Mass-market Wi-Fi has been around since 1999, the year that the term
Wi-Fi was registered. While the standard has seen impressive improvements since then, wireless technology still isn’t completely reliable. You can still run into slow speeds, poor signal quality, drop-outs and so on. People tend to have more trouble with these hiccups in some locations and with some equipment than others. If you’ve had enough of having your Wi-Fi stall for no apparent reason, here are three ideas that you can use.
Diagnostics software
If your broadband plan is fast enough but you don’t see any of it over Wi-Fi, you could have a problem with how crowded the airwaves are in your neighborhood are. A free utility called ViStumbler helps you get around this problem — it scans the airwaves in your area and gives you detailed information about all the Wi-Fi networks in your area that are on the same Wi-Fi channel as you.
If your channel is crowded — with more than 3 or 4 neighboring routers — you should look at the other channels to find out if they appear less crowded. You need to switch to whatever channel has the fewest routers on it.
While Wi-Fi routers in the US operate on 11 different channels, it’s usually a good idea to pick the channels 11, 1 or 6 — these have no channel overlap. Since most router manufacturers ship their products set to channel 6 by default, going with 1 or 11 makes the most sense. Once you know what channel to switch to, you’ll need to access the configuration page for your router and make the changes necessary. If you aren’t sure how to do this, it’s easy to look it up in the manual or to call your ISP to help you out.
Try repositioning the Wi-Fi router
Wi-Fi signals are easily blocked by large objects placed within a 3-foot radius around the router. While buying a better router with better range will always improve performance, you can do something far simpler — you can simply reposition the router by placing it high up on a wall. You should also try fiddling with the antennas on your router — they could be loose. Antennas should be tight and upright.
If these tweaks don’t help, you should consider moving your router to another location entirely or at least try a Wi-Fi extender.
Try resetting the router to its defaults
Sometimes, router settings can change themselves and cause routers to perform poorly as a result. Resetting the router to its factory state and then re-entering all the necessary settings can help fix the problem. You can easily reset your router by looking for a little recessed reset switch on the device. With all your settings wiped out, though, you will need to call your ISP’s tech to have your router programmed again.
Try reinstalling the Wi-Fi adapter
It isn’t just the Wi-Fi router that may need resetting – your Wi-Fi adapter may need such treatment, too. Whether you use an internal model or an external plug-in USB dongle, the reinstallation method works the same — you need to go to Device manager , uninstall your Wi-Fi adapter’s driver software, restart your computer and reinstall the latest driver software. It could make a difference.
Finally, upgrading your router’s firmware may help. Usually, your router’s settings page should have firmware upgrade features.