Wi-Fi Performance Boosting Tips

Wi-Fi is one of the most important part of the computer world now. But its speed performance, signal reception, and other issues at times can be very frustrating.

Latest Wi-Fi device

Wireless A, B, and G are old now while wireless N gives you the fastest speed around. But you will need both a wireless N router and a wireless N card in your computer if you want the full speed boost.

Location Matters

If you want the best signal, you need to put your wi-fi device out in the open, free of any walls and obstructions. Point the antennas vertically, and elevate the router if you can. Make sure it is in the center of your house, so you have the best coverage possible throughout your home.

Neighbor Rivalry

Your neighbors’ routers may be interfering with yours and causing the signal to degrade. Wireless routers can operate on a number of different channels; use a tool like Wi-Fi Stumbler or Wi-Fi Analyzer to find the perfect channel in your house with little interference.

Other Devices

Routers are not only the ones that cause interference for another router. Cordless phones, microwaves, and other appliances can muck with your devices’signal as well. So make sure that you keep your router away from these devices.

Follow Priority

If someone in your house regularly video chats, plays online games or downloads torrent files, they may be hogging the bandwidth and making the internet slower for everyone else. In that case, you can use something called Quality of Service or QoSto prioritize certain applications over others so that the most important applications get the bandwidth they deserve. Check your router’s manual for setting it up.

Security

You must use WPA2 security with AES encryption. Using WPA or WEP security withTKIP encryption will dramatically reduce bandwidth. Homes should use the personal (PSK) mode, which is the easiest to setup and businesses should use the enterprise (RADIUS) mode which requires an external authentication server.

Change Default

Higher speeds of wireless N and AC can only be achieved by using the 40MHz wide channels. For wireless N (and possibly wireless AC), the default channel-width set on routers is only 20MHz. But you can login to the control panel of the router and in the wireless settings change the channel-width to auto 20/40MHz.

-   askdirt