How to Improve Your Home Wifi Performance.

*SECURITY TIPS!

ALWAYS change the default admin user password for the Router.
ALWAYS rename your router / wifi device default wifi network name.
ALWAYS secure your wifi and use a strong Wifi Password.

Improving Your Home Wifi Connection.

*THINK about.
•    trying to reduce the potential interference with your wifi signal.
•    the size of the area your wifi network needs to cover.
•    the age of your IT equipment.
•    how many devices will need to connect to your wifi network.
•    using a less congested / popular Wifi broadcast channel.

*QUICK TIP! Always keep a spare ethernet / network cable to connect your laptop to your home internet router so you can get online if your wifi connection isn’t working.*

Please be aware that some laptops don’t have an inbuilt network port connection and will require the use of an external USB to Lan port dongle.

How to improve a Wifi signal.

Think about where your router is located and the size of coverage you require.

Try to move your Wireless Access Point to a more central location in your home.

The wifi strength will decrease with distance, so the router should be located near to where you will often be accessing the internet.

If you live in a home with multiple floors, the router should ideally be elevated and not on the ground floor.

The router should also not be stored in a cupboard or hidden away out of sight as this can weaken the signal.

What Physical elements can interfere with a Wifi signal?

You should be mindful of the router’s location in relation to the following physical items that can interfere with Wifi signals such as

Thick Walls
Radiators
Fish Tanks
Mirrors / Glass

What Electrical devices can interfere with a Wifi signal?

You also need to consider the location of the following electrical equipment that can also interfere with the wifi signal such as

TV's
Microwaves
Cordless phones
Bluetooth devices
Refrigerators
Other nearby routers (such as your neighbours wifi network) using the same Wifi Channel as your wifi network. You should check what are the most commonly used wifi channels and select to use a less popular one.

An overview of Wifi Bands and Wifi Channels.

If you are in a location that has several competing wifi networks, for example you live in a block of flats or apartment block, you can change the channel your wifi is broadcasting on to a less popular / busy channel.

For 2.4 Ghz Networks Best Channels: 1, 6, or 11.

For 5 GHz Range Wifi Networks (Band A to C)

5 GHz Band A. Best Channels: 36, 40, 44 or 48 and Channel Width 80 Mhz.

5 GHz Band B. Best Channels: 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 144 and Channel Width 40 Mhz.

5GHz Band C*. Best Channels: 149, 153, 157, 161, 165 and Channel Width 40 MHz. *Requires a licence from Ofcom to use.

Use the best available Wifi Channel in your location.

If you are in a location that has several competing wifi networks eg in a block of flats or apartment block, you can change the channel your wifi is broadcasting on to a less popular / busy channel via the Router admin portal.

How to check what channels nearby / competing wifi networks are using.

Windows 11

On Windows 11, you can see the nearby wifis and the channels they are using via

Via the Command Prompt

Opening the command prompt and type in the command: netsh wlan show network mode=bssid.

Via an App

Or install 'Wifi Analyser' via the Microsoft Store.

Smart phone / device

Download an App that can analyse nearby Wifi Networks (use one with lots of downloads and reviews).

Consider using both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wifi bands to create separate networks.

Many ‘modern’ Routers are Dual Band and allow you to use both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. This allows you to reduce the number of devices sharing the same connection.

For instance, you could set up a 2.4 GHz wifi network to be used by your smart devices as 2.4 GHz offers a larger area and is better at dealing with physical interference such as walls.

5 GHz networks are faster, cope better with electrical interference and are better for streaming / large downloads but have a smaller range than 2.4 GHz so these are best used for your gaming computer / home office.

*NOTE! 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz do not cause interference with each other as they operate on completely different radio bands.

2.4 GHz Range Wifi Networks.

(Usually Ranges 1-13)

Best Channels: 1, 6, or 11

as they will encounter the least interference from other channels.

Channel 1

will interfere with and receive interference from 2.4 GHz channels 1-5.

Channel 6

will interfere with and receive interference from 2.4 GHz channels 2-10.

Channel 11

will interfere with and receive interference from 2.4 GHz channels 7-11.

5 GHz Range Wifi Networks.

Bands A to C.

Band A (U-NII-1/2a) - 5150-5350 MHz - Channels 36 to 64.

Channel Width: 80 MHz
Usage: Indoor Use Only
Best Channels: 36, 40, 44 or 48.
Best Channel Width: 80 Mhz
Licence Required: No
DFS Required: Channels 52-64 will require DFS (Dynamic Frequency Selection that checks for radar signals nearby and will change channel if any are detected).

Band B (U-NII-2c) - 5470-5725. MHz - Channels 100 to 144

Channel Width: 40 MHz
Usage: Indoor and Outdoor use.
Best Channels: 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128, 132, 136, 140, 144.
Best Channel Width: 40 Mhz
Licence Required: No
DFS Required: Yes

Band C (U-NII-3) - 5725–5850 - Channels 149 to 165

Channel Width: 40 MHz
Usage: Indoor and Outdoor use.
Best Channels: 149, 153, 157, 161, and 165.
Best Channel Width: 40 Mhz
DFS Required: No
Licence Required: YES

Ofcom Licencing Details

http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/spectrum/low-short-devices/apply-for-a-licence/5.8_app_form.pdf

Security Advice.

