Tips That Boost Wi-Fi Performance

Okay, so you have bought the latest and greatest router. It supports the latest Wi-Fi technologies and it’s supposed to deliver the fastest download speeds known to man. And yet, something isn’t right. The Internet feels a bit snappier, it’s true, but you aren’t experiencing those speed increases you’ve been dreaming of. If these things ring a bell, it’s time to discover our expert tips that are guaranteed to boost Wi-Fi performance.

Begin by evaluating the speed of your network. It makes a lot of sense to be able to compare download and upload speeds after you’ve made some changes, after all. There are lots of services and even apps that can measure Wi-Fi speed, but I like this service because it is simple and effective.

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Be sure to run several tests – five should be enough – and then compute the average speed value.

Did you know that the first bottleneck could be the router itself? If your ISP can move data at speeds of 500 Mbps, but your router can’t keep up, there aren’t too many things that you can do to fix the problem, besides replacing the router, of course.

Actually, there is something else that you can do: pull out the old antennas, plug in a couple of long extension cables, and then use a pair of new, high gain router antennas. This way, you may revive even an ancient router, saving it from a sudden electronic death.

Make these changes, and then measure your Internet speed again. Then, it’s time to move the new high gain antennas around. That’s why you’ve connected them using those long cables, after all.

Proper router placement is one of the key factors when it comes to boosting Wi-Fi performance. Fortunately, you won’t have to carry its box around; you can place it on top of the cabinet, for example, and then make use of the freedom given by those cables to find the best antenna positions. In addition to this, you can easily orient an antenna towards a particular room, for example, and the other towards a different room, thus ensuring that both rooms have a strong Wi-Fi signal.

Some routers have different sets of antennas for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. This means that you should take the time to position them in a way that helps all the devices, which may be operating in both bands.

wifi-frequencies

Your router may be new, but this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to update its firmware. In fact, the newer your router is, chances are an update that fixes bugs and boosts Internet speed may already be available. So, go to your router manufacturer’s website regularly, and check if any updates are available.

Many smart routers give you the option of prioritizing network access speeds. Named QoS – Quality of Service – this option allows you to choose the devices that receive priority Wi-Fi access. By making use of QoS, you will be sure that your office laptop, for example, gets Internet access on the fast speed lane every time you turn it on.

These tips should significantly boost Wi-Fi performance. But if the speed improvements aren’t that great, you should go for a range extender. Maybe your house is too big for a single Wi-Fi router, after all. Or maybe its walls are made from a material that doesn’t allow Wi-Fi signals to propagate properly.

The good news is that range extenders aren’t expensive at all. Just be sure to choose a model that has the same features with your router. And if you go this route, be sure to place the extender in an area where it can still pick a decent signal, and not in the area where the Wi-Fi signal is almost dead. This will ensure that the range extender will pick up a strong signal, and then push it further towards the area that lacks it.

Feel free to use an app and your smartphone to determine signal strength around the house. This way, you will be able to find a good position for your range extender without having to guess it.

These are some easy tips that are guaranteed to fix your Wi-Fi signal problems. Apply them all, one at a time, and your Wi-Fi performance will improve for sure.

Smartphone news

Samsung Galaxy S8 Announced

Samsung will launch the new Galaxy S8 phone within the next few months, and it will bundle it with an intelligent virtual assistant. According to Samsung, the phone will allow people to perform various tasks and order products and services without having to rely on third party applications.

The AI software will be made available to other devices as well – refrigerators, for example. This means that your fridge will be able to order food whenever you instruct it to do so.

The South Korean company acquired Viv labs Inc., a Silicon Valley startup that was founded by the same team who implemented Siri for Apple’s devices.

Samsung will probably launch the new phone in March or April 2017, just like it did with the previous Galaxy S iterations. The company needs to sell lots of these smartphones, because its profits diminished significantly due to the Galaxy Note 7 flop.

 

OnePlus 3T Hits the Market in November

I simply love OnePlus 3! So when I heard that an upgraded version of my beloved smartphone – called OnePlus 3T – will be available next month, I couldn’t help asking myself what will they add to an already perfect phone.

oneplus3

According to Weibo, OnePlus 3T will come with a snappier CPU – a Snapdragon 821. I have to admit that this has gotten me a little bit worried. Because a faster processor will always make the battery drain faster, isn’t it? Well, it looks like things have already been taken care of. The new model comes with an upgraded 3300 mA battery, a 10% increase in comparison with the old model, which should cover all the needs of the hungrier CPU and then some.

OnePlus 3T comes with the same 6 GB of RAM, the largest amount of memory in a phone so far. And with storage capacities upgraded to 128 GB, you won’t have to turn on your laptop too often. In fact, some of you may even decide to sell your laptops. We are only years away from the moment when laptops will be replaced by smartphones, and this one may have just accelerated the transition.

OnePlus 3T will use the same 5.5 inch display we have come to love, but it will run the newer Android 7.0 Nougat operating system. The price will probably stay below $500, which is a great figure for a smartphone that does so many things properly.

 

Asus ZenFone 3 Max

Asus’ newest smartphone has been recently launched and its specs don’t look that impressive at first glance.

First of all, it features the same 5.5 inch display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels that lots of phones use these days. Then, it comes with a 1.4 GHz, eight core Snapdragon 430 CPU and 32 GB of internal storage.

So, is there anything special about this phone? Well, there are quite a few things, if you ask me.

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Believe it or not, Asus ZenFone 3 Max comes with an SD card slot. I know, it’s not an outstanding feature, but I have come to appreciate it a lot, because fewer and fewer manufacturers use it. And if you take into account the fact that it can host cards with sizes of up to 128 GB, those 32 gigs of built-in storage aren’t that annoying anymore.

Then, this phone comes with a huge, 4100 mA battery. It’s not removable, but at least it’s big enough to carry us through an entire day of intense phone usage. And since we’re going to recharge it less often, I expect this battery to last at least a few years.

 

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