5 simple tips to boost your home Wi-Fi

To some, Wi-Fi is a requirement as basic as electricity and running water. Most internet service providers install a basic modem/router that stays untouched in a corner.

Here we show you some easy ways to solve common Wi-Fi issues at home.

Better placement: Keep it at the center of the house
This is one of the easiest ways to improve Wi-Fi coverage. Most users prefer to keep their routers in a corner of the house (usually near a window). While this does minimize wire clutter, it also limits your Wi-Fi range because the Wi-Fi signal spreads omni-directionally.

The ideal place to keep a router is in the center of your house so that it provides an even coverage across the home. Try and place the Wi-Fi router at eye-level or higher - this further improves the signal strength. Finally, keep the router away from other interference causing devices (cordless phone base stations, other routers, printers, microwave ovens).

Limit the number of devices
Have friends and family coming over for a party and you don't want to share your primary Wi-Fi password? Just enable a guest network on your router with a separate, simpler password. Login to your router's admin settings and under the Wireless tab you will see an option of Guest network.

You can give a name to your network, set a password and even limit the number of users who can connect to the network simultaneously. Moreover, some routers also give you the option to block and remove a connected device if you feel that it is hogging up all the bandwidth.

Once your party is over, you can disable the guest network -- this way no one will know your home Wi-Fi password and you will not have to worry about your network being used later without permission.

Repeaters = Better range
Unless you live in a single room or studio apartment, the router provided by your ISP will not be able to provide coverage through the house. You can swap out the existing router for a more powerful one but a simpler and cheaper way is to use a repeater. This takes the Wi-Fi signal from your router and 'repeats' it to improve coverage area.

The WPS method is the simplest way to connect a repeater: Enable WPS on the router and press the WPS button on the repeater. Everything is automatically configured in just a minute.

Change your Wi-Fi password regularly
Have you ever changed your Wi-Fi password? It might still be the same basic password from when it was first installed. You might have also shared the password with friends during a party and your neighbours could have the password too. This means someone could be stealing your Wi-Fi, leading to slow speeds and your monthly limits being crossed quickly. The best way to avoid this is to change your Wi-Fi password regularly - once in 6 months should be good enough for most users.

Try using a USB router
Take a look at the ports on your router. If you see a USB port, your router can do more than just broadcast a Wi-Fi signal.

Depending on your router model, the USB port can be used to connect an external hard drive (this will be available as network storage to all connected devices on Wi-Fi making it easy to share content) or to connect a printer (this will make the printer wireless and share it for anyone on the network).

Source: Times of India