Always change your device(s) default usernames, wifi names and passwords!

*SECURITY TIP! Is someone else using your internet connection?

You may have slow internet if an unwelcome guest is using your connection for free!

Make sure to change the default admin user password for the Router.
Make sure to rename the default wifi network name.
Make sure to secure your wifi network and use a strong Wifi Password.

Default username and passwords for devices are often leaked online so someone could guess your routers address, admin password just by seeing the devices default wifi name.

Once inside your network they could infect your device(s) with malware!

*SECURITY TIP! Always ensure your router's firmware is up to date!

Updating your router firmware is essential for security reasons, as well as improving performance.

Make sure to turn on the auto install updates feature in your routers settings / admin page.

*SECURITY TIP! Secure your router and wifi network.

Keep your router / wifi password private.

Don't store your router by a window, so that people outside can see the devices' admin details (usually on a sticker underneath or on the back of the device)

Think about your Wifi requirements, do you need to increase the wifi network coverage over several floors, or to fix a single wifi dead spot, or improve the connection reliability to your home office?

Think about your budget, the size of the wifi network required, how many devices will be using your wifi.

Whatever option you choose as a solution, make sure you buy a well known manufacturer (eg TP-Link / Netgear) and the device has the CE Mark.

Need a simple fix for a single Wifi Deadzone spot?

Consider Purchasing a Wifi Extender

A cheap and simple solution (easy to install) to resolve a single wifi dead zone / poor coverage area in smaller properties.
Can often reduce the speed of the connection by having to repeat the original wifi broadcast as well as creating its own separate. additional network.
Adding individual wifi extenders can result in the creation of a separate / additional wifi networks e.g. if you add 2 separate extenders you could have 3 separate wifi networks (your router, extender1 and extender2).
Can result in experiencing dropouts when switching between wifi networks.

*TIP! if you have setup additional wifi networks, make sure they are using different channels in order to not interfere with each other.

Need your wifi to cover a larger area / multiple floors?

Consider purchasing a Mesh System.

More expensive than Wifi Extenders or Powerline adapters.
Provides a better solution for larger homes / if you want to cover a larger surface area cover multiple floors.
Better solution if you have lots of devices using your wifi.
Provide a seamless / single network no dropouts when moving around
Although more expensive you can easily buy and install additional nodes to increase the single wifi network coverage.

Want to use a LAN Cable connection but the router is too far away?

Consider purchasing a Powerline Adapter.

Network / LAN / Ethernet cables will provide a better connection than wifi.

It will be worth considering to use a LAN connection as part of your home office setup, or if you are streaming videos / gaming.

Ideal if you can connect direct to a spare port on your router.

If your gaming pc / home office is further away from the router and your dont want to run a long ethernet cable. You can consider to buy a passthrough powerline adapter

If your laptop doesnt have an inbuilt LAN / Network Port you can buy a USB docking station.

Consider upgrading your home IT equipment.

Unfortunatley with the speed of technological improvements, you may find that you have to replace your ageing equipment in order for it to be compatible after you upgrade your home router or home wifi.

Is your router too old and outdated?

Newer Routers will provide better wifi speeds, better coverage and allow more devices to connect and use the wifi at the same time.

These days, people are connecting more smart devices (phones / tablets / TV’s) as well as laptops to their home wifi than what they use to in the past.

Speak to your ISP to see if they can provide you with a new router (you will normally receive a new router when you renew your contract with them).

Consider purchasing an non ISP Managed Router that offers more features.

You can always purchase a router that is not managed by your ISP.

However, you must be confident enough to set it up by yourself and willing to accept that your ISP may not be able to help you with resolving internet issues.

It’s generally less stressful for home users to have a router provided and supported by their ISP.

Consider replacing your older computer and smart devices.

In order to use your new home router and wifi 6, you might have to replace your older tablet / mobile phone / laptop as it doesnt have a compatible wifi / network card.

General Wifi Troubleshooting

Some general wifi troubleshooting steps to try.

Check your Router for any warning lights.

Step 1 - Check your router has power and the cables are still plugged in ok (maybe reinsert them just in case they have become loose).

Step 2 - Restart your Router.

Step 3 - Check your Service Providers’ status page for any outages.

BT - https://www.bt.com/help/check-service-status

Sky - https://www.sky.com/help/servicestatus

Virgin Media - https://www.virginmedia.com/help/check/status/identification/identify

To check the status of other providers, other websites visit DownDector

https://downdetector.co.uk/

Is the wifi issue related to one computer?

Have you tried to restart your laptop?

Sometimes with automatic updates the computer hardware drivers will be updated / replaced in the background and will need the device to be restarted in order to resume functioning again.

Check if the issue is with your wifi or the website / service you are trying to access.

Is the wifi not working because the website you are trying to access isn't working?

Try to run a new search in google.com to see if the results are returned correctly.

Or try to access the same page on a different device, maybe try to access the website via your smart phone using the cellular network(4g /5g) and not your home wifi.

Try to access DownDector to see if there is a reported issue.