While our Cala homes are all wired for superfast broadband, we all use WiFi differently. With so many of us working from home, it’s important that we have high-speed internet in every room to ensure we can join those regular Teams calls.
So we have collaborated with Broadband.co.uk to put this guide together and help everyone get the very best out of their WiFi.
Optimising WiFi in your home
There are a few simple things you can do that can optimise WiFi in your home.
Each change is simple and takes just a couple of minutes, yet can drastically improve WiFi performance.
Position your router carefully
If you want to deliver the best possible WiFi speed, position your WiFi router close to the centre of your home and away from large appliances.
Also, try to keep the router away from walls. When it comes to WiFi, one of the disadvantages of a quality build is solid walls, which can interfere with the signal.
Placing the router closer to the centre of the property means WiFi signal is shared evenly and will help to reduce or eliminate areas of weak reception.
Enable both 2.4GHz and 5GHz
Most WiFi routers have two frequencies, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Enabling both can help reception within a property.
You can do this from the settings menu on your router.
The 5GHz frequency is faster but doesn’t reach very far. The 2.4GHz frequency is slightly slower but can reach much further in your home.
Enabling both means your devices can select whichever is the strongest signal.
Change the wireless channel
You might not know this, but WiFi frequencies are divided into channels. These will initially be set to defaults on your router.
If all your neighbours use the same channel and their signal reaches your house, it can cause your WiFi to slow down. Simply changing the WiFi channel can address this.
Log into your router, navigate to the WiFi area and move both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz options up or down one or two channels. Save the change and see if it makes a difference.
Experiment with channel selection until you get the performance you’re looking for.
Secure your network
Sometimes, WiFi performance can be impacted by other people using your network. The easiest way to protect against this is to password protect your network to keep unauthorised users out.
Log into your router and find the WiFi network section. Add a password if there isn’t one already and make sure encryption is set to WPA2 as this is the strongest option.
Use a WiFi booster or mesh kit
You can also buy a WiFi booster that can deliver a stronger signal to certain parts of the home.
WiFi boosters are small devices that plug into a mains socket and boost your signal so it travels further. The only downside is that the boosted signal may not be as fast as a direct connection to your router.
Alternatively, invest in a mesh kit. Mesh kits use a network of “nodes” to extend WiFi signal throughout a property.
They cost more than boosters but are much more effective because they have a link back to the main router or node that does not share traffic with the rest of your network.
If you’ve set up a garden office and looking for ways to extend WiFi outside, then a booster or mesh kit can help. However, depending on how far your garden office is from the main building, it might require you to add an additional outdoor booster. These can be mounted on an external wall and pointed toward your office for the best reception.
Upgrade your router
Most home routers are provided by the ISP, but you can use your own router too. You can either replace your ISP router or add an extra router to the network to boost signal.
We would suggest this option only to those who work from home and require stronger WiFi or for when you really need a boost.
Routers can be expensive, and you’ll need to set it up and manage it yourself, so we recommend this as a last resort. In most cases, the router supplied by your ISP will be enough.
Internet is as important as gas or electricity to many households. That makes areas with poor WiFi signal more than frustrating.
Hopefully, the steps in this guide are enough to boost your WiFi so that you can use it in any room you want, whether that’s for working, streaming music or watching TV with the family.
