Slow Internet can be annoying. Either you’re checking your social media, surfing the internet or streaming videos, slow internet will interrupt your tasks and drive frustration levels up.
While there can be many reasons for your slow Wi-Fi, lack of Wi-Fi optimization is amongst the most common reasons.
Here are some tips on how to optimize your Wi-Fi and make it faster without much effort.
Ideal Placement
The choice of location to place your wifi router is a highly influential factor. Ideally, you should place your wifi router in a place where its signals are least likely to be obstructed. Preferably, it should be placed on higher places, with no objects surrounding it.
You can further strengthen the signal range by placing your wifi router outside and angle it towards windows to get better signal reception
Protection
Unauthorized access to your wifi can be the cause of slow internet speeds. If your internet is not protected, there’s a high chance that random people including your neighbors will access your internet, resulting in divided bandwidth and slow internet. In order to prevent this, you’re advised to protect your wifi with a strong password.
Switch the channel
Your Tv isn’t the only appliance capable of changing channels, wifi routers can do that too. Routers use channels to transmit data. If your neighbors’ wifi uses the same channel as yours, it could cause a significant fall in your internet speeds.
What to do? Switch channels. You can change the channel for your router to a less crowded one and can expect faster internet speeds.
The ideal way to determine the best channel for your router is to use the ‘Wifi Anayzer’ mobile application and see which channel is the least crowded.
Consider a Router Upgrade
If you’re paying for high speed internet but the speeds aren’t up to the mark, your router could be the culprit. The latest Wi-Fi router standard is 802.11ac however, for Pakistan, 802.11n would be more than enough too.
Buy a Range Extender
Weak Wi-Fi signals often cause the internet speeds to slow down. If your router has a vast area to cover, you can purchase a range extended to be able to receive better signals, resulting in higher speeds.
Clean-up your PC’s Software
Possibly, useless softwares consuming bandwidth could be the reason for your slow internet. Your PC could be too cluttered with adwares and virus. You can analyze the background activity on your PC and disable useless apps to divert more bandwidth towards your browser.