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Solving the problem with low speed Wi-Fi connection. Choosing the best router location

Another article on this popular topic. Probably everyone who checked the connection speed through their wifi network, were interested in why it is so low, why the router cuts the speed, and how to increase the speed of the Internet connection. I have already answered almost all these questions in the article:. And in this article we will talk about how to increase the speed of the Internet over a Wi-Fi network. And how it is generally possible.

The whole problem is that when you connect the cable (from the ISP, or even from the router) directly to the computer, we usually get a speed of 80-100 Mbps (if you have a tariff of 100 Mbps), and when connected via Wi-Fi, how lucky. Maybe even 20 Mbps, or even less. If your router is not the cheapest, then the speed will be approximately 50-60 Mbps. But, it all depends on the specific case. And in general, the speed that a router gives out over a wireless network depends not only on the router itself. There are many different factors, which I will write about later in this article.

Separately, I want to write a few words about the maximum speed of the wireless network, which is indicated on the box of your router, or in the specifications. Many people are interested in this question. 150 Mbps, 300 Mbps, this is the maximum theoretically possible speed that a router can give out. Of course, under normal conditions, such a speed will never be obtained. And this is normal, it does not mean that you have a bad router.

Why is the Internet speed slower over Wi-Fi?

I think you will agree that a wireless connection is not as stable as a wired one. And whatever it was, cable connection has always been and will be the most stable and reliable.

Directly, when you connect the Internet cable directly to the computer, there is a direct connection to the provider's equipment. When we install a router, it already manages this connection. The router controls the flow, distributes the Internet to other devices, etc. That's exactly why the speed drops when connected through a router. And especially when connected via Wi-Fi network.

How much the router will cut the speed, mainly depends on the power of this router. The more powerful the router, the faster it can process information, and it has a higher maximum speed stream. And the more powerful the router, the more expensive it is. And believe me, there is a difference between a device for $20 and $200. Otherwise, expensive routers simply would not exist. Nobody would buy them or make them.

We found out why the router cuts the speed, and now we will take a closer look at some of the ways in which you can increase the speed over a Wi-Fi network. At least you can try.

Before doing anything, it would be good to connect the Internet directly to the computer and check the speed. You can check it at http://www.speedtest.net. There is a separate article on this topic that you can see.

If you have a rate of up to, say, 20 Mbps, then you won’t be able to squeeze it out any more. Therefore, we measure the speed with a direct connection, then via a Wi-Fi network. We will find out how much our router cuts speed. Also, you can check with different devices that you connect via Wi-Fi. Since the speed also depends on the device that we connect.

1 Let's start with the most working way (in my opinion). Search for a free Wi-Fi network channel, and replace it in the router settings. When your devices see many other Wi-Fi networks, all of these networks can interfere with your wireless network. And because of this, the connection speed often suffers.

Therefore, you can try to determine the freest channel and set it in your router settings. There is a very detailed article on this topic:. It also shows how to change the channel in the settings of different routers. Here, for an example on TP-LINK:

Here you need to experiment, try different options. And if you already have a static channel, then set it to Auto.

2 WiFi 5 GHz. If you have a lot of neighboring networks, and a lot of interference that affects the speed, then the best option is to switch to Wi-Fi 5 GHz. Buy a router that supports broadcasting a Wi-Fi network at a frequency of 5 GHz. There the speed will definitely be higher. I recently wrote about one such router:. But, there is one caveat, not all devices.

New phones, tablets, laptops that are already on sale, they most likely already have support for Wi-Fi networks on new frequency. But older devices do not support it. This can be easily found from the characteristics. But, this is not a problem, since all dual-band routers broadcast a wireless network at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. So older clients will be able to connect to it.

Not only is the 5GHz network now almost completely free from interference, but also according to the 802.11ac standard, compared to 802.11n, the speed is higher. If at a frequency of 2.4 GHz maximum speed 300 Mbps, then at 5 GHz it is already 433 Mbps (for Tp-Link Archer C20i).

3 Drivers wireless adapter. This method is only suitable for computers and laptops. As I wrote above, the speed also depends on the Wi-Fi receiver installed in your computer. In a wireless network, the speed is always equal to the slowest device. No matter how powerful your router is, if you have an old Wi-Fi adapter on your laptop that does not even support 802.11n mode, then we will not see any great speed.

Replacing a laptop Wi-Fi adapter is of course problematic. But, you can try to update the driver of this adapter. Perhaps a new version has already been released with various improvements, and after the update we will get an increase in speed.

