Simple tricks that will optimize the wireless signal even in the corners of our home that are most opaque to electromagnetic waves.
Until now I didn’t care because we only used the internet to watch series and for the kids to play video games, but now that I need it I’m quite desperate, because in the living room, with the children, there is no quiet, and in the office there is no signal. Can you help me? I’m desperate”.
In the main cities of the nation we can enjoy fiber Internet, with speeds of 100 to 300 and even 600 megabits per second (mbps), something that fifteen years ago, when having two or three “megabytes” was a business thing, sounded to science fiction. However, there is a problem that accompanies us throughout the digital revolution: the Wi-Fi signal is not as stable as it should be and as soon as we move a few meters away from the router antenna, it drops in intensity from those supposed hundreds of mbps to only tens.
Why is this happening? What the hell have we done wrong? An important part of the problem derives from the fact that, in the case of wireless waves, the bandwidth that the access provider assures us is theoretical , something that does not happen when we are connected by Ethernet cable. The saturation of the electromagnetic space also intervenes these days when we are all teleworking . However, the loss is not so much that the intensity of the width is reduced by up to ten times or more.
How to make a map of Wi-Fi strength at home
There are more elements involved, and to get around them, there is nothing like making a map of the intensity of the Wi-Fi signal in our home. Surely, if we measure the signal just a few meters from the router’s antenna, we will see that the width decreases considerably compared to when we do it a few centimeters away.
To map the house we can do the test with a mobile to which we have installed an application such as Speedtest , available for both Android and iOS . If we open the application from the mobile and click on ‘Start the test’ next to the antenna we will obtain a result, let’s put 60 mbps of the theoretical 600 mbps. Then we move a few meters away and even enter another room, and we perform the test again: the result can be 30 mbps.
If we go to the kitchen, next to the refrigerator or the smoke extractor, we will see that the intensity drops to about 15 mbps. If there is a metal sink in between and we put the mobile inside it to do the test, we will be surprised that the result will plummet to about seven “megabytes”. Moreover, if we turn on the microwave at the same time, it may not reach a single mbps even though the kitchen is a few meters from the router.
To have a reference point of what would be optimal, we will do the test from a computer that has the network cable connected . In the case of fiber, we will see that we have all the contracted power. In the case of ADSL there may be a 10% loss, but not more.
Why is this happening?
The Wi-Fi signal is affected in a house by an environment full of electromagnetic obstacles of all kinds and also in competition with other electromagnetic waves that live in the area. Two examples: microwave ovens and old cordless phones, which work at 2.45 Ghz, surely interfering with our Wi-Fi signal. Hence the intensity dips in our signal map.
Also certain remote controls, devices that work with Bluetooth and are in permanent connection, and even massive data transmission systems such as ChromeCast or AirPlay, can disturb Wi-Fi. If , to make matters worse, we find ourselves in the urban center of a city , where we can coincide with hundreds of signals coming from the street, from neighbors or from nearby offices, we must accept that in our house the Wi-Fis are not comfortable. Consequently, we will resign ourselves to optimizing the intensity as much as possible.
Solutions to adopt
1. The place in the house where we place the router is important
If the router is at one end of a house with a long distribution and a central corridor, as Bruno surely is, it should not surprise us that at the opposite end there is hardly any signal. If, in addition , between the router and the point where we want to receive the signal, the kitchen , with all the metallic surface appliances, the Wi-Fi will suffer a very important drop because it will bounce.
Therefore, whenever possible, we should place the router in a central point of the house, away from the kitchen and from devices that emit waves. In Bruno’s case, maybe a good idea would be to buy a very long Ethernet cable and take the router with it to the office during the day, and connect it with a shorter one in the living room at night.
2. Run away from windows, load-bearing walls or boundary partitions
We may be giving away 50% of our Wi-Fi signal to the neighbor simply because we have the router next to a window or an outside wall. The simplest solution is to relocate the device, further into the house. A home remedy, if we cannot move the device, is to place a film of aluminum foil behind the antenna, which will protect us from external waves and redirect all the flow that we initially lost.
3. The higher the better
Due to the spherical configuration of the waves, if the router is in a lower part of our home, it will run into numerous obstacles and will give a good part of the signal to the floor of the neighbor below. It is time, therefore, to place it in a high area, so that it avoids obstacles and reaches us better at all corners.
4. Change the serial router for a dual one
A dual router is one that works in the 802.11n standard, and therefore is capable of broadcasting in the 2.4 Ghz frequency or in the 5 Ghz, which is the one used by professional routers, which is much less saturated and is not interfered with by emissions from household appliances. Most of the new clients of the access providers have them, but the old ones can continue installed in the 2.5 Ghz . Dual routers are found on Amazon for less than $200 and are fairly easy to set up.
5. Use PLC sockets
The best alternative when there is no way to move the router from the place where it was installed is to buy a PLC socket system. This system is based on the transmission of the internet through the domestic electrical wiring, so that there is a main plug that is connected by Ethernet to the router and another or others that we can plug in different parts of the house. By activating them, the network flow will go to where they are, which will then broadcast it in the form of a new Wi-Fi signal. Again, they can be purchased on Amazon for less than 100 euros and they are really effective, as well as easy to install.
