4 Ways to Improve Your Wireless Range
Imagine only being able to use your phone to scroll your social feeds in your living room. Maybe you can only make voice calls or video call your family when you are stationary and not moving around your home. Or, how about only being able to work from your laptop on the main floor but not up in your bedroom. Is this something you feel you can relate to? This is probably because your WiFi range is too short.
Today, wireless range and coverage in your home is important. Not being able to roam your home with your devices is a problem. That’s the whole point to having wireless coverage and connection, right? Well, if your WiFi range doesn’t reach every corner of your home, then you are tethered to certain areas. In this situation, you might as well have your devices connected via ethernet cable.
There are ways to improve your wireless range. And most of the improvements have to do with learning about your router and monitoring its performance. Here are five things you can try:
Centrally locate your wireless router
Face it, your router isn’t the centerpiece decoration in your home. Chances are, you have it tucked away a back room in your home to keep it out of sight. This can limit your WiFi coverage.
Moving your router out of the corner and into a more centrally located position in your home is one of the easiest and cheapest things you can do to improve your WiFi range. If your router has antennas, they are likely omni-directional, which means that they spread the signal in every direction. However, if you have the router tucked in a corner, it may struggle to reach the opposite corner of your home.
Take your wireless router off of the floor
Again, hiding your router isn’t optimal for wireless coverage in your home. This includes positioning it down low or on the floor.
A wireless router works best if it has a direct line of sight to your devices. Being positioned too low can be an obstacle. Try placing your router on a table or shelf in a central location.
Reduce wireless obstacles and interference
First, make sure that your wireless router is not hidden behind thick walls or near large metal objects. These things act as wireless obstacles and interference.
If you have removed all physical obstacles, you can try upgrading to a dual-band wireless router. Dual-band WiFi is a great feature to look for with a router. Dual-band wireless routers work on two separate wireless bands to avoid interreference from other appliances and devices.
Upgrade your network with Network Adapters and Extenders
Have you tried all of these steps, but you are still not getting the coverage that you need? Here are a few other devices that can help:
You can use MoCA Network Adapters to get the internet connection to more rooms than only where your router is located. MoCA Network Adapters use the coaxial TV wiring that already exists in your house, giving you the reliability of a wired connection without being wired. All you need to do is connect one MoCA Network Adapter to a coax outlet near your router to start the MoCA network. Then, add another MoCA Network Adapter device to other coax outlets in your home.
You can also use a Wireless Extender to improve your WiFi range. A WiFi network extender helps extend the range of your wireless network to the far corners and hard-to-reach spaces in your home.
Recap on improving your wireless range
Improving your wireless range is more possible than you might think, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. You can do to improve your current set up by following these tips and tricks today:
- Centrally locate your wireless router
- Move your wireless router off of the floor
- Reduce wireless obstacles and interference
- Upgrade your network with MoCA adapters
- Upgrade your network with WiFi extenders
Learn more tips and tricks to upgrade your WiFi following ScreenBeam’s featured Industry Articles or the ScreenBeam blog.