Hosting This Holiday? Get Your WiFi Ready
Holidays are about bringing people together, and people never go anywhere without their technology. Phones, cameras, laptops, tablets — all of these items connect to WiFi and can cause significant lag in your usually speedy connections when running off the same signal. Think about it, you’re watching the game with the boys, while the ladies enjoy the newest holiday Netflix shows, and that over-achieving uncle is slaving away on his stocks and bonds — everyone wants fast and efficient WiFi. So, here are some simple tricks and tips to avoid that potentially disastrous WiFi delay and get your home prepped for this holiday season.
Location Matters
The first step in ensuring your home WiFi connection is ready for the holidays is to check the physical location of your internet router. Don’t make the mistake of moving your router to a far-off place when company comes to visit. While you may have the best of intentions for moving your router to the basement or up to the second-floor home office, getting it ‘out of the way’ is actually a big misstep. Why? Because electromagnetic signals (how your WiFi transfers data) are susceptible to any number of barriers you may have in your home. Everything from your walls and floors to mirrors and common household appliances can worsen your WiFi signal strength. And, yes, even occasionally your holiday décor. Christmas lights, or rather their WiFi enabled controllers used to turn the lights on and off, have been shown to interfere with connectivity. The solution is pretty easy though; experts recommend simply turning off the electronic devices to stop the disruption to signal strength.
Try moving your router to a more centralized location in your home where the signal can be more evenly dispersed to all your devices and has less object interference. This can create a dramatic improvement in your WiFi performance.
Reset Your Router
Routers are essentially like mini-computers, and any speed or software updates to your system will likely require a reboot similar to that of your smartphone. Restarting your router can also help sync up any new IP addresses and increase your network’s memory load. You can easily check your router IP address. The simplest way to go about a reset is to unplug your router from its power source or outlet — this way you don’t accidentally erase any of your current settings. Then once it’s unplugged, wait at least 30 seconds before plugging it back in. Ideally, you want to do this a day or two before your friends and family come over to watch the big game. That way any connectivity issues can be sorted out.
Reevaluate Your WiFi Package
If you’re still stuck with less than optimal results after testing out the tips above, it’s time to consider other methods for how to improve your home WiFi. You want your friends to gather to watch football, open gifts, and create a feast all while enjoying a quality connection with one another and your WiFi. Consider improving your WiFi coverage with more access points spread throughout your home or upgrading your current package to one that allows more of your devices to connect at higher speeds.
You want your home and internet to be ready while you’re entertaining this holiday season and making sure your WiFi is up to speed is vital in that process. So, take the time to maximize your home’s network performance and if need be upgrade your internet package so you can make everyone’s season merry and bright.
