How to Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal: 12 Tips to Improve Wi-Fi Speed

We’ll tell you 12 different ways to improve your internet speed.

From housewives to CEOs of big companies, we all want to improve Wi-Fi performance. Why wouldn’t it be better? Improved Wi-Fi performance provides better video streaming, voice or video calls, and faster data transfer.

If you’re trying to expand, strengthen or speed up your Wi-Fi network and maximize Wi-Fi performance, you’re in the right place! In this article, we’ll talk about 12 tips on how to increase the Wi-Fi signal.

Optimize the Position of Your Wi-Fi Source

Optimize Router Position

You can pair online with many articles that tell you about the benefits of placing your Wi-Fi router in a central location at home or at work. If you start by positioning the Wi-Fi distributor in the center of your home or office and ensuring it is equally distant to anywhere, you’re taking the right steps.

However, if most people and devices to connect to the Wi-Fi network are in one area (the waiting area of the doctor’s office, a living room filled with smart devices, etc.), it makes more sense to place your Wi-Fi router there.

Use a Wi-Fi Signal Booster

Wi-Fi Repeater and Signal Booster

Wi-Fi signal booster devices work by upgrading your existing Wi-Fi signal provided by your router. These signal boosters minimize “dead spots” in your Wi-Fi range.

Wi-Fi signal booster devices are divided into two different categories: Wi-Fi signal expanders and Wi-Fi repeaters.

  • Wi-Fi repeaters: These devices receive the current Wi-Fi signal and transmit it again at the same power. This is a way to increase the Wi-Fi signal, but it has the disadvantage that it adds delay to the connection.
  • Wi-Fi extenders: These devices work the same way as Wi-Fi repeaters, but re-transmit the Wi-Fi signal to a different channel. This results in a reduction of some delay effects when using a Wi-Fi repeater.

Upgrade Your Wi-Fi Router

Wi-Fi standards can be hard to keep up with. Until recently, identifying different Wi-Fi speeds and frequencies required decoding different 802.11 standards. Fortunately, with the release of Wi-Fi 6 (a.k.a. 802.11ax) Wi-Fi versions are being categorized into easy to understand numerical versions (Wi-Fi 1, Wi-Fi 2, etc.). A higher Wi-Fi generally implies better maximum Wi-Fi speed and performance. Of course, your Wi-Fi client devices need to support the upgraded Wi-Fi versions to experience benefits.

Today, you’re likely to be looking at Wi-Fi routers that support one or more of these standards:

  • Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n): Released in 2009, it supports theoretical speeds of up to 300 Mbps (Megabits per second), 2.4 GHz (Gigahertz) & 5 GHz bands.
  • Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac): Officially released in 2014, Wi-Fi 5 supports maximum theoretical speeds of 1.3 Gbps (Gigabits per second) and 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz bands.
  • Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax): Released in 2019 Wi-Fi 6 is designed to support dense Wi-Fi environments and can deliver a max speed upwards of 10 Gbps. It also supports 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz bands.

A note on maximum Wi-Fi speeds: As for the Verge article on this Wi-Fi 6, when it comes to maximum Wi-Fi speeds really hard. While reviewing Wi-Fi features, please do not ignore them.

Upgrade Your PC Hardware

The Wi-Fi adapter on your PC can cause Wi-Fi speeds to drop if it’s an old product. But don’t worry, fortunately, you don’t need to buy a new computer to improve Wi-Fi performance. You can increase your computer’s internet speed by adding a new Wi-Fi network interface card that supports a modern Wi-Fi protocol. There are many USB Wi-Fi adapters that make your PC’s wireless hardware as simple as connecting a USB device.

Reduce Wi-Fi Traffic on Your Network

This Wi-Fi enhancer tip is actually quite simple and low-tech but can be effective. Simply put, make sure you have only Wi-Fi devices on your network that need bandwidth. By reducing the amount of bandwidth consumed by non-critical devices, it is possible to improve Wi-Fi performance for your remaining devices.

Change Your Wi-Fi Channel or Frequency

If there are devices that emit a large number of Wi-Fi signals around you, this may cause too much interference, which may reduce your Wi-Fi performance. This is because there is a limited number of Wi-Fi channels that you can use to send data. In high-traffic areas, different networks, such as office buildings or apartment complexes, often overlap, but if you change your Wi-Fi channel or frequency by taking precautions, you can avoid some conflicts and maximize your Wi-Fi performance.

Update Your Wi-Fi Router Firmware

Update Router Firmware
Network conflicts that adversely affect Wi-Fi performance can often be generated by old-fashioned Wi-Fi router software. You can take advantage of bug fixes and feature improvements by updating the firmware of your Wi-Fi router. This shows that Wi-Fi router firmware redesigns offer an incredibly fast and free approach to improving Wi-Fi playback.

Strategically add wireless access points (WAPs)

WAPs basically give you similar advantages to Wi-Fi signal boosters. However, the main difference is that WAPs connect to the network using a physical cable connection. The advantage of establishing the network with this physical connection is that the latency of the Wi-Fi boosters of WAPs is considerably shortened.

Use Wi-Fi QoS

Quality of Service or QoS enables you to organize some traffic over others. QoS settings are arranged at your Wi-Fi source (generally a Wi-Fi router). Setting QoS rules enable you to guarantee your most basic applications are organized when information is sent over your Wi-Fi arrange. For instance, on the off chance that you are a gamer, you might need to organize traffic for your preferred games over all other traffic. So also, a business may wish to give the most noteworthy need to VoIP (Voice over IP) calls.

Remove Obstructions to Your Wi-Fi Signal

Wi-Fi signals are actually just radio waves. This means they need to use the air to communicate. The more physical obstacles between the Wi-Fi source and the Wi-Fi client, the worse the signal. Otherwise, the more obstacles you remove, the more you can improve performance.

Use Stronger Wi-Fi Antennas

Since it is based on radio waves on the basis of Wi-Fi signals, it is transmitted through the antenna. Of course, as you can tell by looking at many Wi-Fi devices, not all of them support aftermarket parts and upgrades on their antennas. However, upgrading antennas for devices that support it is a fast and cost-effective way to improve your Wi-Fi performance.

Use 3rd Party Wi-Fi Firmware

If you are not afraid of taking risks, there is no problem to install a third-party open source router firmware such as OpenWrt or DD-Wrt. One of these software may increase your Wi-Fi performance. For example, a 3rd-party router firmware may allow you to increase sending power or unlock other features. Of course, the risk of operating the router beyond the manufacturer’s recommendations must be considered before using a 3rd party firmware.