Gadgetory

your home internet connection has come a long way since the days of dial-up but it still drives you crazy one minute is blazing fast in the next minute your Netflix stream looks like an 8-bit video game Donnell Bell and this top-5 I'm gonna count down the best ways to make your home Wi-Fi faster and more reliable starting off at number five change your channel most existing routers out there working that 2.4 gigahertz band which is crowded by microwaves and baby monitors and your neighbors routers within the 2.4 gigahertz band the least crowded channels are 1 6 or 11 so give those a shot and see if things improve better yet if your router has the auto mode for channel selection this will automatically pick the best option for your environment better yet try number 4 use the 5 gigahertz band if your router and your devices support 5 gigahertz then dish the 2.4 gigahertz spectrum all together any 802 dot 11 n or AC router will have this option the air is much less crowded here and includes twenty three non-overlapping sub channels most of these routers will also let you broadcast simultaneously in 2.4 gigahertz if you're feeling nostalgic coming in at number three change your placement I seen a lot of routers and they either look like a time capsule from 2004 or like a chunk that fell off a spaceship either way I can understand why you may have hidden yours in the back laundry room unfortunately it's killing your reception the ideal spot is in the center of your home mounted on your ceiling but that's probably a no-go for a bunch of reasons it was a compromise just tell me that you'll get your router off the ground out of the cabinets and in an open area that's closer to where reception matters and number 2 I a new router it may sound like a cop-out but a modern router offers a ton of features we just didn't have a few years ago I'm at less crowded 5 gigahertz band I mentioned at the top most 802 dot 11 n or AC routers also use an antenna technology called beamforming that can detect devices in your home and concentrate the Wi-Fi signal where you need it most and finally at number one add an access point if changing the router doesn't help well maybe your home is just too damn big in this case is best to invest in an extra access point and put it at the other end of your home if possible connect the existing router and the access point using a network cable or a pair of powerline adapters by the way many routers can be made to work as an access point just by changing the setting so that old router you just replaced might come in handy so there you go five ways to speed up the Wi-Fi in your home compiled by CNET senior editor and networking guru don't know you can find something it's current list of the best Wi-Fi routers over at cnet-dot-com-slash-loaded you