Tip #3819 - Improve Your Wireless Network
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Improve
Your Wireless Network
As cool and handy
as the concept of a wireless network is, it can very rapidly get frustrating.
This happens primarily because of signal strength issues, which in turn,
affects your browsing and downloading speeds. And before you know it,
you just simply aren’t getting as fast of a speed in the bedroom
as you are in the living room. Well, today I will take you through an
informative and useful article about improving your home wireless network.
Here we go!
1.) First, keeping
the wireless router in a central place is a good idea. If you have four
computers in two different rooms, placing the router somewhere in the
middle ensures equal flow to both sides. On the other hand, you could
stick the router under a corner table in room one and wait forever for
a Web site to load when you use the PC in the other room. Whichever you
prefer!
2.) Contrary to popular
belief, a wireless signal is not just sent from the router to the computer.
It is also sent back from the computer to the router. So, even if the
computer is able to receive the signal easily, it, at times, is not able
to send them back as smoothly. That is mainly because of the incompetence
of the wireless network adapter inside the PC. Replacing the internal
wireless adapter with a USB version (which has an external antenna) can
improve this to a great extent.
3.) Sometimes, the
area that needs the wireless access is too vast for the wireless router
to cover the whole effectively. Hence, the signal strength problem arises
again. To combat this, you can use wireless repeaters. Wireless repeaters
extend your wireless network further, without you having to install another
router. The repeater simply intercepts the signal from the wireless router
and extends it further, thus increasing the range of the strong signal.
4.) Wireless routers
can operate on different channels, much like radio stations. Now, by radio,
I don’t mean Internet radio, but the regular good ol'
radio. Sometimes, you can hear one radio station clearer than another.
Similar is the case with the wireless routers. The channels they operate
on in the U.S. are channels 1, 6 and 11. At times, one channel is clearer
than the other, so in case of problems, it’s a good idea to change
the channels every once in awhile in the wireless router settings.
5.) Wireless routers
use the 2.4 GHz frequencies, which means that if you have other wireless
electronics in your home that use the same frequency, there’s going
to be a clash. Although the router will function normally, it might have
to work harder to send/receive the signal. Hence, it’s a good idea
to buy wireless electronics that use other frequency ranges.
6.) As with most applications,
it’s very important to constantly update the firmware for your router
and the drivers for your wireless network adapter. This will usually improve
the performance, as well as, the reliability.
7.) Most of the wireless
networks are type 802.11b, but what most people don’t realize is
that 802.11g is about five times faster. If you are using an 802.11b and
in spite of following the above advice, your speed still doesn’t
improve, then as a last option, consider upgrading to an 802.11g. This
essentially means upgrading the router and the network adapter to 802.11g
equipment as well. That’s certainly bound to show a considerable
improvement in your network speed.
Now, go on and give
these a try. You never know what they could do for you and the wireless
access you love so much!
~ Yogesh Bakshi
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