How to get WiFi throughout your home and garden
We rely on the internet so much these days that a slow or unreliable connection can be frustrating and problematic in equal measure. And while fibre broadband companies and former BT subsidiary Openreach, have done great work installing high-speed fibre optic cables throughout towns and cities across Scotland, slow internal connections aren’t always down to available line speed.
Many factors can compromise your broadband router’s ability to provide stable internet coverage in every corner of your home and garden – some of them unintentionally self-inflicted. These are some of Cruden Homes’s expert tips for ensuring wireless data isn’t blocked or diminished by factors which are within your control…
- Give your main router a boost.
Broadband routers distribute their wireless signals in a spherical radius, but that doesn’t always suit long and narrow properties, let alone those with large gardens. Many ISPs offer satellite routers which receive and amplify signals from the main router, boosting coverage, though you may have to request them. Off-the-shelf mesh extenders perform a similar job.
- Position the router centrally.
Going back to the spherical signal distribution we mentioned a moment ago, that’s fine if the router sits centrally in your home. However, if it’s sat beside the front door, half its signal will be covering the front garden or lobby outside. If your main router isn’t fixed in place, position it as centrally as possible; in a three-bed house, that may be at the top of the stairs.
- Change the channel.
Alongside dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz (and occasionally 6GHz tri-band) output, broadband routers broadcast across wireless channels with slightly varying frequencies. On older routers, channels 1, 6 or 11 offered the widest diversity. It’s worth changing channel if your broadband is routinely experiencing interference, particularly from neighbouring homes.
- Rule out internal sources of interference.
It’s not just the WiFi in neighbouring properties which may cause issues. Our homes are full of wireless 2.4GHz devices, including baby monitors and some home/car alarms. Microwave ovens and kettles could trigger interference as well, whenever they’re turned on. If your WiFi is intermittently unreliable, start a diary to try and identify common underlying factors.
- Remove physical obstructions where possible.
Wireless signals inevitably travel through physical objects between a router and destination devices, but try to minimise this. You can’t do anything about internal walls, but fish tanks and solid wood are particularly bad at smothering signals. Never put a router (or a device attempting to connect to it) inside a cupboard, below a mirror or behind metal sheeting.
- Upgrade the router.
This isn’t possible if your broadband connection comes from a full fibre company who use their own proprietary cabling and hardware. However, if you’re taking a connection from an Openreach socket or a phone line, you rarely have to use the ISP-supplied router. Third-party routers may have external aerials and internal boosters, offering stronger signal distribution.
- Ring your ISP’s technical support team.
Tech support staff aren’t just waiting for calls about outages. They can also offer practical and personalised help in terms of tackling a lack of whole-home coverage. They might recommend innovative approaches like hardwiring some devices into the router via Ethernet or Powerline cables, reducing the number of WiFi connections the router has to support.
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