Best ways to increase the speed of your home Wifi and avoid internet slowdown problems.
In this article we will show you how to maximize the potential of our online Internet and how troubleshoot poor or slow Wi-Fi, by making changes to your home modem or by purchasing accessories that improve Wi-Fi speed and reception.
READ ALSO -> Wi-Fi not detected, why and how to fix
Index
1) Buy a new modem
If we have an old modem or a modem provided on loan by the operators, it is worth buying a new one immediately to increase and improve the speed of the Wi-Fi. To be on the safe side, we advise you to bet immediately on modem dual band, able to take advantage of two different frequencies to bring the fast Wi-Fi signal throughout the house.
One of the best modems you can buy to boost and improve your Wi-Fi speed is the AVM FRITZ! Box 7530 AX for € 149.
This modem can be connected directly to the telephone socket to navigate in ADSL or FTTC and can be used without problems even with FTTH connections, by connecting it in cascade to the operator’s modem or configuring it fordirect access to the optical fiber.
Among the features of this modem we find dual band Wi-Fi antennas (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), support for the new WPA3 security protocol and support for new Wi-Fi wireless protocol 6, which guarantees higher connection speeds and constant coverage in every corner of the house.
To discover other modems with powerful Wi-Fi we can read our guide to migliori modem Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax) and the article dedicated to best modems for fiber optics.
2) Replace the PC network card
If we have a PC with a few years on our shoulders, we can improve the connection speed to Wi-Fi by replacing the Wi-Fi network card with a more powerful model, capable of supporting the dual band networks of the modems seen in the previous chapter.
For desktop PCs, the best Wi-Fi network card model is the ASUS PCE-AX58BT AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 Adapter for € 67.
This adapter connects directly to the motherboard on a PCI-Expresss X1 slot and allows you to connect to the next generation Wi-Fi 6 networks, but also supports Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 4 networks. The maximum transmission speed is 3000 Mbps, a very high speed even higher than Ethernet cable connections (Gigabit or 1000 Mbps).
If we have a laptop PC without dual band Wi-Fi, we can immediately remedy this shortcoming by purchasing a USB Wi-Fi adapter such as the € 18 TP-Link Archer T3U.
This adapter allows you to connect to the dual band networks of modern modems and supports Wi-Fi 5, thus ensuring a browsing speed of up to 1300 Mbps. By connecting a USB network card to the laptop we will obviously have to disable the internal network card, so as to avoid interference and only use the external adapter to surf the Internet.
3) Use the Wi-Fi Mesh
If your home or office is large or with thick walls for the modem’s Wi-Fi signal, you should create one large distributed network of Wi-Fi Mesh type, so as to be able to offer the maximum navigation speed in every point of the house, even in houses arranged on several floors or over 120 square meters.
The best Wi-Fi Mesh model we can consider is the Tenda Nova MW5G Wi-Fi Mesh, distributed by Amazon for € 89.
With these devices we will be able to quickly create a wide coverage Mesh Wi-Fi network, so as to surf at maximum speed in every corner of the house. For operation, simply connect one of the adapters to the Ethernet cable modem and then combine the other adapters, which will be positioned in strategic points of the house to amplify the Wi-Fi coverage.
To learn more we can also read our guide on how a Mesh Wi-Fi network works. If, on the other hand, we want to save, we can always use gods Dual Band Wi-Fi repeaters, less effective but still useful for improving Wi-Fi speed.
4) Restart the modem periodically
Restarting the modem from time to time helps keep the network speed high by clearing the modem’s internal cache, clearing any device conflicts, and resetting the Internet connection. To keep the speed of the Wi-Fi and Internet connection always high, we recommend that you turn off and on the modem (and any intermediate components such as Wi-Fi Mesh or Wi-Fi repeaters) at least once a month, but if we surf the Internet a lot all day it is better to restart it once a week.
In another article we have shown you in detail how to restart a modem, also showing you the steps to make the operation automatic.
