Gadgetory

everyone welcome to CNS to fix the show about DIY tech and how to's I'm Eric Franklin and I'm Sharon Profis you know one of the most important devices you probably have in your house right now is your Wi-Fi router right that's how all your devices connect to each other and connect to the Internet yep so we start off with a few tips on how to sign it up the right way just because you own a router doesn't mean you're using it to its full potential maybe someone else did the initial setup and you may or may not even be aware of their settings and options you can even change don't worry though I'm gonna show you a few tips and tricks on how to improve your network experience and how to access your router settings first access your router settings by going to its IP address you'll usually find this address on the bottom or back of your router use a username and password provided but be sure to change it to something more secure when you get a chance once you're in the first thing you want to do is change your routers name or SSID too many times I've gone over to a friend's house only the seat of the router is listed as d-link such-and-such with a bunch of numbers and letters behind it no name your router to something easily recognizable at least for the sake of your visitors next update your firmware sometimes connection or performance issues will crop up and having the latest firmware which is just the software program for your router can improve performance and fix issues you also want to change your networks password this is the password required for devices to access your Wi-Fi change this to something secure but something you're likely to remember not just a bunch of random numbers and letters if you only have a 2.4 gigahertz band router you should know that it uses some of the same radio channels as your baby monitor and your microwave not to mention that if your neighbor is using the same Wi-Fi channel as the one you're using or one that shares bandwidth with yours it's gonna interfere with your performance so what are the fastest channels to use 1 6 and 11 using those channels should optimize your router speed if you have a 5 gigahertz band router you'll likely get faster internet perform if you use that ban on five gigahertz there are more radio channels to choose from and each has its own bandwidth also be sure to choose either Auto or 2040 for your channel bandwidth this will give you the fastest speed while making sure that your network is compatible with as many devices as possible there are plenty of other options in your router settings however the ones I just pointed out are the easiest and most efficient changing the name of your Wi-Fi router is such a simple tip but when you do it you can finally feel like it's yours call us nice and homey yes alright it's time for a quick break and when we come back donald has a few steps to extending your Wi-Fi router to places in your home that are otherwise dead zones you welcome back you know once you have your router all nice and set up what do you do when it barely reaches parts of your house well we have a few solutions for you Wi-Fi routers are a great way to take your internet connection and share it wirelessly but there always seems to be one or two rooms in your home that don't get great Wi-Fi reception I'm gonna show you two inexpensive ways to get your internet spread across your home the simplest one-stop solution is a wireless range extender I got this one from tp-link for about 30 dollars online it may look like an air freshener but what it really does is act as a relay for your Wi-Fi router we broadcast a signal and rooms in your home that aren't getting great reception here's how to set it up first find your Wi-Fi router and plug the extender in to a nearby location next find the WPS button on your router WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected setup and it's an easy way for routers to pass along their login information to other devices automatically press the button until it registers then then go back over to the extender and press the button on the front after a minute your router and extender will find each other and perform a little virtual handshake you'll notice that when you can see the rest of the lights on the extender all lit up which indicate the signal strength now that the extender is configured to act as an extension of your router it's time to move it to another room plug it in and after a minute you should see everything light back up on the extender and if you don't you might be too far out of range for the extender to communicate back to your router so try a room that's slightly closer and see if that does the trick to test it out take out your phone or laptop and connect as usual you'll see your Wi-Fi routers name listed you'll select it and you're up and running now in some unique cases a Wi-Fi range extender might not be the best solution maybe you're trying to get internet out to a garage that's not even attached to your home or you're trying to get internet down to a basement that seems to just block out any kind of Wi-Fi reception in this case I would try a powerline adapter these things work by sending your wired internet connection over the copper wiring in your home they come in a pair and you plug one in your router and run an Ethernet connection from an available port on the back of your router the connection on the adapter plug the second adapter into the room where you need internet and you can basically treat it like a wired Ethernet port connect to it directly or set up another router here to make it wireless so there you go two tricks for extending the Internet to every corner of your home that does require some setup but it's so worth it if you want that solid Wi-Fi connection throughout your home definitely now if you want to share data with friends and family but you're not really sure how to do it we've got a simple tip using devices you probably already own like many of you I have a bunch of photos from a recent trip I took and I want to be able to share them on all of my computers and devices at home without actually uploading the photos onto every single one the solution is to use a networked hard drive once it's set up I'll be able to view photos videos and any other files stored on the drive from any device that's connected to my Wi-Fi network there are a few ways to go about this one is by using a network attached storage drive or an ass drive for the power user they're great but if you're more of a casual user who only wants to share media there's a better and more affordable solution on the back of most current routers you've got all of your standard networking ports plus a USB port when a hard drive is plugged in here you can share whatever's on it with any other device connected to your network here's how to set it up on windows first choose your storage drive it can be as small as a thumb drive or you can attach a bigger external hard drive plug it in and head to your computer launch your browser and go to your routers IP address in my case it's 192.168.1.1 but you can find yours in the device manual unless you changed it yourself every routers interface will vary but if it has a USB port you'll likely find a file sharing option under the administrator settings here be sure to enable the file sharing server apply the settings and get out of there now you're ready to access the drive so head back to your desktop launch an explorer window and go to the network folder at the top clear out the path and enter backslash backslash followed by your IP address with that your drive will appear you can double click it to access it like any other folder you'll be asked to enter your login which is the same one you use to access your router once I'm in I can see all of my vacation photos and so can anyone else on the network the process is the same for all other windows computers as well as my Android tablet at this point you might want to map your drive so that it always appears in the sidebar for easy access to do that just right click the drive and select map network drive and there are all my photos from my trip whenever and wherever I want and the best part is that if I ever need to take my drive with me somewhere it's as easy as unplugging it and stashing it in my bag that's it for this week's show thanks for watching you can reach out to us with your comments your suggestions your how to's or even your own DIYs we want to see them I'm not sure and professed and I'm @v doable and we'll see you next time right here on the fix