How to Boost WiFi Signal: Tips and Tricks for a Stronger Connection

In today’s world, wireless internet connection is one of the keys to an easier life. We may lose the quality of communication due to reasons such as weak signal, low speed or other problems. If you’re experiencing conditions like videos buffering and waiting for pages to load, it may be time to boost your WiFi signal and maximize your router’s coverage. Here are some tips to increase signal strength and achieve a more stable and faster connection.

1. Find a Suitable Location For Router

The location of your router plays a very important role in determining the strength and quality of the WiFi signal. Choosing a suitable installation location can significantly increase the coverage and performance of your network. Of course, choosing the right and optimal place is a bit difficult because it should be empty around it, it should be in the center as much as possible, and it should not be visible in a way that disturbs the decor of your home or workplace.

Why Router Placement Matters

How WiFi waves propagate is the most important key point in choosing the right location for the router. From a physical point of view, as well as the limits of electromagnetic wave propagation, obstacles such as walls, furniture and electronic devices have a great impact and weaken them. If the number and type of obstacles are more than usual, you will create blind spots in some parts of your home or workplace.

Tips for Finding the Best Location

1. Central Position:

1. • According to the Wi-Fi wave propagation model, it is better to place the router in the central location of your home or office. This causes the signal to be distributed uniformly in all directions.

2. Elevate the Router:

1. • Since the most obstacles that may exist for Wi-Fi waves at home or at work are items such as tables, furniture, TVs, etc., if you install the router at a height of about 2 meters, the possibility of these obstacles affecting the The waves decrease. So try to install the router either on the wall or on a shelf at a suitable height.

3. Avoid Obstructions:

1. • Some obstacles such as polished metal surfaces, mirrors, aquariums, etc. have a very bad effect on the waves and either reflect or scatter the waves. Make sure that there is a direct line of sight between your device and the router.

4. Stay Away from Electronic Devices:

1. • Electronic devices that emit electromagnetic waves, such as microwaves, cordless phones, and baby monitors, are the biggest enemy of WiFi waves. These devices can interfere with the WiFi signal and reduce its performance.

5. Use Open Spaces:

1. • Never trap router waves..! It means that the router should not be placed in a closed space such as inside the cabinet, behind the furniture, inside the closet, etc. In this situation, you lose more than 50% of the power of the waves.

Example of Optimal Router Placement

Location Feature	Reason
Central Location	Even distribution of signal throughout the area.
High Placement	Reduces obstructions and improves signal range.
Away from Interference	Minimizes signal degradation from electronic devices.
Open Spaces	Ensures free propagation of the WiFi signal.

By following the above, you can significantly improve your network’s performance, but don’t forget periodic tests to make the necessary adjustments if the environmental conditions change.

2. Change The Router Antennas

Upgrading router antennas has a significant impact on signal strength and increases coverage. Most routers come with standard antennas that have relatively low gain. Replacing these antennas with higher gain antennas can improve the range and stability of your network.

Why Change Your Router’s Antennas?

Many routers’ default antennas are designed to provide basic coverage, but high-gain antennas can significantly increase the router’s signal strength and coverage strength. In general, there are two types of antennas available in the market for this purpose, an omnidirectional or OMNI antenna that has coverage with a 360 degree angle and a directional antenna that has coverage with an angle between 45 and 90 degrees. Pay attention that these angles specify the horizontal coverage, the vertical coverage depends on the antenna gain, but it is usually between 120 and 45 degrees. Here are some key reasons to replace your router’s antennas:

• Extended Coverage: High gain antennas can spread the WiFi signal over a wider area and reduce blind spots.
• Improved Signal Strength: They increase the signal strength and have a high impact on the stability and quality of users’ communication.
• Directional Focus: WiFi antennas have different models in terms of direction and coverage angle, some of them can amplify the signal only in a certain direction. This is mostly used for targeted coverage, for example when you want to amplify the signal of a long corridor.

 

When selecting new antennas for your router, consider the following factors:

• Antenna Gain:

• • Antenna gain is measured in dBi (decibels relative to isotropic), which indicates the strength of the antenna. Usually, default antennas installed on routers have a gain of 2dBi to 4dBi. High gain antennas can range from 6dBi to 12dBi or more. Read More: What is Antenna Gain?
• Antenna Type:
  • Omnidirectional Antennas: Broadcast signals in all directions, ideal for general coverage.
  • Directional Antennas: Focus the signal in one direction, suitable for long-distance coverage in specific areas.

