WiFi Speed Boost

Wireless LAN or wi-fi kit is getting everywhere these days.

And you’ll likely find that like most folks, your wireless surfing has slowed of recent especially if you’ve had it running a while.

The likelihood is that if you live in a densely populated area or you’ve made internal changes to your living space then either or both these (and more) could impact on your wireless surfing speed.

So what can you do?

• First off you can try changing your wi-fi channel. Most modern routers allow you to do this. It could simply be that your selected channel is now over-lapping or even on the same channel as a nearby neighbour. You could go for the trial and error approach or you could download Netstumbler (a free Windows tool) and allow it to show you all WLANs within reach, their SSIDs, channels and other information. Simply pick the least populated channel of the strongest ones near you.
• Secondly you could try moving the router. Sometimes we add new kit or other equipment degrades and leaks signals that can interfere or we even re-model our living spaces and that can cause problems with signal degradation.
• Another option would be to buy an add-on aerial – these range from simple rubber stick like items to omni or mono-dirctional to homemade “cantennas“. Whatever option you pick will boost the distance / receptivity of your wlan.
• A more involved option would be to install a wireless bridge. This is effectively a second router that can be added in an appropriate location to extend your wlan.

Two other less obvious options you could employ but could well be valid in your situation are:

• Ensure all your wifi kit is using the same standard. Most wifi routers will happily adapt to the lowest common denominator buy why restrict your 802.11n network to the speeds of an 802.11b? It’s akin to buying a Bugatti Veyron and putting a Mini’s engine in it.
• Lastly why not change your passphrase / password whilst you’re in the router control panel. If you use a simplistic one there’s no telling who might have ‘cracked’ it and be using you bandwidth for whatever.

So there you have it.

Six ways you could potentially boost your wireless surfing speed.

• Have I missed any options?
• Is this something you’ve experienced and tried to remedy?