4 Set the 802.11n mode and channel width. If you do not have very old devices that do not support 802.11n, then you can try setting this mode of operation in the router settings. As a rule, the default is automatic selection of the operating mode. For greater compatibility with different devices.

You can do this again in the settings of your router, which you can go to according to the instructions. As a rule, these settings can always be found on the tab where the Wi-Fi network is configured. This setting item is usually called " mode", or " Network mode". Must choose " 11n Only" (N Only), and save the settings. This is how it looks on TP-LINK routers:

On the same page, you can also change the channel width (Channel Width). You can try to put 40MHz.

Save the settings and reboot the router.

If after these settings you have problems connecting to Wi-Fi of some devices, then return everything back.

5 Perhaps in the settings of your router is set old WPA encryption method. Not only is it unsafe to protect the wireless network in our time and is already very outdated, it also has the ability to limit the speed.

Need to set WPA2-PSK encryption (You probably already have it installed). You can install correct settings safety instructions. On the example of D-Link, Tp-Link, ASUS. And in the section "Setting up the router" on our website there are instructions for other devices.

6 The closer to the router, the stronger the signal and the higher the speed. Therefore, try to set the router like this (I have a location) so that there is a good signal throughout your house.

And if you have a large house, and the router cannot break through the signal to distant rooms, then you can install. Or buy a more powerful router.

7 You can still try update router firmware. In the new version of the software, something is improved and finalized. Therefore, after the update, the speed over the Wi-Fi network may increase. We have instructions for all popular manufacturers on our website. I give a link to the instructions, and instructions.

8 Also, do not forget that the more devices connected to the router, the lower the speed will be. Firstly, the router will simply divide the initial connection speed between all devices, and secondly, from the load that the devices will create on the router, it will cut the speed even more.

Afterword

Most The best way solve this problem is to buy a more powerful and expensive router. And even better, dual-band, so that you can use a Wi-Fi network at a frequency of 5 GHz, and get good speed.

Well, if buying a new router is not included in your plans, then we will definitely try the tips that I wrote about above. I think there will be some kind of result. Do not forget to share in the comments your result on increasing the speed of Wi-Fi.

What to do if you are not satisfied low speed Internet through the router's Wi-Fi network? How to increase it and speed up the router?

To get started, connect your laptop to it via cable and check the speed. It is possible that your router is not to blame for anything and the cause of the brakes is on the provider's side.
But if everything is fine through the cable, but Wi-Fi slows down - then you should try to "twist" it a little in terms of parameters and thereby speed up the wireless network.

We use the fastest WiFi standard

The first thing to pay attention to is the use of only high-speed Wi-Fi standards. For the regular 2.4 GHz band, this is 802.11N, and for 5 GHz - 802.11AC.

This is usually configured in the basic parameters of the Wi-Fi module on the router, the item is called Wireless mode. The only caveat - I think you should understand that your wireless adapter on your computer, laptop or phone must also support the set fast standard.

Router channel width

The second parameter that allows you to increase the WiFi speed on the router is the width of the radio channel. To make the Internet work faster, set the value to 40 MHz for the 2.4 GHz band:

For the 5 GHz band, you need to use either 40 MHz(for 802.11N), or 80 MHz(for 802.11AC).

Usually after that, the increase in speed becomes noticeable.

Comment: You can set the maximum value of the router channel width only if you have excellent signal quality. Otherwise, you can get the opposite effect - an unstable connection and a fall bandwidth channel.

Non-overlapping WiFi channels

In the conventional 2.4 GHz band, the number of the radio channel used can have a significant impact. Non-overlapping channels in the 2.4 GHz band are 1, 6 and 11, which means that the speed of the Wi-Fi network of the router will be higher when using them.

There are 24 non-overlapping channels available at 5.0 GHz, so this band is preferred. These are the features of the operation of radio transmitters and there is nothing to be done here.

Turn on WMM mode

Wireless networks have their own quality of service technology, or, as it is more correctly called, traffic prioritization. It's called Wireless Multimedia or abbreviated WMM.

Its use is mandatory if you want to maximize the Wi-Fi speed on the router when using the 802.11N standard. This option is enabled in the advanced or additional parameters of the radio module.

WiFi signal strength of the router

The transmitter power of the router or access point can also have a significant impact on the speed of the Internet over Wi-Fi. Again, wireless technology is such that the highest speed is achieved at the highest density. And the higher the transmitter power of the router, the lower the density, which means that the speed also drops. It is because of this that users are advised not to approach the access point closer than 1.5 meters. Otherwise, the quality of the network, on the contrary, drops and data transfer starts to slow down. Therefore, if you are unhappy with the speed of your router - try reducing the transmitter power to 75%, or even up to 50%.

