Improve Your Home's Wi-Fi With 3 Sure-Fire Hacks

Designing a home is no longer simply about the theme of the house, the size of the living room, kitchen or bedroom, or the amount of storage space it affords. From streaming videos, surfing the net or chatting with friends over messaging apps, the contemporary home has to be optimised for smooth Wi-Fi connections as well. Here, we reveal 3 ways you can get stronger, faster Wi-Fi for your home.

1. Make These Design Changes During Renovation

Interior Designer: Designlah

When it comes to optimising your Wi-Fi signal - it pays to think in the long run. Try to plan where you'd like your LAN access points and wiring with your interior designer, and mark out areas where you’d like to install your routers and access cables in your floor plan before working on carpentry.

Interior Designer: Turn Design Interior

Where's the best place to plot your access points? Here are some best practices:

• Avoid planning it in a corner surrounded by walls - especially those made of brick and concrete. Wi-Fi signals may end up being absorbed and weakened by the walls as a result.

• Look out for areas in your floor plan that are relatively centralised and free from obstructions (like water features and mirrored surfaces) that may disrupt or divert signals away.

Interior Designer: Designlah

Also, having more than one LAN access point throughout the home is the best way to ensure a stable, speedy internet coverage, especially for devices like smart TVs or computers which can quickly overload and slow down a router’s Wi-Fi signal. Plan ahead and determine how many data-heavy gadgets you will use in each room.

2. Setup Your Router in the Right Place

Interior Designer: The Roof Studio

Sometimes it’s not about your data bandwidth, but how you are maximising its reach. The quality and speed of your Wi-Fi signal is heavily affected by where you place your router, plus any obstacles that it might encounter.

Here are some quick fixes to figuring out the perfect place for your router:

Interior Designer: Meridian Interior Design

• While it's only natural to want to conceal Wi-Fi routers that don't fit into the aesthetic of your home, avoid keeping them in partitioned corners or inside carpentry that will obstruct and weaken your Wi-Fi signal.

• Likewise, avoid installing it near reflective surfaces, electrical devices or water features which will interfere with broadcasts.

Interior Designer: Movent Signature Design

• As Wi-Fi signals spread downwards, you may consider constructing an open-shelf higher up on your wall for placing the router. If you have different levels within your home to cover, consider mounting your router on the ceiling, or placing it on the upper levels.

• If your router has antennas, stick the antenna straight up to enable the device to spread Wi-Fi signals horizontally, and turn it 90-degrees for it to reach vertically (a great trick for multi-storey homes).

3. Boost Your Wi-Fi Connection with These Devices

Ultimately, are only so many ways that you can place your router for the best coverage. If you have a large area, awkward layout or multiple storeys, there will always be some areas that will suffer from weak signal strength. That’s where Wi-Fi boosting devices come in handy.

TP-Link WA855RE Wi-Fi Range Extender

Wi-Fi extenders and repeaters are one way to boost your Wi-Fi signal. They help by capturing signals and rebroadcasting it to areas outside of the main router’s coverage.

While both alternatives are relatively affordable, they lower the strength and speed of your network, especially repeaters where transmitted signal strength is often halved in the process of communicating between the main router and the connecting devices.

ASUS Lyra AC2200 Tri-Band Gigabit Mesh Network Router

Another new, more powerful method is the use of mesh routers. A mesh router system features two or more standalone routers that work together to form a ‘super' Wi-Fi hub spanning the entire house.

Providing more coverage and signal strength than any single router can, mesh routers are able to reach blind spots and difficult areas like bathrooms and kitchens. Each router also works as a regional hub on its own, providing strong, consistent connection for any connecting devices within the area.

Set up your home, the right way.

There's more to renovating a home than simply design and furniture! From lighting, wiring to even your internet set-up, it's the small (yet highly practical) things that count. An experienced interior professional is able to advise on the best solutions - based on your needs and lifestyle. Request for a quote here, and get matched up to 5 interior firms for free.

Looking for more interior ideas? Check out the Qanvast mobile app! With tons of local project images, helpful renovation tips and tricks, plus a comprehensive directory of interior professionals all on the go, you can become a whip-smart savvy renovator in just a few swipes and clicks!

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