4 Steps to Better Wi-Fi

I’ve covered this before, but it can’t hurt to re-hash some of the more salient points.

Wi-Fi is pretty much everywhere these days, though sometimes not fast enough or secure enough or …. well. with those thoughts in  mind here are 4 steps you can take to ensure a better wi-fi experience.

1. Position your wireless (modem) router or access point in as central a location as you can.

The physical positioning of your wireless kit is probably the most important decision you can make. Even when your options are limited, such as where you physically connect your kit to the outside world it makes sense to carefully consider its location. Look at moving obstacles such as metal cabinets and consider where you want the signal to get too. DO you need to cover an upstairs floor for example? Then place the kit as high as possible to help signal propagation.

2. Change the antenna.

Lots of wi-fi kit these days have antennas (or aerials) that can be changed. Consider one that is powered and ensures the strongest signal possible. Consider one that focuses the signal to push the it in a specific direction. Consider something as simple as the Linksys High Gain Antenna – available in the UK for £35 or so. Cheaper variants are available but the Linksys is one I know works.

3. Change your wireless channel.

Most modern routers will allow you to change the wireless channel in use. It could simply be that your selected channel is 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.

4. Use one standard.

It may or may not seem obvious but ensuring all your kit is using the same standard ensures there are no conflicts. Most modern kit will happily accept any standard to connect but usually they work an a lowest common denominator basis – so if you have an old say 802.11b client and everything else is running at 802.11g then you could find yourreal world experience is reduced to 802.11b – or a maximum of 11Mbps.

So there it is: four ways to potentially improve your wireless setup and none of then cost the earth.

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