Whether or not you are working from residence, binge-watching Netflix, or streaming your gameplay on Twitch, there is not any such factor as an excessive amount of bandwidth. Even when you’ve got gigabit fiber mainlined into your router, everybody may use assist getting quicker web round the home. It would not matter when you’ve got the very best wires outdoors your home—eliminating subpar speeds and Wi-Fi lifeless zones is basically as much as you. Listed here are some methods to troubleshoot and, hopefully, enhance the standard of the Wi-Fi inside and outdoors your home.
Try our different networking guides, together with the Finest Mesh Routers, Finest Wi-Fi Routers, Finest Dwelling Workplace Gear, and explainers, like how one can safe your own home Wi-Fi community, router purchasing ideas, and Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 breakdowns.
Up to date Could 2025: We added particulars to most sections, together with tips about Ethernet, Wi-Fi bands, and adjusting antennas.
1. Transfer Your Router
That router within the closet? Not a good suggestion. Partitions, cabinets, and even bookshelves can doubtlessly dampen your Wi-Fi sign. Bodily shifting the router could make an actual distinction to web speeds and the way far wi-fi transmissions attain. The proper spot will rely upon your own home, however attempt to not disguise your router in a nook, underneath a cabinet, or inside a drawer—the extra central and outstanding it’s, the higher. For more information, learn our information on the place to place your router for the very best residence Wi-Fi.
You would possibly have to get inventive with cabling to get your router in a greater place, however it will likely be definitely worth the effort. The objective is to get your primary units—consoles, laptops, and so forth—as shut as potential to your router. Units that do not want fairly a lot bandwidth, like good thermostats, do not should be a precedence when it comes to bodily proximity.
For that reason, it is price contemplating the look of your router when buying. In case you purchase a hideous router, you’re extra prone to put it in a closet. Work out the very best spot given the situation of your high-priority units, then think about what is going to look good to you in that spot. If you do not have a flat floor close to the very best space, mount your router midway up a wall. If potential, maintain it away from different units that use electromagnetic waves; that features child displays, wi-fi keyboards, and microwaves.
Routers have antennas, both inside or exterior, and even simply altering the angle can affect the energy of your Wi-Fi somewhere else round your own home, so do not be afraid to waggle these antennas and see if there’s an enchancment. For routers with inside antennas, even turning the router round or angling it in another way could make a distinction.
2. Use an Ethernet Cable
It is simple to overlook that wires nonetheless exist! We do not, it is in our title, however it must be mentioned: You do not want Wi-Fi. A wired Ethernet connection to your router is quicker and extra secure than Wi-Fi, and it may well’t be affected by different units or giant fish tanks. The draw back is that it limits the place your units may be, and it is much less handy.