5) Change modem location
Depending on the shape of the rooms, walls and doors, a modem can spread the signal for the Wi-Fi connection more or less uniformly in a room or room. Ideally the modem should be placed in a central location at home, to make sure that the signal spreads in every room. So let’s avoid placing the modem near a wall (very common mistake) and avoid locking it inside cabinets, drawers or furniture.
In another article we saw how to find the find the best location for the modem and have the most wireless signal coverage.
6) Change the transmission channel
This is probably the most important point of this article and the main cause of problems in a wireless network. On the Wi-Fi networks that transmit at 2.4 GHz we find in fact only 3 non-overlapping channels among the 13 available, namely 1, 6 and 11. This means that if you live in an area crowded with Wi-Fi networks, everyone will use these three channels and the signal will be full of interference, and using intermediate channels (3, 9 or 13) will not improve the situation much. The only way to fix this is switch to a dual band modem, so as to connect devices that require fast internet (PCs, Smart TVs, consoles, phones, tablets, etc.) to the 5 GHz network and leaving the 2.4 GHz network only for old devices or home automation devices (which also work with low-speed networks but require maximum network coverage).
If we want to exploit both frequencies well, we invite you to read the guides listed below:
- Connect to the wireless channel of the Wi-Fi network with the strongest signal
- How to avoid Wi-Fi interference from neighboring networks
7) Secure the Wi-Fi network
Sometimes the reason for a slow internet connection is simply that someone else is using it without our knowledge, scrounging the internet. We must therefore check if someone is stealing our internet connection, protecting the network from intrusion and unauthorized devices.
To obtain the best results, it is always advisable to customize the password to access the Wi-Fi, choosing a password of at least 10 characters and also containing capital letters, numbers and symbols. We will have to add some modem settings to this password: activate WPA2-AES or WPA3 (if available) and deactivate WPS technology (very vulnerable).
To learn more we can also read the articles listed below:
- Find out who is connected to your network and connects wirelessly
- Modem security configurations
Other useful tips for securing our network are:
- We keep the router firmware updated
- We use the guest network for the devices of friends or visitors
- We change the login and password to access the router (not “admin” / “admin” or “admin” / “password”)
- Disable all “remote management” services offered by the router
- We turn off the Wi-Fi when we are away from home for more than 2 days
Doing so will prevent most attacks on the Wi-Fi network and prevent access to our network.
8) Avoid interference with other equipment
Some appliances, like microwave ovens or cordless phones, generate interference with Wi-Fi networks. To avoid problems and increase and improve the speed of the Wi-Fi, it is therefore advisable to keep them well away from the modem (at least 5 meters), so as to avoid the overlap of radio waves and the inevitable slowdown of the connection.
Without these precautions the Wi-Fi network can even freeze completely when the appliances are in operation or we are making a call.
9) Avoid using programs that are always connected
The speed of the Internet and Wi-Fi networks can be drastically reduced if you use programs that download or share files such as, for example, client BitTorrent o Emule. The same can be said for streaming services such as Netflix, which obviously can reduce the speed of internet downloads on your PC.
In this case it is better to use the priority system provided on modems high-end (like the one seen at the beginning of the guide). With this system it is possible to set the highest priority for some devices and for some protocols, so as to obtain the maximum speed when we are watching a movie online or playing video games.
P2P programs should be left on only at night, so as to obtain the maximum download speed when no one is using the network; to adjust the maximum speed only during the night and to prevent programs like uTorrent from occupying the entire band, we can read our guide on how to adjust uTorrent.
Conclusions
The tricks that we have provided you are all very simple to apply and allow you to solve all navigation and navigation problems increase and improve the speed of Wi-Fi in all network conditions. In most cases it will be enough to change the modem, while in other cases we will have to change some pieces on a PC or laptop, in addition to applying small tricks on the chosen modem.
To learn more we can also read our guide for find out what slows down your network speed, where all the factors that can cause a decline in network performance are well explained.
