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Boost your signal
Tips to help expand the reach of your Wi-Fi network.
Wireless networking and Internet access sounded ideal for your business when you installed it in your home or office. One access point with an antenna throws out a signal to computers within its range, connecting several desktops or enabling you to compose e-mails to clients while lounging beside your pool–without yards of wires and cables.
The reality of your Wi-Fi setup (short for wireless fidelity), the common term for a high-frequency wireless local-area network, may not be as rosy. Some spots in your wireless zone may register little or no signal, leaving you dropped from your network like a cell-phone call in a tunnel. However, you can improve your signal either by eliminating interference, moving your access point, or boosting your antenna’s strength.
Check your blockers
Structural elements in a building, such as drywall, metal, and wood, can dampen your antenna’s signal. Large numbers of books also block Wi-Fi signals, as the people building the new library in San Jose, California, recently found out.
Devices with interfering frequencies wreak havoc with your access. Wi-Fi shares the same frequencies as 2.4 GHz cordless phones; both the phone handsets and bases can interfere with your Wi-Fi. Also, microwave ovens can interrupt Wi-Fi communications nearby when in use.
Location, location, location
Your Wi-Fi base broadcasts in all directions, sending the signal above, below, and beside the unit in a sphere of access. Placing this access point in the center of its intended area of use maximizes the signal.
Of course, the base requires a direct connection with the DSL, cable modem, or T1 line that brings the Internet to your home or office; this Internet line often is accessed through an exterior wall. Thus, putting your Wi-Fi base in the middle of your home or office could entail running a long cable from the wall to the center of the building–which eliminates a major benefit of wireless technology.
However, if you can move your access point to a more central location, it will probably improve your Wi-Fi signal. And, like rabbit ears on a TV–remember those?–a little tinkering and adjusting might even get rid of some dead spots.
Accessorize
If moving the base, banning microwaved burritos, and ridding the area of cordless phones yield poor results, it’s time to buy some gadgets. A signal repeater or power-line network can improve and expand your reception.
A repeater placed within a Wi-Fi base station’s broadcast area gathers up the signal and resends it, expanding your usage area. This works well if you need to push your signal to an unserved corner of your office or want to include the patio in your home network. Since they receive and retransmit every piece of data, repeaters slightly degrade Wi-Fi performance, but you won’t notice the difference unless you’re using multiple repeaters or trying to stretch a signal to extreme distances.
Power-line adapters plug into common electrical wall outlets and create a network using the wires already running electricity in the walls of your home or office. With the adapter, you can send your Internet signal through the electric wires and create another access point by plugging an adapter into a power outlet in another room. This technology can be used to solve the problem of centrally locating your base station or to significantly increase the range of your signal when combined with a repeater.
You don’t have to live with dead spots or sporadic Wi-Fi reception, regardless of your home or office setup. Identify the source of your signal problem and select a solution appropriate to your network and wallet.
Photo © Comstock Images.
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