Today, WiFi has become an essential part of our lives
- Convenience: As much as electricity and water with the world becoming relatively more connected.
- Probably, each gadget starting from a smartphone and including smart home devices depends on the wireless connection.
- His convenience makes us entertain movies, work from home, and manage home devices through smart devices without conductive wires.
- But even in the current world of advanced technology, the ability to boost the signal strength of the WiFi around one’s home can be somewhat of a struggle.
- Interference by barriers such as walls or even household items sometimes hinders the signal which can be rather irritating and time-wasting.
- It is important to comprehend all of these factors to guarantee you achieve the optimum performance from your home network.
Therefore, over the past few decades, WiFi technology has exhibited great advancement
- Early Limitations: Although the first wireless networks were very slow and not very reliable, further developments were aimed at improving hardware and protocol.
- Today’s routers are capable of transferring data at a faster rate, they are able to handle multiple devices at a go and are able to cover wider areas as compared to the traditional routers.
- Still, the technologically enhanced devices present on the market do have their drawbacks.
- In particular, users complain of having dead zones or even low signal strength in some areas of their homes.
- This problem usually has a relation with the physical environment that hinders the connection of WiFi signals.
The variation of some of these effects is associated with the interference of different materials
- Materials Impact: Some of them are inherent to the construction of your home and others are formed by additional construction finishing, decoration, or the use of electronics in your house.
- Thicker Walls and Larger Objects: The thicker the walls, the floors, or the larger the objects like sofas and tables, the more the WiFi signals will be interrupted.
- Hence, although there is no requirement for excessive interior design reconstruction or character by ensuring an open, spaceless apartment for WiFi signals, acquiring prior knowledge regarding how various materials impact the signals will help in comprehending a variety of attributes of the surmised home environment.
Types of construction materials are also another critical factor that affects the strength of WiFi signals
Construction Materials:
- Cement, Bricks, and Marble:
- Essentially, the more signal-path distance there is between the transmitter and the receiver, the more the signal is likely to be attenuated.
- Cement and Bricks: Dense objects that tend to reduce the signal intensity considerably over a certain distance.
- Marble: Used in countertop designs and decorative components, it is a hard, non-penetrable surface that can reflect and distort WiFi signals.
Further, it is surprising that employing the building materials does not affect the signals of the WiFi similarly
- Wood vs. Concrete: For instance, structures that contain wood material, which is prevalent in interior furniture and some components of the building, are reasonably WiFi signal penetrable.
- Even though its density is rather high, it is slightly less detrimental to the signal as opposed to brick or concrete.
- This makes wood a more WiFi-friendly option in homes than concrete walls that hinder the network’s signals.
- Glass: One of the materials that can reduce the WiFi signal’s strength, although it has a lesser impact compared to aluminum. Glass, used in windows and doors, is a major problem because it is a reflective material; this tends to interfere with signals as they bounce back and forth, leading to problem areas in your coverage region.
- Plasterboard: Plasterboard is the common term for what is also termed as drywall and is generally used when making interior walls.
- Impact: Though it doesn’t initially appear to be such an issue, plasterboard is truly a WiFi foe.
- Its structure and thickness can severely attenuate and dampen a portion of the signal, which complicates the issue when one wants to have a strong signal across different rooms.
- This is even more so in complex houses where several sources of plasterboard walls separate different sections of the house, and each contributes towards the signal’s attenuation.
It is also important to note that to the construction materials used in the walls of a residence
- Household Appliances: Household appliances or other gadgets that may be connected to the internet through the use of Wi-Fi connections may also hinder the signals.
- This type of device is more common, especially in older devices, and such devices typically do not have any form of EMI shielding, which makes them more prone to interrupting wireless signals.
- Examples:
- Old televisions
- Old refrigerators
- Microwave ovens
- These produce electromagnetic interferences to Wi-Fi signals.
- Nevertheless, the kitchen may be considered a challenging location for WiFi coverage because of numerous appliances’ presence.
- If your router is close to these devices or if these appliances are placed between the router and the areas where you need WiFi signal, you can lose quite a lot of signal.
- In such circumstances, it is recommended to rearrange the location of the router or to incorporate WiFi extenders.
Another somewhat bizarre cause of WiFi interference is mirrors
- Mirrors: Mirrors, in general, were primarily made for reflecting light, but in addition to that, they can also reflect other electromagnetic waves that include the ones used in WiFi signals.