Use fast and secure protection

Use of legacy wireless encryption standards in modern conditions is not only a security hole, but also the cause of the problem with the speed of Wi-Fi.

The point is that standards WEP And WPA hopelessly outdated. In addition to being hacked in a few minutes by ordinary schoolchildren, they also have data transfer restrictions. So, using simple WPA, you will not be able to overclock above 54 megabits per second even on powerful modern equipment. That is why you should only use WPA2 with encryption AES then you will not slow down Wi-Fi.

Flashing Wi-Fi router

Well, another factor that allows in some cases to speed up the Internet over Wi-Fi several times is the flashing of the router. The firmware that comes with the device from the factory very often turns out to be raw and with errors. And sometimes there were cases when the software was generally unusable. Only flashing the router will help. For example, on ASUS routers, I have repeatedly met with the fact that the exchange rate of the radio module with wired interfaces (this parameter is called switching speed) on new firmware is much higher than on old ones.

There are also cases when it is really possible to increase the speed of the Internet via WiFi on a router only with the help of alternative firmware. At the same time, the factory software cannot solve the problem with the brakes of the device.

Re-flashing a router is a relatively simple matter. On many modern models There is already an auto-update option. In order to perform a manual flashing, you first need to download the firmware file from the manufacturer's website. Then, in the settings menu of the device, go to the system tools and in the "Software Update" section, specify the path to the firmware file.

Even on modern routers, Wi-Fi connection speeds can be very slow. Loading each of the web pages sometimes takes several minutes, and even with a close location of the distributing router, this process does not speed up. There are certain ways to solve such problems.

Choosing the best router location

The use of the widespread IEEE 802.11n standard is accompanied by various difficulties. If the computer is significantly removed from the router or if there are walls between them, the speed drops to a value of several Mb / s, which is below the minimum limit when using modern Internet services. This is because Wi-Fi devices, in the event of an increase in distance or the presence of an interference source, switch to a more stable, but at the same time slower way of transmitting information.

When the Internet speed decreases through the router, if the Wi-Fi signal strength shows one or two bars, you will need to find a more suitable place to place the device. The following factors affect the signal level:

wall thickness and building material used for its manufacture;
the presence of electrical wiring located near the device;
the presence of other routers;
high humidity.

The location of the router should be the center of the living space, preferably on a hill, it does not need to be obscured by anything. Due to this, the signal will penetrate into all rooms, subject to the availability of the necessary power.

The effect of signal amplification can also be achieved by replacing conventional antennas that are not built into the case with more powerful ones.

If there are difficulties in determining the center of the dwelling and there is no information about the presence of interference, the best option will use special applications: Wi-Fi Solver FDTD for Android, NetSpot for Mac, Hoatmapper for Windows.

It is not recommended to place the modem device near the bathroom or next to the heating pipes. The presence of water nearby will affect the signal strength. If there is a desire to take a bath accompanied by music, then it is better that the music is played using speakers, and not on a smartphone.

Change settings

To access the settings of a modem device, type its address in a web browser. In the normal case, this is 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 (see label with reverse side your router). The user will be prompted for authorization, and if a password is not provided, then by default the word admin is entered as the login and password in both cases.

First of all, the decrease in Wi-Fi speed when using a router is due to the activated power saving mode. As a rule, it is used on Asus, but for other device models, the problem is solved in a similar way. For this purpose it is necessary:

Go to the modem settings, as described in the first paragraph.
Find the “Wireless Network” (or “Wireless Mode”) menu. Select the “Professional” tab (on Asus routers) or go to the “Advanced settings” item (on Tp-link routers), and go to the WMM APSD line.
Change the active mode to the “Off” position (or uncheck the activation) and save the settings.

If other gadgets that are connected to the network via Wi-Fi do not support this function, then the WMM APSD standard enabled in the router settings can be harmful, reducing the transmission speed over Wi-Fi.

When using a laptop or computer with an adapter, power saving is activated directly on the adapter. To disable it, you should:

Press Windows + R.
In the line that appears, type the command devmgmt.msc.
When a new menu appears, you need to go to “Network Adapters”.
A list will appear that includes various devices, from which you need to select an option with the presence of one of the designations: WiFi, Link, Realtek, or something similar related to working on the Internet.
Using the right mouse button on this line, select the item, select the "Properties" item, and then go to the "Power Management" tab. If there is a check mark there, uncheck it and save the settings.

