12 Reasons why your WiFi at home may be terrible - and how you can quickly

and easily flood every room in your house with high speed internet WiFi …

Long gone are the days when the only internet connection that you had in your home was a single computer connected to

the phone line that everyone used - the kids for homework, Mum and Dad for work - where everyone had to wait in line to

get their turn! Now our homes are filled with many, many devices connected to the internet - mobile devices like phones,

IPads and laptops - as well as many other things like desk top computers, smart TV's, alarm systems and security cameras -

even fridges, air conditioning and lighting controllers in some homes! As the IoT (Internet of Things) rapidly develops,

experts say that by 2020 the average Australian home will have over 29 internet connected devices. Most of these devices

will use your home wifi to connect to the internet. Gee, now isn't that going to put some pressure on your home wifi! Most

home wifi systems even today do not keep up - so it is only going to get a lot worse as we bring more and more internet

connected devices into our homes.

Internet and WiFi are NOT the same thing!

Many people think that their internet and their wifi are the same thing. They are not. I'll repeat that again ... YOUR

INTERNET AND YOUR WIFI ARE NOT THE SAME THING. For you to watch those funny cat videos on YouTube or Breaking Bad

on Netflix, there are many different things that must all work together. First, there is the server where the content that you

want to watch is stored - YouTube, Netflix, web pages etc. Next in line is the ISP, or Internet Service Provider - Telstra,

Optus, TPG etc. Then, firstly in your home you have your router which is connected to the incoming internet. Some people

have devices connected to the router by cable - computers, laptops, TVs etc. Finally you have your wifi - being wirelessly

transmitted from your router to all of your mobile devices in your home. Whew ... there's a lot of things that all have to work

properly together. Sounds complicated. Well, it's not really.

Firstly, and most importantly, you must have good internet speed coming into your home. With standard ADSL the average

speed in most homes in Perth is usually somewhere between 6mb to 10mb download, and 1.5mb to 3mb upload speed.

ADSL2 can give you up to 20Mbps download. With the rollout of the high speed NBN network, you will have a choice of

speeds from 25Mbps, 40Mbps, 80Mbps - even up to 100Mbps - depending on the plan you choose and the availability of

these speeds across the infrastructure available to your home. *These NBN speeds are not guaranteed by the ISP's - Internet

Service Providers - but that is a story for another day, one that we will not even touch on here!

If all of the devices that we accessed the internet on in our homes were connected by cable to the router, then we would

always receive the best possible speed that the incoming internet connection could give us. But this is not the case. With

most devices being mobile, most of the time we are using our home wifi to connect wirelessly through the router to the

internet. And that is where our problems begin ...

So why is my internet so damn slow!

So with Internet Service Providers - ISP's - promising you the earth - blazing fast speeds and the ability to download entire

movies in just seconds - why are most people's home internet speeds so slow! There are many reasons, although the three

biggest reasons are the router, interference and the fact that there are so many different devices all competing for air time.

The first problem is quite often the Router itself. Most home internet routers, particularly if it has been supplied to you as

part of a plan by your Internet Service Provider, have been built to a price - a very cheap price! To put it bluntly, many home

routers are just cheap and nasty. They are not designed to give you high performance. A lot of them don't even have any

external antennas! Antennas are used on wireless transmission devices for a very good reason - because they increase the

distance and strength of the signal being transmitted.

Because a lot of users just take their router out of the box when it arrives, and just go through a few very basic setup steps,

another common problem is the router settings. Often it just has not been properly configured or setup properly. Some

routers have "power saving" modes which are designed to reduce power usage. These can affect the ultimate performance

of your internet speed connection. There can be interference between your router and your neighbours if everyone has their

wifi transmitting on the same channels.

Next is your home WiFi. Like all modern advanced technologies, WiFi can feel like magic. It isn't - it's just radio waves. Many

things in and around your home can interfere with these radio waves, making your wireless internet connection weak and

unreliable. Things like the quality of your router; the distance between the router and the device (phone, IPad etc) that you

are accessing the internet on; what structures are between you and the router; the location of the router in your home;

interference from other devices in your home ... these are just a few of the things that can greatly weaken and affect your

wifi signal.

Positioning of your router in your home is very important. Because a router is designed to "throw out" its wifi signal in all

directions around it (imagine a light bulb), ideally if it was placed in the centre of your home this would be the best position.

