Things That Can Affect Your Wi-Fi Signal

Location and Distance:

When using your Wi-Fi, you may notice that you get a spotty Wi-Fi signal in certain areas of your home, while in other areas the signal is just fine. One of the limitations of your Wi-Fi signal is how far it can reach. That’s because the signal strength and bandwidth decreases as you get further away from your router.  So, it’s important to consider where you put our Wi-Fi router in your home.

To maximize the coverage area of your Wi-Fi signal, we recommend putting your router towards the center of your home’s main floor. That’s because most routers send their Wi-Fi signal out and down like an umbrella. So, if you place your router in the basement, you are not maximizing your signal coverage, and you may be limiting the signal in your upper floors. For the same reason, you should also place your router up high, like on top of a bookshelf or on a desk, instead of on the floor. Something else to consider is to put your router in the room where you use the Wi-Fi the most. That will guarantee a stronger signal where you need it most. 

Wherever you decide to place your router, make sure it is in an open space with plenty of airflow. Just like your modem and laptop, there are air vents on your router that help to regulate its temperature. If these vents are blocked due to dust, animal hair, or clutter, your router may overheat, causing it to fail and stop working until it has cooled down.

Interference:

When it comes to your Wi-Fi signal, there are two things that can cause interference with the signal, physical obstructions in your home and other electronics in your home. Physical obstructions include things like the number and type of walls your Wi-Fi signal must travel through. The more walls and doors your signal must travel through to reach your devices, the more interference there will be with the signal. Here is a look at some of the common building materials in your home and how much they will degrade your Wi-Fi signal (source: bitsfrombytes.com). If your wi-fi signal must travel through brick, stone, and metal walls, your Wi-Fi signal may be blocked or degraded, so you may want to consider moving your router so the signal does not have to travel through these types of walls.

Some of the other physical things that can affect your Wi-Fi signal strength are large metal objects, like filing cabinets or metal shelves, mirrors, fish tanks, water coolers, and breaker boxes. You should avoid putting your router on or next to these items, and make sure your Wi-Fi signal doesn’t have to pass through these items to reach your laptop, gaming system, or smart TV. Lastly, power lines and power stations near your home may also cause some minor Wi-Fi interference. While there really isn’t anything you can do about them, it is something to keep in mind.

The second type of interference that can affect your Wi-Fi signal is from other electronics in your home. Wi-Fi routers use radio frequencies to transmit their signal, just like cell phones, radios, and TVs. While we will dive into the specific radio frequencies in just a bit, it is important to know that many electronics in your home use the same radio frequency as your router. This leads to interference with your Wi-Fi signal, causing a slow Internet connection or causing the Wi-Fi signal to drop out completely. Some of the electronics that are known to interfere with Wi-Fi signals include: Cell phones, microwaves, baby monitors, cordless phones, garage door openers, Bluetooth speakers, and some wireless alarm systems. You should move these electronics away from your Wi-Fi router, and make sure they are not between your router and your devices.

Here is an example from one of our own customers of how interference from another device affected their Wi-Fi. The customer would sit in their living room working on their laptop, by using a Wi-Fi signal. But, whenever someone used the microwave in the kitchen, they would lose their Wi-Fi signal. Well, it turned out that their router was in the kitchen and the microwave was positioned between the router and the laptop they were working on in the living room. So, when the microwave was used, it’s frequency would interfere with the Wi-Fi signal, causing it to drop. By just moving the router to a different location, the issue was solved. So, if you are seeing your Wi-Fi signal dropping out frequently, you may want to investigate what other devices in your home may be affecting it.