth, minimal latencies, and the ability to transmit data streams in streaming without interruptions.
In an ideal world, we would have the entire home wired with a gigabit network, without interference or lack of coverage problems.
However, in most cases, the usual thing is that we have resorted to wireless links based on WiFi technologies, faster, invisible and simple to install, but from which we are probably not obtaining the desired performance in all the rooms or rooms of the home.
What can we do? How can I bring the WiFi connection to all corners and even to the garden without coverage problems?
Fighting distance, obstacles, and interference
The main problems that we are going to find in our home WiFi network are those related to interference, obstacles, and the distance to the point of origin of the signal, which will normally be the place where we place the router or main access point.
The strength of our wireless signal is inversely proportional to distance.
In other words, the further you have the wireless access point from the room where you want to extend coverage, the lower the speed and quality of the connection.
Hence the importance of correctly choosing the location of the wireless signal source.
Related Article: Most Popular Wifi Routers
When we install, or the operator’s technician comes to our house and installs the basic serial router, we usually do it near where the Network Termination Point is in ADSL connections or right next to the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) in the case of fiber optics.
If this point is not located in the center of the house, the distribution of the WiFi signal will be irregular and we will probably have problems in the most remote corners.
Hence the importance of choosing a central point in the home to locate the router, although we have to ask our operator to install the telephone, cable, or fiber line a few meters away from where it would be usual. Normally it is possible to make this request, although they will charge us an extra for each additional meter of installation that we want.
Obstacles also pose a serious problem for the proper functioning of the home WiFi network.
The more objects there are between the WiFi access point and the device we want to connect (furniture, walls, windows, ceilings, and floors if we are talking about several floors), the greater the difficulties to achieve a stable and quality link.
In most cases, it is not a factor that we can control easily, although we can try to place the router away from walls, corners and above all avoid having it embedded in a piece of furniture, surrounded by almost all its sides.
Finally, it is not advisable to leave the selection of the WiFi channels to chance or to a predetermined configuration in the router software.
These are the “lanes” through which our data will travel in each frequency band and if they are saturated or present interferences due to the connections of the neighbors, we will suffer access problems, lower performance, cuts, or decreases in browsing speed.
It does not matter if we change the operator’s router for a very expensive one from another brand, that we buy a more powerful computer or that we install new-generation optical fiber.
If these interferences in the WiFi channels are very high, we will probably never achieve a good speed. It can be fixed? Well, not always, but I recommend you check how saturated your WiFi channels are and try some changes before running to the store to buy external devices that may not solve the problem.
Pingback: The Biggest Cyber Security Threat - CyberSecGuide.com
Pingback: How to know if someone hacked my Home WIFI? - CyberSecGuide.com