Selection of free channels

Information is transmitted over channels used as a bridge between the equipment and the router. The main reason for the low speed of the Internet connection using Wi-Fi is the congestion of the channel.

To determine the optimal channel on modem devices specially adapted for operation on Russian territory, there are basic channels (13 pieces), and for other devices - 11 options. The more one of the channels is loaded by users, the lower the Wi-Fi connection speed will be.

Channel congestion is affected by the connection of other users to a particular modem and the presence of neighboring routers. If there are other access points in range that transmit a signal on the same channel, the Wi-Fi connection speed will decrease.

The less technology used on a channel, the better it is. Special applications will help to detect a free channel:

WiFi Analyzer for Android;
WiFi explorer for IOS;
InSSIDer for Windows.

To use the latter option, follow these steps:

Download and install free program InSSIDer. It applies to all versions of Windows.
Run the program. In the window that appears, there will be a list of channel numbers that competitors have already occupied, with a map of overlapping ranges. Of these, you need to select a free channel. Ideally, it is necessary to avoid crossing the range with neighboring networks, which is not easy.
Open the router settings menu in a web browser and change the channel.
The control panel contains an option to change the channel. Some routers have an “Auto” option, which allows you to independently search for free channels. In other cases, it is recommended to set these parameters manually, indicating the channel detected using this program.
It is necessary to reboot the router and reconnect the PC to the Internet for the settings to take effect.

This method helps to significantly increase the connection speed, but it will not be effective in all cases.

How the optimal Wi-Fi channel is selected in the InSSIDe program is described in the video below:

Update the wireless adapter driver

Wi-Fi speed may decrease not due to the hardware itself, but due to the version of the wireless adapter driver. To ensure a good connection, you need latest version. The driver update process is possible only from a computer or laptop.

This will require:

know the name of the adapter manufacturer;
search for the latest driver version;
install the update.

Determining the type of adapter available on a computer or laptop is possible using the special HWVendorDetection application. You need to download and run it: information regarding the equipment and the supplier will appear. With this information, you can visit the manufacturer's website. Next, you need to go to the "Soft Drivers" section and enter information about the installed model to download the desired driver.

It is even easier to solve the problem using the DriverBooster program, which itself is able to find outdated drivers on the computer and update them.

Updating the firmware of the router

When doing firmware for the first time, you can render the router unusable if you perform the procedure incorrectly. For this reason, it is recommended to use only a certified router. Such models usually have a rollback point, due to which, when failed attempt it is possible to return the previous version of the firmware again.

Action algorithm:

Download the latest firmware from the router manufacturer's website. Finding the required version is easy to do by serial number.
The router is connected via a Lan cable directly to a computer or laptop. This event is most conveniently performed on the 7th version of Windows and higher.
In the router settings, go to the Firmware Upgrade item, enter the path to the downloaded directory and update the firmware. Until the process is completed, the router cannot be turned off and the cable pulled out.
The device must be restarted before use.

Choosing a network security mode

A decrease in connection speed is possible due to the connection of someone else to the network of a certain user. To avoid this situation, it is necessary to select the latest password and information encryption standard - WPA2 - in the security mode of the router settings.

Try to come up with a complex password. If at some point the user forgets it, later in the settings you can reset the password.

Switching to 5 GHz Wi-Fi

Another method to increase the speed of your Wi-Fi connection is to switch to Wi-Fi 5 GHz. To use this wireless method, you must:

get a dual-standard router;
ensure the availability of devices operating on this standard.

The increase in speed during the transition to Wi-Fi 5 GHz is carried out for two reasons:

the latest standard with free channels;
there is an increase in the transmission frequency, which solves the problem of speeding up the router.

Purchasing a more powerful and expensive router can quickly solve the problem of Wi-Fi acceleration. This is the best way to get rid of the problem.

Channel Width Change

The change in connection speed is affected by the channel width of the router. In modern modem models in the settings there is an item with channel width values. If this parameter is absent, then the choice is made from the values of 20 and 40 GHz.

The disadvantages of the new standards include the significant impact of additional modems nearby operating on the same channel. In this regard, absolutely free channels or with a frequency of 20 GHz are selected.

If the Wi-Fi speed is lower than when connected using network cable to the router, you must use one of the methods listed in the article to increase the speed. If even with a cable connection, measuring the Internet speed does not give the necessary indicators, it is better to contact the service provider.

