

You must have already noticed that there are places in your house where the internet signal gets stronger or weaker, right? This happens because your router can’t always send the same strength of signal to all the rooms, and so it is strongest in the closest rooms.įor that reason, if you really want to enjoy your connection, it is really important that you know where the signal is good and effective. Learn where the signal is strongest or weakest Then, simply select the Automatic option so your device can always make the choice to use 5GHz whenever possible. You could plug the games console, the TV, Sky+ box, or other set-top-box straight into the ethernet network via a Powerline adapter.To swap the frequency band you’re using on Android, go to your WiFi settings, tap Advanced and then look for WiFi frequency band. Powerline adapters would be a good option for you if, as mentioned in the second scenario above, someone in your house is hogging the bandwidth for gameplay, or if you are streaming from Netflix or similar.

You can either connect to this with an ethernet cable, or, if the Powerline adapter has Wi-Fi built in, you can connect to that via Wi-Fi. Then in another room in the house you plug in a second Powerline adapter. You just plug a Powerline adapter into the power socket beside your router, and attach the router to it via the ethernet cable. Powerline adaptors can create a home network over the electrical wiring in your house. Round up of Powerline adaptors on our sister site, TechAdvisor). One option is a Powerline adapter (we have a The problems you might encounter with a Wi-FI extender are signal degradation and the fact that if the extender is placed in a weak Wi-Fi spot it will be pushing out a weak signal.
#Stronger wifi signal mac
But note, before you rush out and buy an ax router that your current Mac won’t have the required networking card (perhaps this is something we will start to see appearing on new Mac models over the next year). It’s predicted to have a top speed of around 10Gb/s and should perform better in environments with lots and lots of connected devices (which is basically all of our homes now that we have so many iPhones, iPads, HomePods and other smart gadgets). Just a note here to say that the next 802.11 standard – 802.11ax – is expected to arrive in 2019.
#Stronger wifi signal update
It’s possible that you have been with them for a while and they might be nice enough to update your router for free. Look for Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.Īlso, don’t rush out and by a new router without first contacting your ISP and asking them for an update. Go to: Apple menu > About this Mac > System Report > Wi-Fi. 802.11ac is better at alleviating video stuttering or buffering so you should get better results here.īefore getting an 802.11ac router check that your Mac supports it. These routers are also capable of beamforming – which allows the routers to concentrate the WiFi signal towards your WiFi devices.Īnother reason to get an 802.11ac router is if you do a lot of streaming – and let’s face it, these days that’s most of us thanks to Netflix and the like. One of the features offered by 802.11ac is Multi User-Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) – which means it can send and receive multiple data streams simultaneously to multiple devices without bandwidth degradation. We recommend getting an 802.11ac router if you don’t already own one. The old style of router called 802.11g is still prevalent, but it runs much slower than the 802.11n, and the most current, 802.11ac type. If your sleuthing has shown that there are a lot of wireless networks around you that are using the 2.4GHz band and you have an older router that isn’t able to use the 5GHz frequency, it may be time to update your router.Īll routers use a standard known as 802.11. You should be able to click on the wireless channels options and choose the one that you prefer.

It’s likely to be in the advanced wireless settings. How you change the channels will depend on your router software.