- This reflective property may generate dead zones or diminish the strength of the signal, specifically if there are big mirrors next to the router or in the course of the route of the signal.
- Mirroring is an interference which depends, for instance, on the size of the mirror and its location; it is, however, not as great as the one of thick walls or large appliances.
It means that even people can interfere with available WiFi signal
- Human Factor: In other words, the human factor influences the signal strength of a certain network.
- Water Content: Water makes up 75% of the human body, and if present within the body, it can absorb and thus attenuate WiFi signals.
- This is not a big problem in daily home use but may cause problems in crowded places.
- For instance, if you are having a party or any kind of a congregation, people aggregate leading to congesting the area, and this hampers the stability of the WiFi signal.
- This is also common in places of business, meeting places, and even coffee shops and the likes where many people connect to the same network adversely affects the quality of wireless connection.
- In such cases, it is necessary to ensure a stable signal. For this, you can install WiFi repeaters or additional access points.
It is important to comprehend the type of these various forms of interference
- Router Placement: Encouraging a better WiFi signal at home is something that you cannot directly amend, but there are other techniques that may be adopted in your proposition.
- Even such as a basic step as making sure your router is positioned in an open area of your house such as the middle of the dwelling can go a long way in improving reception.
- This positioning aids in making certain that the signal is disseminated with the right coverage in your home.
- Do not install the router near the thick walls, large appliances, or behind the metal objects as these hinder the signal.
- OH, that I have in my apartment several floors, it is recommended to put a router on the middle floor because the signal radiates and drops down.
In larger homes or homes that are scattered
- Single Router Limitations: The signal of a single router may not be adequate for the whole house.
- Mesh WiFi Systems: Indeed, in such a situation, the utilization of mesh WiFi systems can prove to be helpful.
- Mesh systems include nodes that can be placed all over your home to act in unison with each other.
- Again, as compared to other extenders out there that may establish totally different networks and slower speeds, mesh systems supply a single network with equal signal quality among the nodes.
- This setup is especially helpful in cases where thick walls or any kinds of barriers can hinder or block the transmission of commands and/or information.
It is also recommendable to ensure that your router firmware is updated to be the latest version
- Firmware Updates: Users benefit from updates that the manufacturers release from time to time since they will offer enhanced performance, security, and compatibility with new devices.
- Other than that, ensure your router is operating on the latest firmware that captures these improvements henceforth.
- Also ensure that you have the latest model of Router if you are using the old one. A newer router will always have the enhanced features, seeing that it has not been exposed to any wear and tear damaging its functionality, it will be better off in terms of range, speed, and the ability to handle multiple devices.
- For instance, routers that incorporate WiFi 6, which is the latest wireless standard, are many folds faster, efficient, and more capacity as compared to the previous standards.
The general information concerning WiFi technology is progressive in the present world
- WiFi 6 (802.11ax): The 6th Generation Wi-Fi known as Wi-Fi 6 or 802.11ax.
- The shift from concentration on a product or service’s attributes, it explains that 11ax is the evolution in focus from a single product or service that has specific attributes to a customer base that consists of people who need that attribute.
- It provides higher speed, scalability, and efficiency of the network with many connected appliances.
- These enhancements give it the advantage of becoming appropriate with the new trendy families where lots of devices fight for the bandwidth.
- Getting a new WiFi 6 enabled router can help to unlock these improvements and you will be ready for the future when WiFi 6 devices are more common.
Since the use of the wireless connection expands year by year
- Importance of Improvement: It is vital to work on improving our home networks.
- Whether or not you are telecommuting, watching films, gaming online, or setting up the central hub for your smart home, a fast and stable internet signal is crucial.
- In conclusion, one can note that it means focusing on the factors in order to establish a more favorable influence on your WiFi signal. All about WiFi signal booster, including the placement of routers in strategic points, utilization of the mesh systems, proper updating of the related equipment, etc.
On balance
- Impact of Home Items: It must be concluded that many items and materials located in your house may affect your WiFi signal and, therefore, assuming that you are aware of such influences, you are capable of making some changes to optimize it.
- Everything from the building construction materials to the position of the furniture and household utensils count.
- In other words, through a more controlled setup and advancements, you can improve the quality of the WiFi signal that penetrates your home’s walls so that it can dependably connect you at any given location within your house.
- By keeping abreast with new developments in technology and being prepared for adaptability, one can easily connect to the world hence enjoying other perks that come with having a good home Wi-Fi network.