How to boost your smartphone’s Wi-Fi signal strength

Wi-Fi has become very common in homes, offices and even public places these days. Wi-Fi is wireless local area network which is used by several devices including smartphones. These devices can connect to the internet through the wireless network access points called hotspots. The range of these Wi-Fi hotspots depends on various factors such as the power of transmission, type of antenna, location and the environment.

Today, millions of people in the world are using Wi-Fi and wish to have fast internet speeds and long range. However many of them face performance issues with their Wi-Fi networks due to either the poor performance of the router or the poor WI-Fi antenna of their smartphone. There are several reasons for poor connectivity such as the position of the router or what is sitting near the router or even the materials used in the walls. Fortunately, there are many ways to strengthen it too.

There are many Wi-Fi optimizer apps available on the net but all are not reliable. So instead of wasting time in checking them one by one to see if they are effective, you can adopt the following sure shot way for getting a good Wi-Fi signal on your smartphone at home or at work. The best part is that this method works on any smartphone you have – Android, iOS, Windows Phone or any other.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Access your router’s web interface

For accessing your router’s web interface, you need to type in the router’s local IP address into the browser’s address bar. It is usually 192.168.0.1 but sometimes the default gateway may be slightly different say 192.168.1.1 or even 192.168.2.1.

You can find it out easily on your Windows computer if it has the same network connection as the router. Click the start button located on the bottom left hand side of the window and type cmd and then click on cmd.exe. If it is a higher Windows version, you can find it on the sliding panel on the right side.

2. Find the default gateway

When the cmd.exe loads, a black rectangular window will appear. Type in ipconfig in it and among other things, your default gateway will appear. This is your router’s local IP address which you can note down.

3. Accessing router’s settings

You can now switch over to your smartphone. Open the browser and enter the router’s IP address. You will get a pop up window for entering User Name and Password. The User Name is usually admin and the password is either admin or password. However, if it doesn’t work, you can easily find it through Google search once you give the router’s make. Once you type out the correct User name and Password combo, you will be able to log in.

4. Going to wireless settings

After logging in, you will see a web interface which is different for routers of different brands. There you will find the option wireless, then go to wireless settings or something similar. The image below shows the interface for TP-Link router.

5. Wireless channel

Once you go to wireless settings, you will find the channel option. This will show you the frequency at which the router is transmitting the Wi-Fi signal. You can speed up the Wi-Fi signal by changing your router’s channel. You will have to choose the channel with least interference to get a better signal.

6. Choosing the right channel

If many nearby networks are using the same channel, there will be more interference and the signal will be weak. To analyze the interference, you can use Wi-Fi Analyser for Android or inSSIDer utility for Windows. It will scan the nearby networks and find out the best channel that will give you minimum interference.

The most commonly used router is the old 2.4GHz one which has up to 14 channels to choose from depending on your area. Each channel is separated only by 5MHz of spectrum so there is a lot of overlap between nearby networks. You will have to choose the best one out of them which gives you the optimum signal strength.

How to boost your smartphone’s Wi-Fi signal strength

Using Physics to Know the Best Location to Place Your Router

Wi-Fi signals emitted from the router are normally carried by microwaves to your laptop or smartphones and therefore, the devices are able to connect to internet.  Most of the modern communication devices nowadays are carried by electromagnetic waves.

Electromagnetic waves are used because it can travel through walls therefore you can make or receive phone calls from inside the building. On top of that it reflects from the earth’s upper atmosphere. This is because at high altitudes the atmosphere becomes a plasma. It is a state of matter whereby atoms are split apart and electrons no longer bound to their parent nuclei. Moreover, they react pretty well with electromagnetic fields. If it is set to a low frequency, it will bounce the radio signals around the world and thus extending its range.

The electromagnetic emitted from the antenna of your wireless router is caused by small current oscillating at 2.4GHz. Therefore, when you develop a model by simulating a current like that and allow it to oscillate, you might be able to map the wi-fi signal strength as you move the router. Sometimes, you might find the waves have stopped changing and flicker in the same location. This is what we called standing wave and normally it will cancel one another.

The dark spot on the map showing low wi-fi signal. If the reception is poor in a location and there is a slight change in the router’s position, it might produce significant movement in the signal strength and the dark spot will also move.

The below video will explain further.

Using Physics to Know the Best Location to Place Your Router