How to Speed Up Your Wireless Network

Editors Notes:

This article was adapted and updated from our original article for generic Internet congestion.

Note: This article is written from the perspective of a single wireless router, however all the optimizations explained below also apply to more complex wireless mesh networks.

It occurred to me today, that in all the years I have been posting about common ways to speed up your Internet, I have never really written a plain and simple consumer explanation dedicated to how a bandwidth controller can speed a congested wireless network. After all, it seems intuitive, that a bandwidth controller is something an ISP would use to slow down and regulate a users speed, not make it faster; but there can be a beneficial side to a smart bandwidth controller that will make a user’s experience on a network appear much faster.

What causes slowness on a wireless shared link?

Everything you do on your Internet creates a connection from inside your network to the Internet, and all these connections compete for the limited amount of bandwidth on your wireless router.

Quite a bit of slow wireless service problems are due to contention on overloaded access points. Even if you are the only user on the network, a simple update to your virus software running in the background can dominate your wireless link. A large download often will cause everything else you try (email, browsing) to come to a crawl.

Your wireless router provides first-come, first-serve service to all the wireless devices trying to access the Internet. To make matters worse, the heavier users (the ones with the larger persistent downloads) tend to get more than their fair share of wireless time slots. Large downloads are like the school yard bully – they tend to butt in line, and not play fair.

Also, what many people may not realize, is that even with a high rate of service to the Internet, your access point, or wireless back haul to the Internet, may create a bottle neck at a much lower throughput level than what your optimal throughput is rate for.

So how can a bandwidth controller make my wireless network faster?

A smart bandwidth controller will analyze all your wireless connections on the fly. It will then selectively take away some bandwidth from the bullies. Once the bullies are removed, other applications will get much needed wireless time slots out to the Internet, thus speeding them up.

What application benefits most when a bandwidth controller is deployed on a wireless network?

The most noticeable beneficiary will be your VoIP service. VoIP calls typically don’t use that much bandwidth, but they are incredibly sensitive to a congested link. Even small quarter-second gaps in a VoIP call can make a conversation unintelligible.

Can a bandwidth controller make my YouTube videos play without interruption?

In some cases yes, but generally no. A YouTube video will require anywhere from 500kbs to 1000kbs of your link, and is often the bully on the link; however in some instances there are bigger bullies crushing YouTube performance, and a bandwidth controller can help in those instances.

Can a home user or small business with a slow wireless connection take advantage of a bandwidth controller?

Yes, but the choice is a time-cost-benefit decision. For about $1,600 there are some products out there that come with support that can solve this issue for you, but that price is hard to justify for the home user – even a business user sometimes.

Note: I am trying to keep this article objective and hence am not recommending anything in particular.

On a home-user network it might be easier just to police it yourself, shutting off background applications, and unplugging the kids’ computers when you really need to get something done. A bandwidth controller must sit between your modem/router and all the users on your network.

Related Article Ten Things to Consider When Choosing a Bandwidth Shaper.

Related Article Hidden Nodes on your wireless network

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