Top Ways to Boost WiFi Signals & Improve Performance
Equipped with a wireless router from your ISP, most WiFi networks are usually fairly efficient. For at-home setups, a quality router will usually be more than enough to run a decent network. After all, even your close neighbors can normally see your wireless network. Of course, there are some exceptions.
If you live in a very large house or your ISP installed your router in a strange location like your closet, your WiFi signal may not reach every part of the house adequately. When it comes to streaming media, a weak WiFi signal result in extreme lag and choppy videos.
Luckily, there are several things that you can do to help boost WiFi signal strength. Here are some of my top recommendations for improving weak WiFi. Note that this article focuses on WiFi specifically and not on your Internet connection.
If your Internet connection is slow, check out my article that talks about the many ways you can boost your Internet speed.
Use Latest WiFi Protocol
Wireless AC has pretty much become the standard, but if you have not yet upgraded to a Wireless AC router and are still using Wireless G or N, you may want to consider upgrading. Wireless AC has proven to be a much more capable technology that not only produces greater WiFi range, but improved and more consistent signal strength as well.
Of course, a Wireless AC router will be most efficient with Wireless AC devices. If you are using a newer device with a built-in wireless card, such as a laptop, check to see what wireless protocol it supports.
It’s also worth noting that after AC, there will be AD, AH, AJ, AX and so on. You don’t always have to be using the latest protocol, but you also don’t want to be several protocols behind. Wireless N and AC also support MIMO, which allows for multiple antennas.
Get a Dual-Band Router
You may have noticed that some routers offer a feature called dual band. This means that it supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. So what’s the difference? 5 GHz allows for much greater speeds than 2.4 GHz, but over a shorter distance.
A dual band router can be helpful because you’ll get faster speeds when you are closer to the router, but you can switch to the 2.4 GHz network when you are farther away since 2.4 GHz signals can travel farther and penetrate more walls. Unfortunately, you mostly have to manually switch between these two networks.
Call Your ISP
Since most people use the default router given to them by their ISP, it’s a good idea to make sure you have the best one they have to offer. Most ISPs will install a cheaper router with less speeds and less features and then try to get you to upgrade later.
If you are getting service connected, you can usually make them give you the best router before you sign up with them. If you are already a customer, you can always try to threaten to leave. Unfortunately, to get a better router, you normally will have to pay a monthly cost or buy it upfront.
However, if you buy the router upfront, never buy it from the ISP. Instead go to Amazon or eBay and buy it from there. You can always call out a technician to come and install the router, if you don’t feel comfortable doing it yourself.
Use a Cable Signal Booster
If you have cable internet, several factors can play into the actual cable signal strength coming from the cable company to your home. If you live in a busy neighborhood with many households, the actual cable power that your home receives may not be optimal. Aside from this, things like splitters that allow for a cable outlet in every room tend to weaken the signal, and the more splitters you have, the weaker the signal will become.
A cable signal booster can help give your home WiFi network the best possible signal by acting as an amplifier. Basically, these devices look and work just like normal coaxial splitters. However, they are engineered to distribute cable signals in the most efficient manner. Cable signal boosters will also improve the signal strength to your television.
Optimize Router & Update Firmware
This one is pretty much a given, but it's always best to have the most up to date firmware for your wireless router. As technology changes, firmware updates are needed to keep the router running at peak performance.
You should also tweak the settings on your router for maximum output. For example, if you are getting a lot of interference, you may want to switch channels. Most of the time it is set to Auto, but sometimes it’s worth manually configuring. It is best to consult a router's user manual for firmware and settings tips.
Re-position the Router
For best WiFi coverage, a wireless router should be placed in a central location within a home. It should also be positioned not too close to the floor, but not too close to the ceiling either. WiFi signals travel in a lateral pattern, and most of the time, WiFi devices, such as laptops are used at midpoint within a home. For example, you usually sit on the couch when using a laptop; you don't lay on the floor (most of the time), and you do not stand on a ladder.
Use a Multi Router Network Setup
All the methods mentioned above still won’t help you if you live in a very large home and the distances are simply too great, even for the latest wireless protocol with MIMO technology. In these types of cases, you probably need to setup a second router.
This can come in the form of a wireless extender/repeater, wireless bridge, or simply a second wireless router. I’ve already written about setting up a second separate network using a second wireless router, but you can also add a second router to the same network.
For example, if you have Verizon FIOS, you can purchase another identical router and configure it as a MoCA LAN bridge. You can configure the second router with the same wireless SSID and password, so devices will connect to whichever router is closer.
Purchase a WiFi System
These days, there are a lot of companies selling WiFi systems. These are basically wireless mesh networks. They include multiple identical routers that you connect in different locations in your home.
The main advantage these systems is that they configure themselves and talk to each other automatically. This makes them really easy to setup and you can add as many devices as you want to keep extending the range of your wireless network.
Eero is one example of a WiFi system. It comes with three access points for about $500. You can control and configure everything via an app and it takes half an hour to set it all up. Of course, you lose all the flexibility and control that you have when you purchase a traditional router.
Another company that I know is popular is Open-Mesh. Luckily, consumers can buy it too and it works just fine for residential purposes. Again, these are much more expensive solutions, but you’ll be one happy camper at the end of the day.
Add a WiFi Booster Antenna
Depending on the exact model of your WiFi router, it may be compatible with an add-on WiFi booster antenna. WiFi antennas seem to have a varying degree of mixed reviews from purchasers, but for approximately 50% of people, they are worth the purchase. WiFi booster antennas work with the same concept that retractable antennas on old boom boxes work. While the default antenna may be built-in or minimal, a standalone WiFi antenna may help improve WiFi network signals.
