By Justin Vraux

First off, make sure your Wi-Fi is up to the newest Wi-Fi standard. Most older routers operate at the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard, which is three times slower than the new Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac. To find out which standard your router is using, all you have to do is go down to the taskbar and right-click on your internet connection, and under the “Radio Type” field it will show you which standard you are using. Older versions, like 802.11b or 802.11g operate at a much slower rate.

The next step in obtaining the best Wi-Fi signal is to find the best place to set-up your Wi-Fi router. Wi-Fi signals are heavily deterred by water, metal, glass, brick, insulation, human bodies, and essentially anything to block off, or constrict, a wavelength. The best place to put your router is where most of the activity on a network generates from, preferably in an open area, and the highest off the ground you can put it. Most people mount their routers to the ceiling, which is a good idea for signal strength. Also, mirrors reflect Wi-Fi signals, so try to minimize the amount of mirrors in the room in which your router exists. Other signals, such as your neighbor’s Wi-Fi signals, microwaves, baby monitors, cordless phones, Bluetooth devices and basically anything that broadcasts frequencies in your home can constrict your Wi-Fi signals.

Also, you can get an app for your smartphone to determine signal strength in your house, so you can find those dead zones. A couple that are available free to use are Assia’s Cloudcheck and

Amped Wireless’s Wi-Fi Analytics Tool. Assia’s Cloudcheck is a good tool to use, because it shows how your Wi-Fi signal fluctuates. Physical Wi-Fi signal detectors can be thousands of dollars, so a smartphone app would likely be most useful on this kind of network.

Many times your routers operate at different frequencies. For example, you’ll have a network called Netgear-3, and another called Netgear-3-5G. You can use these two different sections of your network to effectively control your bandwidth. Consider having all your devices that don’t use as much bandwidth on the slower part of the network (Netgear-3), and have all your devices that use more bandwidth on the Netgear-3-5G subsection of the network, which operates at higher speeds, and has a lot less traffic on the network.

You can also get something called a Wi-Fi Signal Booster or Amplifier, which attaches to your router and boosts your Wi-Fi signal strength and range. They can boost your Wi-Fi signal up to 600%! They range from about $60 to hundreds; it all depends what you’re using it for, but a cheap one should fix the problem you’re having if any of the above methods didn’t eliminate the issue.

If you’re still having bad internet connectivity, then you may need to give Time Warner a call, and get a faster internet package!

Justin Vraux is a member of the Information Technology Senior Seminar Course and is planning a career in Enterprise-level Networking. You can view the full article on his website: http://www.justinjamesvraux.co/archives/18