I spent a day studying WiFi and how to improve it. Here are my best notes.
I recently realized that my WiFi speeds were quite slow. I knew very little about WiFi, so I decided to take notes, which I have now compiled into this post. I personally feel that Medium has too much ‘motivational’ or weak content, and the blog Scroll (plus this post) is designed to change that by providing hard knowledge that you’ll use, no motivation required.
Onto my notes.
WiFi: A facility allowing computers, smartphones, or other devices to connect to the Internet or communicate with one another wirelessly within a particular area.
The name comes from a group of companies, the Wi-Fi Alliance. That’s not really a definition, even though that’s what the dictionary gives, but here are all the details about wifi, including technical ones.
- Wifi Basics:
— Transmitted through radio waves/microwaves. Because many devices use radio waves and can be disturbed, there are only two main frequencies for wifi: 2.4 gigahertz and 5.0 gigahertz.
— Your microwave can disrupt your wifi.
— If you could see it, wifi would look like rapid waves, tightly spaced, rippling, and changing over time.
2. Notes on improving WiFi connection:
— If you have a router, face the main stick-like part perfectly vertical. Occasionally, wifi connection might falter for an unknown reason, and a way of fixing that is by unplugging it and turning it back on.
— For a personal router, I was able to vastly improve my signal strength by walking in, unplugging it, turning the main sticklike part more vertical, and plugging it back in. This increased signal strength from 2–3 bars to full.
3. Router Placement: Imagine a globe or sphere surrounding your router. If you’re inside that area, then you can receive a wifi signal. If not, no signal. It decreases the farther out you go.
— An ideal spot is a ceiling in the middle of a house. Placing on a desk is also workable, and so is placing against a wall. Corners aren’t great. My personal router is not in a good spot, surrounded by walls.
— Also, don’t place it nearby solid concrete, stone, or brick walls, as the radio waves won’t penetrate.
4. Firmware: Sometimes routers get glitchy firmware. So, get your router admin login and check to see if you have new firmware. If you can’t tell, go to the latest firmware and download it. Or, revert to an older version, which could potentially stop bugs if they just started.
5. Change Channel: Most routers support 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz frequencies. Older routers might only support 2.4 GHz, however. This is common with 802.11b and 802.11g. Newer routers support 802.11n or 802.11ac. (If you have no idea what these numbers mean, that’s okay. It’s just types of WiFi.)
— If you have an older router, scan the area. You won’t see phones or microwaves, but you will see other people’s networks. The 2.4 GHz only supports 1, 6, and 11. If there are a lot of networks… that’s bad. You should honestly upgrade your router.
— But you can still improve your wifi. Separate your router into two types: 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz, so it’s like you have two different networks for your respective devices. This will require a YouTube tutorial. Use 2.4 GHz for older devices.
— 5. Other Wifi Channel details that might be important: The 5.0 GHz has 23 channels, compared with the 3 channels of the 2.4 GHz. 5.0 GHz also has naturally higher speeds, and it reduces the amount of battery your phone will use connecting to it. Lastly, 5.0 GHz does not travel as far. It’s denser, if that’s a way that helps you think about it.
6. Adjust or Buy Antennas: Another thing to try, probably first, is adjusting your antennas. This can have different results. If the rod is pointed vertically, then the wifi will be directed more horizontally.
— If the wifi rod is pointed more horizontally, then the wifi will be more up and down. Buying an external antenna can help. But this only works if you can unscrew your current antenna. High gain antennas are a lot more potent and allow the signal to travel farther.
7. Powerline or Repeater: This is cool. The powerline is basically two plugs that use your house’s electrical grid. You attach a network cable into the back of the plug and the back of your router. You place the other powerline in a spot that isn’t getting the signal (like where my computer was).
— Powerlines are super effective if there are a ton of walls in the way and you can’t get wifi in a specific room or area. SUPER USEFUL.
— Repeaters are fairly effective, but nowhere near as good as a Powerline: A repeater simply amplifies a signal, which will boost your WiFi in an area. It won’t spread your WiFi around the same way, however, and isn’t as cost-effective.
8. Naming: Lastly, try to hide the name of your network. This will stop people from connecting to it. The only way they can see it is to type in the name. This won’t deter an experienced hacker, but it will stop 95% of people anyways.
— Anyone can attempt to access a WiFi, which is a large vulnerability. WPA/WPA2 (WiFi Protected Access) does help significantly and should always be used with your WiFi. Chances are, you don’t need to worry about that.
So, those are my WiFi notes. I’ve done a pretty significant amount of research and cut out a lot of fake (or very ineffective) methods, like putting tinfoil around your router. This post isn’t payment-locked or anything like a lot of Medium, and I only ask that you give me some claps and maybe a nice comment.
Scroll (the blog I’m writing this for) is designed to create content like this that values actual knowledge over motivational speeches or clickbait. So, if you like it, please follow it, and I’ll continue to put out knowledge.
Speaking of that, I am also considering making a post on the vulnerabilities of WiFi. I find it fascinating. If this post gets over two hundred claps (basically four upvotes, heh) I’ll make the next post.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully I’ve convinced a few of you to go check out your router and improve your WiFi connection.
Have a nice week!
-Michael Soareverix