Antenna Type	Gain (dBi)	Best Use Scenario
Omnidirectional Antenna	6-8 dBi	General coverage in all directions
Directional Antenna	10-12 dBi	Focused coverage for specific areas

• Connector Compatibility:

1. • Changing the antenna requires the compatibility of its connectors with the router. The most common types of connectors are RP-SMA (Reverse Polarity-SMA) and SMA connectors. You can also use a special type of cable (RF Cable) to install the antenna at a certain distance from the router, but these types of cables cause a significant drop in signal power, that’s why the length of these types of cables is not more than 2 meters.

3. Check The WiFi Channel For Interference

The interference caused by the overlapping of nearby Wi-Fi networks significantly reduces the quality of the signal and makes your connection unstable. To avoid this problem, use WiFi analyzer apps to scan the surrounding area and find sources of interference. Then you can reduce the impact of interference as much as possible by choosing a less crowded channel and improve the overall quality of the network.

Why WiFi Channel Interference Matters

As mentioned before, Wi-Fi routers work in 2.4 and 5 GHz bands and have a limited number of communication channels. If several neighboring networks use the same or close channels, they greatly affect each other’s quality and speed. Read More: How to Find the Best WiFi Channel.

Steps to Check and Change Your WiFi Channel

• Download a WiFi analyzer app on your smartphone or computer to scan your surrounding wifi networks.
• Open the app and check the channels usage. Try to find a channels with the least number of overlapping networks.

 4. Optimize WiFi Channel-Width

Channel width means how much data a Wi-Fi channel can transmit in a moment. A WiFi channel can have a width of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz or 160MHz. The larger the channel width, the more data can be transferred at the moment, and the smaller it is, the less data can be transferred. On the other hand, the wider the channel, the more likely the interference is, and thicker channels are more resistant to interference.

How Channel Width Affects WiFi Performance

Channel width can affect the speed, range and overall quality of your Wi-Fi network. In the table below, the specifications of each channel are summarized:

Channel Width	Speed	Range	Interference Susceptibility	Best Use Cases
20MHz	Moderate	Excellent	Low	Basic internet use, email, and standard-definition streaming
40MHz	High	Good	Moderate	HD streaming, online gaming, moderate-bandwidth applications
80MHz	Very High	Fair	High	4K streaming, video conferencing, high-bandwidth applications
160MHz	Ultra-High	Limited	Very High	Future-proofing, extremely high-bandwidth applications

Optimizing Channel Width for Your Network

To get the best performance from your WiFi network, consider the following tips when selecting and configuring your channel width:

• Assess Your Environment:

1. • Low-Interference Areas: If your network is in an environment with very low interference, you can use 160MHz channel width. In this case, you will have the highest possible bandwidth and speed.
   • High-Interference Areas: In a situation where there are many Wi-Fi networks around you and the level of interference and overlap is very high, you should use a narrower channel width. In this case, if the interference is very high, you can only use the 20MHz channel width, and if the interference level is moderate, you can use the 40MHz width. Be careful that when you use 20MHz or 40MHz bandwidth, the amount of bandwidth and speed of users will decrease, but you will have a more stable connection.

• Device Compatibility:

1. • One thing that should be noted is that some old devices do not support channel width 80MHz and 160MHz, in this situation you can only use channel width 20MHz and 40MHz which is much more common.

• Adjust Based on Usage:

• • If you have a normal use of Wi-Fi network and only use services such as e-mail, web surfing and light video streaming, a channel width of 20MHz or 40MHz is usually sufficient. But if you use heavy 4K videos or have online games and simultaneous use of several devices, use 80MHz or 160MHz channel width.

Read More : What is WiFi Channel and Channel-Width.

5. Radio Bands

Modern WiFi routers often have multiple radio bands, including the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz frequency bands. Each frequency band has certain capabilities and limitations. Understanding these differences will help you to use the right frequency band for each application.

Comparison Table of Radio Bands

Band	Frequency	Coverage	Speed	Interference	Compatibility
2.4GHz	Lower	Best for long range, walls	Lower speeds	High	Most devices
5GHz	Medium	Moderate range, less walls	Higher speeds	Low	Newer devices
6GHz	Higher	Limited range, few walls	Ultra-high speeds	Very low	Latest devices

How to Optimize WiFi Using Radio Bands

Keep in mind that most routers are multi-band, which means they can serve these frequency bands simultaneously. You can create a network name (SSID) for each band and each user can connect to a specific band as they need, according to the following information: 

• Use 2.4GHz for General Coverage:

1. • Try to use the 2.4GHz frequency band for general activities and basic internet services.

• Switch to 5GHz for High-Bandwidth Activities:

1. • Use the 5GHz band for activities that require faster speeds and less interference, such as streaming, video conferencing, and gaming. Be careful that some routers have two 5GHz frequency bands, one for users who need high speeds and one for devices such as game consoles and players or communication with other routers.

