No matter what kind of device you use or how fast it is, if the connection is weak, it can result in all sorts of troubles. You’ve probably tried moving around the room, but that hasn’t helped. It turns out there are some simple troubleshooting steps you can take to fix your weak WiFi signal. Please read and follow the steps below to improve your WiFi connection and make your range to its maximum capacity in every room!
Why Is WiFi Signal Weak?
There are lots of reasons why your WiFi signal might be weak. The more devices you have connected to the network, the slower it will get. If you’re in a big house or apartment with thick walls and many appliances, this can make things even worse. That’s why in this section, we’ll list the main reasons why your WiFi signal is weak and when to boost your existing WiFi signal so that you can use it everywhere in your home or office instead of just near your router.
📶 The distance from the router
The distance from the router is one of the most common causes of weak WiFi signals at home. This is because wireless signals travel in all directions and are blocked by objects such as walls, ceilings, floors, and furniture. The more obstacles between your device and the router’s antenna, you’ll receive fewer photons. If you live in a large home or apartment building with multiple floors of residents who share a single access point, this can lead to issues that affect everyone on that network.
📶 Obstructions between your router and your device.
If you’re having a crisis with your WiFi signal, first try moving your router to a more central place in the home. If that doesn’t satisfy you and you still have a weak signal at some spots in your house, there are other things to consider that may be causing the problem.
Obstructions between your router and device can block or weaken wireless signals. For example:
- Walls and thick doors can break up signals or cause interference.
- Metal objects such as filing cabinets or bookshelves may also interfere with wireless connections, as well as large pieces of furniture like couches or tables (especially if they are metal). This is especially true if these items are close together. They act like mirrors reflecting the signal back at itself over and over again until it gets lost in all that bouncing around!
- Plants, mirrors, and other objects that absorb WiFi signals will also prevent them from reaching their destination. This includes things like glass vases filled with water that could absorb radio waves well enough to make them unusable elsewhere in your home too!
📶 Interference from other appliances or walls.
If you have a ton of other devices in your home that uses the same frequency as your WiFi, they can interfere with it. In fact, many household items emit radio signals and can cause interference. Examples are cordless phones, baby monitors, microwaves, and cell phones! It’s also possible that walls in your house could block the signal from reaching some areas of your home.
📶 Outdated hardware.
If you have an old/outdated WiFi router, it might be time to replace it. Newer routers are just better in every way. For example, they have updated antennas and more powerful processors that can handle multiple devices simultaneously without slowing down your internet speed. If your older router is not compatible with newer devices like smartphones or laptops that support the latest 802.11ac WiFi standard (or 802.11n if you’re feeling old-fashioned), consider buying a new one that supports these technologies so that everyone in the house will be able to take advantage of them!
📶 You’re using the wrong type of WiFi for your needs.
You may be using the wrong type of WiFi for your needs. If you have bunches of devices that are connected to the internet, you may need to upgrade your router.
If you have more than three devices, you should consider upgrading your router. This will make it possible for everyone in your home to watch Netflix or stream Spotify at their leisure without disrupting each other’s connection. It will also ensure enough channels are left over for new connections as they come into the house. A good rule of thumb is one channel per person in the house, with an individual channel reserved for each device, like a laptop or smart TV.
(You can also click here to know more about the other potential reasons.)
Now that you know the potential reasons for your weak WiFi signal, it’s time to check and confirm how weak or fast your connection is. Check the tips below.
How To Check WiFi Speed?
Your WiFi is probably pretty slow if you’re a typical internet user. You might have heard of benchmarks like the speed of some sites that recommend and other general guidelines, but if you want to know how fast your connection goes in real-life situations, there’s no better way to test it yourself. In this section, we’ll explore several methods for checking your WiFi speed at home or work and giving yourself peace of mind that you’re getting what you paid for or more!
📶 Use A WiFi speed test app.
Although there are myriad ways to check your WiFi speed, the easiest of them all is to use a WiFi speed test app. There are several great apps in both Android and iOS stores that you can download for free and use on either a smartphone or tablet computer. All you need to do is open the app and connect it to your router (through Ethernet or wireless). Then, within seconds, it will give you a precise reading of how fast your connection actually is.
📶 Run an online speed test.
To run an online speed test, go to a site and click the “Begin Test” button.
After your first test completes, you’ll be able to see your average download speed and upload speed for that particular test. You can also see data on ping time, latency, and jitter (which are all important factors in determining the quality of your connection).
If you’re concerned about privacy issues when using these sorts of sites (and who wouldn’t be?), make sure you check their privacy guidelines before doing anything else!
