The 10 Best Ways to Boost Your Home Wifi
Wifi is one of the most important developments in the evolution of the internet—no one wants to be chained to a desktop—but it’s also one of the most frustrating. If you’re plagued by slow speeds, bad reception, and other wifi issues, here are 10 ways you can power up the wifi in your home.
This story ran in August of 2012, with original reporting by Whitson Gordon. It was updated in August of 2017 with additional reporting by Patrick Austin, and updated in August of 2018 with additional reporting by David Murphy.
#1. Switch to an 802.11ac router
If you’re still using an older 802.11g or 802.11n router—“Wireless G” or “Wireless N,” as they’re commonly known—it’s time to upgrade to something new. One of the best ways to make sure your network is as fast and reliable as possible is to use up-to-date hardware. Buying a new router might be confusing, given all the different wireless classifications, prices, and features. So, here’s a quick overview of the basics:
I placed the router in my room, located in the corner of my house, and dragged my laptop out to the kitchen a few rooms away. This is roughly at the halfway point of the router’s range, based on lots of other testing I did when I was the networking expert at Wirecutter.
When I connected to the router’s 5GHz network—to get those sweet 802.11ac speeds—and ran a quick benchmark using LAN Speed Test, here were my speeds:
REST OF THE STORY
https://lifehacker.com/the-10-best-ways-to-boost-your-home-wifi-5931743
Wifi is one of the most important developments in the evolution of the internet—no one wants to be chained to a desktop—but it’s also one of the most frustrating. If you’re plagued by slow speeds, bad reception, and other wifi issues, here are 10 ways you can power up the wifi in your home.
This story ran in August of 2012, with original reporting by Whitson Gordon. It was updated in August of 2017 with additional reporting by Patrick Austin, and updated in August of 2018 with additional reporting by David Murphy.
#1. Switch to an 802.11ac router
If you’re still using an older 802.11g or 802.11n router—“Wireless G” or “Wireless N,” as they’re commonly known—it’s time to upgrade to something new. One of the best ways to make sure your network is as fast and reliable as possible is to use up-to-date hardware. Buying a new router might be confusing, given all the different wireless classifications, prices, and features. So, here’s a quick overview of the basics:
- If you’re buying a newer router, you have no reason to not go 802.11ac. Odds are good you have a Wireless AC device if you’ve purchased a new smartphone, tablet, or laptop at some point over the past few years.
- Even if you don’t have a Wireless AC device, think about how likely you are to upgrade your router again at any point over the next few years. If the answer is “zero,” then get the best 802.11ac router you can get right now. Your future devices will thank you, and you’ll probably see some kind of improvement in speed and range compared to a much-older 802.11n router. Or, if you’re really old-school, a 802.11g router. (Ew.)
- By purchasing a new router, you’ll likely have a longer lifeline of support (firmware updates) to help prevent against exploits and other unpleasant issues. Your old 802.11n router probably isn’t being updated by its manufacturer anymore, and that’s not good.
- An 802.11ac router might not give you more range than a 802.11n router, depending on how badass your previous router was, but it will give you stronger performance for 802.11ac devices farther out. Where you were once hobbling by at 10 Mbps, you might find that you’re able to download files at 40 or 50 Mbps (for example). More on that in a bit.
- 802.11ac routers that can do all kinds of crazy things nowadays. You can pick up a tri-band router that automatically manages how devices connect, to give each the best chance at great speeds. You can ride at the front of the technological wave and pick up 4x4, 802.11ad, or MU-MIMO routers that zero devices you own can take full advantage of just yet. You can buy routers that integrate with IFTTT and flip your lights on and off as you bounce on and off your network. Et cetera.
- For most people looking to cover a reasonably sized home or apartment, a strong AC1200 or AC1750 router is probably sufficient—definitely the latter if you own newer MacBook Pros, for example, which support AC1750's full speeds.
I placed the router in my room, located in the corner of my house, and dragged my laptop out to the kitchen a few rooms away. This is roughly at the halfway point of the router’s range, based on lots of other testing I did when I was the networking expert at Wirecutter.
When I connected to the router’s 5GHz network—to get those sweet 802.11ac speeds—and ran a quick benchmark using LAN Speed Test, here were my speeds:
REST OF THE STORY
https://lifehacker.com/the-10-best-ways-to-boost-your-home-wifi-5931743