Slow internet is annoying. Agree, it’s not pleasant when your favorite movie freezes while watching. At the same time, in the contract with the provider, quite a decent speed is declared, with which everything should just “fly”. What the problem may be and how to solve it, we tell in this article.

What determines the speed of the Internet

First of all, the speed of the Internet depends on ... the speed of the Internet. That is, from the bandwidth of the cable brought into your apartment and the channel width provided by the provider.

Usually, the provider provides a maximum of 80-100 Mbps over twisted pair, rarely up to 200 Mbps. For fiber optic lines, this figure is usually higher. For an ADSL connection over a telephone line, the speed varies significantly depending on the condition and quality of the line itself and the equipment installed on the provider's side.

The actual internet speed on your devices will be determined by your router unless you are directly connected to the internet. Therefore, it will depend on:

Hardware stuffing and capabilities of the router itself.
Proper configuration of the router and its location.
The number of devices connected at the same time.

Wi-Fi speeds can also be affected by interference from various devices and other wireless networks. On a particular computer or smartphone, problems may be caused by glitches software or hardware malfunctions.

So, with the reasons for the weak speed of the Internet through the router, everything seems to be clear. Now let's move on to the main thing: how to make it maximum.

Ways to increase speed

It is important to be aware that the Internet speed on your devices under no circumstances can be higher than that which you receive at the entrance to the apartment from the provider. All sorts of recipes for how to "disperse" the Internet to exorbitant speeds are fiction. Also note that the speed will be distributed among all devices connected to the network at the same time, so it will not be maximum on a PC and a laptop at the same time.

Determination of real speed

Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to determine real speed the Internet. To do this, connect the cable from the provider directly to a computer or laptop and take a few speed control measurements using free online services. For example, "Speedtest" from Ookla.

If the speed is significantly lower than declared, contact the provider's support service. The drop in speed in this case is associated with backbone equipment, the operation of which you are not able to influence.

If the speed corresponds to the declared one, repeat the measurements by connecting the computer to the Internet through a router. So you will know if it cuts speed or not. If, for example, a direct connection is 80 Mbps, and through a router 40 Mbps, it is quite obvious that the router cuts it in half. However, keep in mind that cable speed is likely to be higher than Wi-Fi, because cable connection more stable.

Now let's move on to solving the problem.

Router Specifications

Perhaps your router is simply underpowered and cannot provide desired speed data transmission. Keep in mind that the wireless network speed declared by the manufacturer is the theoretically maximum possible. In practice, it is often less. And, if your device has a Wi-Fi speed of 50 Mbps according to the manual, then in fact it can be only 30-40 Mbps.

That is, even if your provider provides you with real 80 Mbps, the router within the Wi-Fi network will not be able to support this speed. In this case, there will be no problems with speed over the cable. The solution to the problem in this case is to purchase a more expensive and powerful router. Or you will have to connect devices for which speed is important, for example, a set-top box, via cable.

Settings

Consider the basic settings that will allow you to increase the speed of the Internet through the router to the maximum:

Signal strength. The problem could also be in your router settings. For maximum performance, turn off power saving mode if you have it. Also check the rest of the settings. Your router may have parameters such as "Signal Strength" or "Transmission Power". Set all parameters manually to the maximum.
WiFi Standard. By default, the router settings automatically select the operating mode and channel width. Manually set the 802.11n mode (may not be supported by older laptops and smartphones!) and the channel width to 40 MHz. If this causes some of your devices to stop working on the network, return the default settings.
Encryption. WPA encryption method may be set for your network. It is considered obsolete and does not provide maximum performance. It is recommended to select WPA2-PSK.
Channel selection. If you have a large number of wireless networks they can interfere with each other. Try to manually set the channel (the default setting is "Auto"). Try different options and find the channel with the least traffic.
Traffic Priorities. Enable WMM on the router. A separate article on our website is devoted to setting this parameter.
Updates. Check if there is a new firmware version for your router on the manufacturer's website and try it. Often this helps. Also, update the network adapter drivers on your client devices and check if they work. Maybe on your laptop Slow internet due to incorrect operation of the built-in WiFi adapter, and replacing it with an external one will solve the problem.

Signal stability

Check if your router's signal is strong everywhere. The router may be too far from the laptop. Or concrete floors and walls interfere. To solve the problem, try moving the router to another place or install it in an apartment.

Thus, we see that there is no universal solution to the problems of increasing the speed of the router. First of all, make sure that the router is really to blame for your slow internet. Try to fix the problem various options listed above. If this does not help, you will probably have to fork out for a new, more powerful router.