Use Powerline Adapter
For some people, you just can’t get a wireless signal into a certain area of the house. Maybe the wall is made of a material that blocks WiFi and therefore nothing but a direct cable connection would work. You can always try to drop a network or coax line to that location, but if that’s not feasible, then a Powerline adapter might be a good alternative.
Speeds are nothing to write home about, but it’s definitely better than nothing. You basically plug them into the wall, one where your router is and one where you need an Ethernet connection. Most have just one Ethernet port, but some like the Actiontec one above, have several ports to connect multiple devices.
Turn Off Other Devices
If you are a heavy gadget user and have tons of devices connected all around your home like cameras, phones, monitors, IOT devices, etc., it might be worth turning some things off to see if there is some kind of interference.
Other appliances like microwaves can also cause interference, so try to keep your router away from any other electronic gadget.
Using any of the above methods should help strengthen your WiFi network and using a combination of the methods should greatly boost the WiFi in your home. Any other good ways to help improve WiFi signals? Leave us know in the comments! Enjoy!
Mar 21, 2016 11:35 am | Aseem Kishore | MS Office Tips
How to Create Fillable Forms in Word
Did you know that you can create forms in Word that people can fill out? When you hear about fillable forms, it is almost always related to Adobe and PDF documents because that’s the most popular format.
However, Word is also quite a powerful tool and you can use it to quickly create forms that you can either print or send via email, etc. If you need to create a survey that will go out to many people and you want all the responses tallied for your automatically, it might be best to use Google Docs to create the survey.
In this article, I’ll show you how to create a form with text boxes, check boxes, a date picker and a list box. You can also make your forms a lot better looking if you use tables to organize everything.
Enable Developer Tab
By default, you can’t create forms in Word unless you enable the Developer tab in the ribbon. Since it’s not used by a lot of people, Microsoft disabled it by default. To enable the tab, click on File and then Options.
On the left-hand side, click on Customize Ribbon and then check the Developer box in the right-hand list box.
Click OK and click on the tab in the ribbon. The section we are most interested in is Controls.
Creating a Form in Word
The Controls section has about eight different controls that can be added to your Word document: Rich Text, Plain-Text, Picture, Building Block Gallery, Checkbox, Combo Box, Drop-Down List, and Date Picker.
To insert a control, just click on it and it will appear wherever your cursor was located. In my example below, I created a table and added two plain-text boxes for first name and last name.
By default, each control has its own filler text. For a plain text control, it is Click or tap here to enter text. You can edit this text for any control by clicking on the Design Mode button that is to the right of the control icons.
You’ll see some blue placeholders appear on the left and right of any controls you have added to your document. Select the text and change it to whatever you like. Click on the Design Mode button again to exit the mode.
Next, click on your newly added control so that it is highlighted and then click on Properties, which is directly below the Design Mode button. Each control will have a standard set of options with custom options at the bottom based on what type of control it is.
Here you can give the control a title, change the color, style the text and specify whether or not the control can be edited or deleted. At the very bottom are the control specific options, which for the case of a plain text control, is whether you want to allow multiple lines or not. That last option is useful if you need someone to type in a paragraph of text.
So what’s the difference between a plain-text control and a rich text control? Well, not much. In a rich text control, you can change the font/color settings for each word individually, whereas the plain-text control will apply the formatting to all the text. You would think the plain-text control would not allow bold, font changes or color changes, but it does.
Next, I went ahead and added a drop down list control to my form. You’ll see it says Choose an item and that’s it. In order to add items to the list, you have to click on Properties.
Click the Add button and then type in a name for your choice. By default, the Display Name and Value will be the same, but you can change it if you like. There really is no reason to change the value unless you are writing Word macros and refer to the controls in code.
Once you have added all your choices, go ahead and click OK and you’ll now be able to select the options from the drop-down list.
The only difference between the dropdown list control and the combo box control is that the latter allows the user to enter their own value if they please. In the dropdown list, you have to choose from one of choices in the list. In the combo box, you can either choose from the list or type in your own value.
The date picker control works just like any date picker you have probably used on airline booking sites, etc. When you click on it, a calendar appears and you can simply click on the date to select it.
If you click on the Properties button, you’ll see that there are quite a few options for the date picker control.
You can choose a different format to display the date and choose a different calendar type. The picture control is another nice option that will allow users to insert a picture easily.
When the user clicks on the image, a dialog will appear where they can choose a picture from their computer, from Bing image search or from OneDrive. They also have options for Facebook and Flickr.
Now let’s add a few checkboxes to our document. Note that when you add a checkbox and try to type text into it, it will tell you that the selection is locked. I believe this is by design. You have to click next to the checkbox and then type in your text.
Lastly, you can insert a building block control, which lets you pick content from Quick Parts and AutoText. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out my post on how to use AutoText and Quick Parts in Word. In my example, I added some quotes to a custom AutoText and then linked the control to it via the Properties dialog.
Once you have all the controls in your document the way you want, it might be a good idea to protect the document so that user can only fill out the form fields and that’s it. To do this, click on Restrict Editing on the Developer tab.
In the pane that shows up on the right, click on the dropdown under Editing restrictions and choose Filling in forms. Make sure to check the Allow only this type of editing in the document box.
Click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection and then enter a password if you like. Now only the form fields will be editable and everything else locked/protected. The user can easily use the TAB key to move between the different form fields.
Overall, Word isn’t the greatest tool for making forms, but it’s decent and probably more than enough for most people. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!
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