• Leverage 6GHz for Future-Proofing:

1. • The newest frequency band is 6GHz, if your client devices support this frequency (WiFi 6E), you can use this frequency band for ultra-fast speeds. Another capability of this band is to serve many devices at the same time.

6. Check The Received Signal Level

To make sure that your client has a strong and reliable connection or not, you should measure the received signal strength at the client’s location. This value is measured by RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator). The higher the RSSI value, the more quality and stable your connection.

How to Measure Signal Level

In order to measure the user’s signal strength, you can use both the router’s management console and WiFi analyzer apps.

• • Most routers have the ability to measure and display the received signal strength of users, after entering the management console of the router, go to the status display section, where you can see a list of connected devices along with the received signal strength of each one. How to Access Router’s Settings.
  • The next method is to use the signal analyzer program. To do this, download one of the analyzer programs and then you can measure the received signal strength of each connected device. Find the popular analyzer apps here: Best WiFi Analyzer Apps.

From a technical point of view, using an application to measure the signal strength has more advantages, you can measure the signal strength in different parts of your home or workplace and prepare a comprehensive report.

RSSI values are typically measured in dBm (decibels relative to a milliwatt) and can range from -30 dBm to -90 dBm. Here’s a general guide to interpreting these values:

RSSI Value (dBm)	Signal Strength	Description
-30 dBm to -50 dBm	Excellent	Strong signal strength, ideal for high-speed internet and streaming.
-50 dBm to -60 dBm	Good	Reliable signal strength, suitable for most online activities.
-60 dBm to -70 dBm	Fair	Adequate signal strength, may experience some slowdowns.
-70 dBm to -80 dBm	Weak	Poor signal strength, likely to experience buffering and connectivity issues.
-80 dBm and below	Very Weak	Unstable connection, frequent disconnections and slow speeds.

In normal routers, you can adjust the transmit power between Low, Medium and High states. But in advanced routers, you can set a value between 17dbm and 25dbm. Keep in mind that increasing the router’s output power does not necessarily boost wifi quality. Try to choose the right amount for this option based on your home size and avoid unnecessarily increasing it.

7. Update The Router’s Firmware

Updating the firmware of the router is one of the most common ways to solve Wi-Fi network problems and is recommended in all situations. In fact, updating is essential to maintain optimal performance, security and stability of your WiFi network. Sometimes an update may add new features to your router in addition to bug fixes and improvements. Read More: How to Update Router’s Firmware.

Benefit	Description	Impact on Network
Improved Performance	Enhances the speed and reliability of your WiFi connection.	Ensures smoother and faster internet access, reducing lag and buffering.
Enhanced Security	Protects your network from vulnerabilities and potential security threats.	Safeguards your data against cyberattacks, malware, and unauthorized access.
Bug Fixes and Stability	Addresses bugs and glitches that may cause connectivity issues or slowdowns.	Ensures the router operates smoothly and without interruptions.
New Features	Adds new functionalities and settings to your router.	Improves user experience and compatibility with new devices and standards.

8. Control Bandwidth-hungry Clients By QoS

Quality of Service (QoS) is a feature on many modern routers that allows you to prioritize certain types of Internet traffic. By configuring QoS settings, you can ensure that your critical applications and devices receive the bandwidth they need for optimal performance.

Benefits of QoS

1. Improved Streaming Quality:
   • Prioritize streaming services like Netflix or YouTube to reduce buffering and enhance video quality.
2. Enhanced Gaming Experience:
   • Ensure online games have low latency and stable connections by giving them higher priority.
3. Better Video Conferencing:
   • Make sure video calls are smooth and uninterrupted by prioritizing apps like Zoom or Skype.
4. Efficient Bandwidth Management:

• • Distribute bandwidth more effectively across different devices and applications, preventing any single user or device from hogging all the bandwidth.

Example QoS Configuration

Application/Device	Priority Level	Reason
Video Streaming (Netflix, YouTube)	High	Ensures smooth playback and reduces buffering.
Online Gaming (PlayStation, Xbox)	High	Maintains low latency and stable connections.
Video Conferencing (Zoom, Skype)	High	Provides uninterrupted and clear video calls.
General Browsing	Medium	Ensures websites load quickly.
File Downloads	Low	Prevents large downloads from slowing down other activities.

Conclusion

In order to increase the quality of communication, speed and also the stability of a Wi-Fi network, you must observe a few things. But in general, choosing the communication channel with the appropriate channel width and also the correct setting of the router’s output power have the greatest impact.