Americans are spending more time at home these days. Some are working from home, many are schooling from home, and even those who do not fit either of those categories are finding themselves at home much more.
If your home network’s bandwidth seems to be stretched extra thin these days as you navigate so many people at home at once trying to work, learn, or be entertained, we have got 5 simple tips to give your home network a boost.
5 Tips to Enhance your Home Network
Relocate Your Router
Your router may have been in the perfect location for your home pre-Covid. Maybe on the side of the house where the living room is located, or up by your media room. However, amid Covid, bandwidth is being demanded all over your house and you need to find a more central location for your router. This is our #1 tip because it is a common culprit, takes a few minutes to change, and costs you nothing to do so.
Benefit: High
Cost: $0
Change the Channel
Did you know that your router has multiple channels? Similar to walkie talkies and HAM Radios, your router has multiple channels available to it, and the more networks on the same channel, the more network interference you can expect. Changing the channel on your router is another no cost option that is easy to try.
Changing the channel on your router is especially beneficial to those living in apartment complexes, condominiums, near businesses, or in downtown areas. We suggest you play around with the different channels and pay attention to the performance of your home network on each until you find the channel that produces the best performance.
Benefit: Medium
Cost: $0
Plug It In
For any of your in-place devices (think PCs, XBOX, Roku etc.), we strongly suggest you go old school, dust off your ethernet cable, and plug it in directly to your router. This will give you the strongest connection and will give your WiFi bandwidth some breathing room to perform better on devices that are not near the router.
Benefit: High
Cost: $0
Firm-Up Your Firmware
Just like every other device you own, your router requires periodic software updates known as firmware. Updating your firmware has become easier in the last few years. However, we must warn you that the ease of updating your firmware will depend entirely on the router you have. If you find yourself ready to throw your router through a window, give our virtual service techs a call to walk you through the process.
When you operate on old software, your device is going to act, well, old. So, if you notice your network speed underperforming, this is a great option for troubleshooting. However, even if your network speed is stellar, you should still update your firmware which will apply necessary security patches to your router and home network security.
Benefit: Medium (in terms of bandwidth only)
Cost: $0
Explore Extenders
If you have a large home, a sprawling ranch, or multiple levels, and find that your signal just does not seem to stretch across the square footage like you need it to, we suggest purchasing an extender. WiFi Extenders are also commonly referred to as WiFi Boosters and they do exactly that: boost your WiFi signal. It will capture and rebroadcast your WiFi to areas of your home where there is weak or no signal.
Benefit: High
Cost: $40 – $100