📶 Scan your network for interference.
If you’re using a WiFi scanner, you can use it to see if there’s any interference on your network. There is a free app that lets you scan nearby networks and find out if they’re interfering with yours. If you do find interference, try moving the router to a different location in your house or apartment building. It may be conceivable that some of the walls are blocking signal strength.
📶 Update your router’s firmware.
It would help if you consistently were on the lookout for firmware updates, which are released periodically.
To see if there’s an update available for your router, look at the admin page of the router’s interface. The model number, firmware version, and release date will be listed there. If a new firmware rendition is available, click “Update” to install it immediately or select “Download” in order to download it from a specific location on your computer.
Once installed, restart your router before using it again (even if you didn’t change any settings during installation).
📶 Change your wireless channel.
To change your WiFi channel, start by checking which channels are available. Open up the Settings app, tap Network & Internet, tap WiFi and look for a menu option for “Advanced Options” or similar. There you will discover a list of all the channels in your area. Suppose you see one that is not being used by any other wireless devices in your vicinity (or is not being used by those devices at all). In that case, you can select the channel to use instead of another one on which there might be more activity or interference.
📶 Use a wired connection to your router.
If you want to check your WiFi signal speed, use a wired connection to your router. You can use an ethernet cable or a USB-to-Ethernet adapter if you want to plug directly into the router. This is the fastest way to measure your WiFi speeds because it uses all of your home’s bandwidth and it has no interference from other wireless devices.
If you have already seen the results of your speed test and you want to make your connection faster, follow the tips in the next section.
Tips To Make WiFi Signal Strong
You can get a stronger WiFi signal in every room with the right tools and techniques. The directions below will help you do just that!
📶 Place your router in a central location.
The most suitable place for your router is in the center of your home. If you have a two-story house, you should place the router on the first floor, not near a window or door (this will reduce interference from outside signals). Also, you should not place your router near other electronics or appliances that produce heat and can interfere with its signal strength: a desktop computer should not be right next to it! Finally, try to avoid placing it close to metal objects like filing cabinets or mirrors. This can create interference that could weaken its signal strength.
📶 Avoid wireless interference.
The first thing you should do is avoid wireless interference. To do this, keep your router out of the way of other devices that generate wireless signals, such as cordless phones and baby monitors. It would help if you also place it away from large metal objects such as filing cabinets or large appliances.
Wireless waves are able to travel through walls, but there are some obstacles that can cause a drop in signal strength. If these obstacles are located near your router, then you may experience slower speeds or even drops in connection entirely.
📶 Upgrade your router.
The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure that your router is up to date. If it’s not, then you may be able to find a firmware update for your router on the manufacturer’s website. You can also check with their customer service department or look up information about how your specific model works on the internet. There are often forums and discussion boards explicitly dedicated to talking about particular brands of routers. These will be helpful when trying to identify any problems with yours that require updating.
Once you’ve updated your router, it’s time to start checking its specifications: what kind of speed does it offer? Is it compatible with other devices, such as laptops and smartphones? Are there any issues with the hardware itself, like interference from other devices in close proximity (like cordless phones) or problems with WiFi connectivity between floors or walls? You should consider these things before investing in an upgrade.
📶 Replace the antenna on your router.
You can remarkably improve the performance of your router by replacing the antenna that came with it. An antenna is a device that transmits and receives radio signals, converting them into usable data that the rest of your network can process. Most antennas are omnidirectional (they send out signals in all directions), but there are directional options as well, which focus their transmission power on one particular area or direction.
In general, directional antennas should be used when you have high-performance devices like gaming consoles or laptops. These will benefit from being able to pick up more signal strength at farther distances than an omnidirectional antenna would allow for.
📶 Reposition your antenna(s).
If you have a single antenna, try moving it around to find the best location. If you want to experiment with placement, you can use a site to get an idea of how far away from walls and other obstacles your signal should be.
But if you have multiple antennas, try moving them around as well. You may find that one antenna is better positioned than another for receiving signals from outside your home!
Finally, if you have a single antenna and are experiencing issues with connectivity in one area of your house or building that has several floors or stories (like an apartment building), consider swapping its position with where the router is located in order to see if it improves performance at all. This could involve moving either device further away from its original placement location so that they’re closer together again. Still, facing each other instead of facing outward toward different sides of whatever structure(s) they were originally installed within.
BONUS: Fixing Other Wireless Connection Issues
If you are having trouble with your WiFi connection, there are many different reasons why your WiFi internet connection may be unstable. Here’s how to fix them.
