For a lot of us this may be quite a distressing image:
Especially when you know you're close to the wifi router and should be getting a better signal. Thankfully there are some easy troubleshooting options that can boost or improve your wifi signal. Generally speaking there are 3 things that influence your wifi:
- Position
- Interference
- Hardware
POSITION
Wifi signals radiate outwards which means that the optimal place for a wifi router is central to a room. The router should not be tucked away in a corner somewhere, ideally in an open space not confined by walls or furniture. Wifi is reflected by metal so keep it away from metal cabinets. Concrete is also a wifi signal's enemy, wood allows for better propagation.
You will need to experiment with the placement of the router to determine the best location. Android phones have useful apps that monitor and graph wifi signal strength in real time so you can easily determine whether a new position has gained you some signal strength,
INTERFERENCE
Wifi signals are very susceptible to interference so any that you can avoid or reduce will instantly improve the coverage. Interference can come from other wifi routers or other household devices such as cordless home phones. These phones share the same frequency band (2.4GHz) so the wifi router competes with your phone system. To determine if it is in fact interfering you can simply unplug the phones and test again.
The other source can be neighboring wifi routers. Obviously they operate in the same frequency, the only thing that separates your wifi from theirs is the channel within the frequency band. There are 11 channels but only 3 of these can realistically be used. Channel 1, 6 and 11 are the only non-overlapping channels. So if your neighbor is using channel 1 then you should use 6 or 11. If your area is saturated with wifi access points then you will need to compromise by selecting the channel that is less common between all the detectable access points, based on signal strength or proximity to you.
Thankfully this is quite easy with the right software. WifiInfoView is a handy program that show you a list of detected wifi access points and their accompanying attributes such as signal strength and channel:
Sort the access points list by Signal Quality or Channel, from there you can survey the surrounding access points and their potential to interfere with yours. Make a note of the channels of the top 3 or 4 access points and adjust your channel to one that is not used or least used (choosing between 1, 6 or 11).
HARDWARE
The actual router or access point that you're using will provide some options to troubleshoot your weak wifi as well. Always ensure that you're using the best encryption you can (WPA2). This is both good for security and for speed.
You can also experiment with different frequency bands. The default is normally 2.4GHz but you can also choose to use the 5GHz spectrum. The 5GHz spectrum's main advantage is the fact that is not nearly as crowded as the 2.4GHz spectrum. It can also support higher speeds. The downside is that its reach is not as far as 2.4GHz. So if you have a situation with too many surrounding interfering access points you can switch to 5GHz which even though it may not reach as far can give you a better overall connection due to less interference.
Lastly not all access points are created equal so it's well worth upgrading to a different router or access point that may provide a better signal or is more compatible with your devices.
