It’s all around you. Chances are, your life is becoming filled with Wi-Fi devices, all of which are competing for your router’s attention. If there’s not enough signal strength to go around, it can be a dreadfully frustrating situation and cause strain on your day to day activity. There are so many factors that can play a part, so understanding what causes low signal strength and things you can do to improve it, might help you overcome many issues before ultimately picking up the phone for customer service. So what can you do to test the signal strength in various locations in your home, and what is there to be done with the low signal areas, you ask?
Let’s start with verifying your issues are coming from your Wi-Fi. Sluggish internet browsing, interrupted streaming, Wi-Fi signals cutting in and out, or just complete dead zone areas can wreak havoc on your life when you rely on these devices and services to complete your tasks.
Since Wi-Fi is like an umbrella encompassing your home, it goes without saying that the more obstacles that get in the way of that umbrella spanning out, the weaker the signal is going to be past those obstacles. With this, you’ll have to expect that the rooms in your house that are farthest away from the router or have more walls or floors between them, are going to provide the weakest signal. This also goes for rooms that have other Wi-Fi devices in them or standing between it and the router. Some devices, especially some phones, don’t play well with others and suck up all the fun for the others.
So what can you do? First and foremost, put your router in a central location that most directly covers the main areas you will be accessing the signal the most from in your home. Remember the umbrella and stick the handle right in the center to cover the majority of your house. You can also make it a habit to update your router’s firmware. Some devices have an update button, while others require you to go online to the manufacturers website. These updates can increase performance, give better features, and apply security updates. If you have a dual-band router, you’ll see a 2.4 GHz and a 5 GHz option under your wireless setup options. If you change the frequency settings to the 5 GHz it could help improve your signal because it is not as commonly used as the 2.4 GHz. Ultimately, you might want to just update your hardware. You can’t expect amazing things from outdated devices, so maybe it’s time for a replacement router to ensure you’re getting optimal signal strength. Instead of replacing the entire router, you could just replace the antenna first or get a wireless range extender. Both will help boost and spread your signal more efficiently. The wireless extender is great if you have thick walls or many rooms that the signal has to pass through.
Side note, if you’re curious about mapping out the Wi-Fi signal strength throughout your entire house, you may be interested to know that Roomba will soon be coming out with a new version of these little vacuums that will do just that! While it is intended to let you know which rooms it might struggle to connect in by showing the signal strength in each room, it will, nonetheless, act as a gauge to let you know how well your Wi-Fi is doing across the board!