In most cases this is just not practical though. Your incoming internet connection (phone line) usually doesn't come into the

middle of the house, and secondly most people don't want their router sitting up on their kitchen bench!

So what can I do to improve my WiFi …

So what can you do to improve your wifi signal. There are a few quick fix solutions you can try that may work.

1. Don't put your router on the floor. Get it off the ground at least desk high - and even higher if possible. Imagine the

light bulb - when you turn it on you want it to shine as far as possible, not straight into the ground.

2. Many people have their router in the study - right up one end of the house. This can often be the worst possible

location. Remember the light bulb? - half the signal gets transmitted outside where it does no good at all.

3. Don't put it next to a window - for the same reason as above.

4. Avoid putting it behind or next to your TV or media devices. These electrical devices can affect your wifi

performance, interfering with it. Also, stay away from enclosed consoles with heat producing appliances like DVD

players and game consoles. These can also cut down your wifi signal.

5. Don't put it in, under or behind cupboards, sideboards etc. Don't hide it - put it out in the open, the higher up the

better.

6. Speaking of devices in your home, steer clear of putting your router next to appliances like cordless phones, baby

monitors, fridges, microwaves, older TV's etc. Again, these too can all interfere with your WiFi signal. Unplug each

device that you think may be interfering, and check for an improvement in WiFi performance. Look for patterns,

such as when a cordless phone or baby monitor is on.

7. Got fish - don't put it next to your fish tank! WiFi doesn't pass through water. So unless Nemo and Dory have an

IPad, move the tank and router apart.

8. Where do you use the wifi most - in your lounge, family room, kids bedrooms etc? Try and put the router as

close to these areas as possible.

9. Limit applications that hog your speed. If your kids are always playing games online or doing video chats, this

can make your wireless experience slower for everyone else.

10. Walls and concrete. Here in WA we are blessed to be living in large homes made of brick - with solid brick

internal walls … also one of the worst things for wifi signal! The more brick walls that you have between your

router and where you are sitting with your IPad trying to watch YouTube, the more likely the signal is going to

be weakened.

11. Regularly reboot your router - that is turn it off for 15 seconds or more, and then turn it back on. Software

updates are made from time to time that require the system to restart - just like your computer.

12. Get a WiFi Frequency test done in your home - to see if any of your close neighbours routers and yours are

transmitting their WiFi on the same channels. This can cause interference and conflict between the devices.

13. Two storey homes! This is just another whole level of problem on its very own! WiFi is just NOT designed to

be transmitted between floors and levels - particularly if there is a concrete pad with a lot of metal

reinforcement strengthening separating the levels. So whatever floor that you have the router on, it is more

than likely the wireless signal on the other level is going to be very weak, and in some parts just non-existent!

Basically the bigger your home, the more likely that you are going to experience wifi issues. With most routers,

irrespective of all the factors listed above, the farther away that you get from your router the weaker that your signal

becomes. A general rule is that if you double the distance between the router and your device, throughput decreases by

one third of its original strength. And the more people and devices that are using the connection, the bigger the problem

becomes. As we bring more and more wifi internet connected devices into our homes, the strength and speed of our wifi

is going to become increasingly important.

So how can I fix my WiFi?

If you have tried some of the fixes listed above, and your wifi signal is still very weak or flaky in parts of your home, it

may be time to call in professional help. WiFi Solutions has over 20 years experience in customer service and commercial

electronic installations experience here in WA. We have a wealth of knowledge and experience in all areas of WiFi

systems, design and servicing - residential, commercial and large area/rural. As new technologies in high speed wireless

data transmission and WiFi network systems continually develop, WiFi Solutions IT engineers and technicians keep

abreast of these technology changes and introduce them to our clients. Bottom line - we are WiFi experts!

WiFi Solution’s service was born out of the ever increasing need to solve wifi and internet problems in homes and

home-based businesses here in WA. As people rely more and more on the internet in their homes, and with most

internet connected devices using the home wifi, poor wifi is a massive and growing problem. We realised that most

people were just not getting the right advice - after spending a lot of money and wasting a lot of time on quick fix low

quality signal extenders and the like - they still had terrible wifi! Enter WiFi Solutions ...

www.wifisolutions.com.au 0417 184 183 securitycentre1@hotmail.com