Wifi helps

More than half of the students in the survey said they have checked MySpace or Facebook or sent or received e-mail while using a laptop in class, and nearly half had sent an instant message to a friend. The survey also found how and where students reach Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi Alliance survey did not explore how campus CIOs feel about Wi-Fi, although some universities have grappled with ways to keep the service consistent and widely available, as well as secure.

At Concordia University in Montreal, for instance, officials in January reported that moving to faster All of the colleges in the district serve commuters. Matt Hamblen is a multi-media journalist covering mobile, networking and smart city tech. He previously was a senior editor at Computerworld. Here are the latest Insider stories. WiFi mesh systems are one of the best ways how to improve WiFi signal strength in large buildings. Here are the top 5 best WiFi mesh systems that you can purchase right now.

Even in the most basic configuration, Google Nest Wifi is able to handle up to connected devices and stream multiple 4K videos at a time. Each Wifi point doubles as a smart speaker powered by Google Assistant, so you gain the ability to play your favorite songs or find answers on the web with natural voice queries.

The Netgear Orbi 6 is a high-end mesh WiFi system designed with ultimate performance in mind. Thanks to its support for the latest generation WiFi 6 technology, it offers 4x increased capacity compared with WiFi 5 and the ability to connect as much as devices at the same time. Included with the Netgear Orbi 6 is an online threat protection solution called NETGEAR Armor, which can protect all connected devices from the latest malware and send instant alerts to your smartphone or computer to keep you informed.

You can conveniently manage your security and WiFi settings using the Orbi app, which is available for Android and iOS devices. The eero is one of the most affordable mesh WiFi systems available. A single unit can provide up to 1, sq. The Linksys Velop is an entire family of mesh WiFi systems that can seamlessly cover any home with a strong WiFi signal regardless of its shape or size.

If you want the strongest WiFi signal you can get, then you should check out the Velop AX, which is ideal for large households looking for the latest WiFi 6 technology. Regardless of which Linksys Velop mesh WiFi system you choose, you can always download the Linksys Mobile app to your smartphone and use it to set up parental controls, create a guest WiFi network, change your password, and more. With these ten tips, you should have no problem boosting your WiFi network without buying a new router.

Make sure to have NetSpot at hand to check whether our tips helped each time you try one. We guarantee that by the time you get to the number ten, your WiFi will feel faster than ever before. For example, you can use a WiFi signal analyzer to determine a more suitable place for your router, or you can switch to the 5 GHz band for an instant boost in performance, especially if you live in a densely populated urban area.

If you want to boost your WiFi without purchasing a new router, you can start by tweaking your settings. You should also make sure that your router uses the least cluttered channel possible, especially when using only the 2. Use a WiFi analyzer app to determine the best settings.

Yes, WiFi extenders really work, but their effectiveness greatly depends on their placement. The most expensive way how to boost your home WiFi is to buy a new router. Fortunately, there are many far less expensive ways that you should try first, including buying a stronger antenna for your existing router if it has an external one , installing a WiFi repeater, or moving your router to a more suitable location.

You can instantly boost your WiFi signal for free by cutting all out WiFi leeches, which are basically unauthorized users of your internet connection.

Yes, WiFi boosters can greatly improve signal coverage by amplifying your existing WiFi signals and rebroadcasting them as a new network, which is why we recommend them to all WiFi users who want to know how to increase WiFi signal strength without buying a new router. Getting into some detail, not every spot will do for your WiFi router. A router won't do great near metal objects and the appliances that emit electromagnetic waves the strongest ones are from electric stoves, microwave ovens, and dishwashers.

Obstacles made from other materials than metal, can also affect the strength of WiFi signal. You also want to have your router installed on an elevated surface for a better signal broadcast. Keeping your WiFi router up-to-date helps keep hacker attacks away. Malware developers keep coming up with new viruses that can steal bandwidth and spread themselves across the network to other devices. Getting new security firmware versions on your router consistently will keep your network secure.

WiFi repeaters, boosters and extenders help you get your WiFi signal to farther rooms and levels of your home or office space. Choose what will work best for you according to the size of your space, compatibility with your router and your budget. There are multiple wireless channels a WiFi router can broadcast on, however there are only a few non-overlapping available on 2.

Usually when you get a router it broadcasts on default channel 1 or 6. Because many owners leave their routers with the factory settings, those channels get overloaded.

Find the least occupied channel in your area with the help of such software as NetSpot and switch your router to it. Get NetSpot. Menu NetSpot. Jump to Best WiFi Boosters. Best WiFi Extenders. Best WiFi Routers. Best WiFi Mesh Systems. Check out a video guide on how to boost Wi-Fi signal at home—some tips and tricks as well as how to use NetSpot to see surrounding WiFi networks and perform a WiFi site survey.

Cheaper routers may even struggle to cover a relatively small apartment with a strong WiFi signal — let alone an entire house. Obstructions: WiFi signals can be partially absorbed or even completely blocked by various obstacles and objects, including walls, duct work, furniture, home appliances, and even people.

Interference: WiFi signals occupy the same radio frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum actual radios, cell phones, microwave ovens, walkie talkies, baby monitors, and many other devices, all of which can interfere with WiFi signals. Router capacity: Just like some computers can barely handle casual web browsing and some can render complex 3D objects, not all routers are equally powerful.

Video chatting or streaming on multiple devices can bring even a strong WiFi network to a crawl. Your internet service provider: You can easily waste an entire day troubleshooting poor WiFi performance without realizing that your internet service provider is actually to blame.

The measured download and upload speeds should correspond to the speeds advertised by your ISP. Enter the IP address of the router into the web browser.

Log in with admin username and password. Select an option called Firmware Update or Router Update. Because there are many different routers, you may need to do some digging and detective work to find the right option. Wait until your router finds and installs the latest firmware. Never interrupt the update. If it takes a long time and your router appears to be unresponsive, give it a few more minutes before you disconnect the router from power and turn it on again.

A strong password should: Include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers. You can find a list of the most common passwords here. Make sure the password is at least 8 characters long. Short passwords can be easily guessed with brute force. With a new channel selected, you need to tell your WiFi router to use it: Log in to your router as admin.

Go to Settings and look for Wireless Settings. You should see an option called Channel. The chances are that it will be set to Auto. Select the desired channel. Save the new settings and wait for your router to restart. Control Bandwidth-Hungry Applications and Clients It takes just one bandwidth-hungry application or a client to make download and upload speeds come to a crawl for everyone else on the same WiFi network. Go to Settings and open the Wireless Settings tab.

Looking ahead: Some landlords might not be able to afford to pay for free WiFi or want to pay for it , and Maxwell told Axios that deploying free WiFi in some older buildings may be challenging. Still, the group is going to try, starting out with three to five cities before expanding to others in the future — and between that and its adoption programs, it hopes to dramatically narrow the digital divide in America.

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