📶 Interference of the signal
There are many cases that can cause problems with your WiFi connection. As mentioned, the most common is interference from electricity, radio waves, microwaves, or other electronic devices in your home or office. Another issue that can cause problems is the distance between the router and your device.
>>Using a smart WiFi connection
Suppose you’re using a smart WiFi connection to connect your computer or mobile device to the internet via your home network’s wireless router. In that case, there may be an issue with how the network is configured. This could mean that there’s something wrong with either the software of your computer or its drivers (the software used by certain devices).
>>Troubleshooting
You may want to troubleshoot these issues by checking for updates and installing any available updates, as well as making sure all hardware drivers are up-to-date as well. If none of these steps resolve this problem, contact customer service directly since most of the companies provides phone support.
📶 Signal strength issues
Signal strength issues are usually caused by the router itself. The router may be in the wrong spot, which means it can’t receive a strong signal and thus can’t broadcast one either. Or, it might not be positioned to receive a strong signal in the first place because it’s been moved or positioned incorrectly.
If you believe that your wireless connection isn’t set up correctly and you’re experiencing issues with connectivity and speed, there are several things you can do to fix them. Such examples are moving your router, adding some antennas, or changing the router itself.
📶 Hardware issues
This could be an easy fix if the issue is with your hardware. At the very least, you don’t need to call in a technician.
>>Check your router.
Ensure that it’s plugged into a power source and that there are no loose connections or damaged ports (if so, try replacing it). If you have more than one router in your home network, make sure they’re not interfering with each other by checking their IP addresses and MAC addresses. If they do overlap, change their settings to avoid this conflict.
>>Check your modem’s light.
If they’re solid on or blinking steadily instead of flashing when you rebooted it earlier today: that means connectivity! But suppose they’re all off or blinking intermittently. In that case, something else might be going on here, too, such as a bad cable connection which will require additional troubleshooting steps before it can be fixed properly.
📶 Connectivity issue with a laptop
If you’re having problems getting a laptop to connect to your network, try the following steps:
>>Reboot the laptop.
If you’re trying to connect over WiFi and the connection is still not working, restarting the computer may help.
>>Change your WiFi network’s channel.
The channel on which your network broadcasts its signal can affect how far away from it you can get before losing connectivity. Try changing this setting in your router’s settings page if it has one; otherwise, change it manually by going through each of its channels and seeing which one works best for you (this will probably be somewhere between 1-14). It’s also possible that there are other networks nearby that are causing interference with yours; try changing channels if so—you’ll want to avoid being near any other networks on different frequencies than yours when doing so!
>>Use an Ethernet cable.
Try plugging in via Ethernet cable instead of using wireless technology between two devices (e.g., between a computer and modem/router).
📶 WiFi internet connection drops unexpectedly in your house.
If your internet connection drops unexpectedly, your WiFi router may have a problem. Follow these steps to fix the issue:
- Check the WiFi router is plugged in and switched on.
- Check the modem is plugged in and switched on.
- Check that you have an active internet connection on another device, such as a laptop or mobile phone (if applicable).
Frequently Asked Questions
🔴 Do I need a high-speed internet connection to receive WiFi services?
Yes, a high-speed internet connection is needed. A good rule of thumb for determining if your current internet speed is fast enough to receive WiFi services is checking the download/upload speed of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). You can locate this information on their website or by calling them directly. Most ISPs offer speeds between 1-100 Mbps, but it’s not uncommon for an ISP to have packages ranging all the way up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps).
If you’re unsure whether or not your connection meets these requirements, think about how much data streaming video consumes or how long it takes you to send and receive emails with attachments. If those tasks are taking longer than they should be, then it might be time for an upgrade!
🔴 Can I receive WiFi service on multiple devices?
You can use WiFi to connect multiple computers and devices to the internet. For example, if you have a smartphone and a tablet, both of them can access the internet through the same wireless router.
If you have a laptop computer with an Ethernet port (also called an Ethernet cable), you may need to plug it in directly into your home broadband modem when using it on your home network.
🔴 What is the range of a WiFi connection?
The range of a WiFi signal connection differs depending on the type of device and its environment. In general, however, the range is between 100 feet indoors and 300 feet outdoors. Walls, trees, and other obstacles can affect the signal strength of your wireless network and reduce its range.
Using a WiFi extender can extend your existing wireless network so you can enjoy fast internet access from anywhere in your home or office.
Final Words
There are a lot of questions that need answers when it comes to your home’s WiFi signal connection. Luckily, we have provided answers to some of the most common questions here. If you still need help with something that you can’t find here, it’s time to call the best tech support that can work on your router!
