If you are in a house where the internet is not as fast as you would like and you don’t have the budget to switch companies or buy a new WiFi router, follow our tips: they are free.
Improving Internet speed is difficult if you don’t know where to start, so our tips range from the most obvious to the most complicated. So you can try one by one until you find the solution.
Without further ado, we start with the final list of improvements for a whopping zero euros spent in the process.
How to improve your home Internet speed without spending money
Turn everything off and on
First, turn everything off and on to see if your WiFi speed improves. Unplug the modem, wait 30 seconds and plug it back in. This process allows the modem to clear any faults.
The modem translates Internet signals between your home network and your Internet provider. If your Internet connection is not working properly, a power cycle is a good way to start troubleshooting, as it often solves connection problems.
Then repeat the process if you have a standalone wireless router. As with the modem, a power cycle clears the router’s memory and gives you a fresh start on the tasks that were bogging you down before.
Finally, turn off WiFi on all your wireless devices. Wait a few seconds and turn WiFi back on. Let these devices reconnect and see if the connection improves.
A power cycle may seem like the easy thing to do, but turning your home network equipment off and on again can really give your network a boost. We recommend restarting your equipment regularly, at least once a month.
Move the router to a better location
WiFi signals can only travel so far and can be interrupted or blocked by walls, floors, ceilings, furniture, appliances and basically any large physical object.
These WiFi signals can also be interrupted by radio waves from other devices, such as cordless phones, baby monitors, microwaves and Bluetooth speakers.
So if you place your wireless router at one end of your home space, you may have problems with WiFi at the other end. The best place for your router is in a central, elevated location, close to where you use the Internet most frequently.
Do not relegate the router to a basement or a closet, as you will be exposing yourself to connectivity problems and it makes no sense. Nothing like putting it in the center of the house.
Change the WiFi frequency band
Modern wireless routers operate primarily in two radio frequency bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The band you use for your connections can affect your wireless speeds and Wi-Fi signal strength at different distances from your router.
Whatever WiFi frequency band you are on may be experiencing some temporary interference, so try switching to the other band.
It will appear as a different WiFi network on your device, usually with a label in the network name that identifies it as 2.4 Ghz or 5 Ghz.
The 2.4 GHz band is the most widely used WiFi connection. It is used for many other wireless communications besides WiFi, so the airwaves of this frequency can be a bit saturated.
This band trades speed for range (i.e., it passes through walls and other objects better), while the 5 GHz band has better speed but shorter range.
Adjust your router antennas
Many routers and wireless gateways have internal antennas, i.e. they are mounted inside the device and cannot be adjusted. If that is your case, skip this step.
But if you have adjustable antennas on your router, try reconfiguring them. Router antennas are usually omnidirectional, which means that they send signals in all directions perpendicular to the antenna. For example, a vertical antenna sends WiFi signals horizontally and vice versa.
So, if you need to extend its WiFi signals over several floors, adjusting an antenna so that it is positioned horizontally and spreads WiFi signals up and down might help. And if you need to cover more area, position the antenna vertically.
Many routers and wireless gateways have internal antennas, i.e. they are mounted inside the device and cannot be adjusted. If that is your case, skip this step.
Eliminate unnecessary connections
If you are running out of bandwidth, you should disconnect all unused devices. Everything connected to your network should be essential.
The quickest way to disconnect non-essential devices is to change WiFi passwords and reboot the router. You will then need to reconnect to your network with the new password on all the devices you are currently using.
This method will purge all unnecessary connections, such as the emergency cell phone that you keep on and that keeps silently downloading updates.
And with all these steps we are sure that your internet has improved and you can now watch series in Full HD on your TV and play your Call of Duty and League of Legends games without signal cuts.
By the way, there is nothing like connecting to the Internet via cable, try that RJ45 you have in the drawer dead, you will not regret it.
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