7 Ways to improve your business Wi-Fi network
1. Consider your data cap
Data caps are one of the biggest culprits of slow internet speeds out there. ISPs don’t advertise their data caps for obvious reasons, but they can seriously mess with your connection.
Data cap means you can use a certain amount of data every month—anything from a couple hundred megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes. If you exceed your data limit, your ISP will seriously restrict your internet speeds. And you’ll notice.
2. Turn things off and on again.
Do it to your router, Do it with the devices you have connected to Wi-Fi. Everything needs a break once in a while—but especially your router.
urning your networking equipment off and on again can really give your network a boost. We recommend rebooting your equipment regularly—at least once every few months.
3. Block those ads
Almost every content provider displays advertisements. Everywhere you go online there are endless ads, pictures, GIFs, and auto-played videos.
Even if you don’t mind watching/seeing advertisements, your internet connection does. Ad media slows down your internet connection, so sometimes it’s easiest to just block them. Install an ad-blocking plugin that will shut down those data-heavy auto-play videos, and you’ll free up some breathing room for your connection.
4. Use 5GHz and band steering
The 5GHz band offers many more channels than 2.4GHz so it makes sense to use dual-band APs that support 5GHz as well. This allows older Wi-Fi devices to connect in the lower band and newer dual-band devices to connect via the higher band. Less congestion in the lower band generally means faster connections, and devices in the higher band typically support higher data rates, both of which help to decrease the airtime of devices. Although not all new Wi-Fi devices are dual-band, more and more are these days, especially higher-end smartphones and tablets.
In addition to supporting 5GHz, consider using any band-steering functionality provided by the APs. This can encourage or force dual-band devices to connect to the higher band instead of leaving it up to the device or user.
Many APs only allow you to enable or disable band steering, while some also allow you to configure signal thresholds, so dual-band devices that would have a stronger signal on 2.4GHz aren’t forced to use 5GHz. This is helpful because 5GHz offers a shorter range than the lower band. If your AP supports it, try using the signal-threshold setting, which provides a good compromise between reducing congestion on 2.4GHz while offering users the best signal.
5. Use WPA2 and/or WPA3
It’s not a secret that WEP security is insecure, even though virtually all APs still support it. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is more secure, but it depends upon the version used. Keep in mind, when using the first version of WPA, data rates on the wireless network are limited to 54Mbps, the maximum rate of the old 802.11a and 802.11g standards. To ensure you can take advantage of the higher data rates offered by newer devices, use only WPA2 and/or WPA3 security.
6. Upgrade to faster internet.
While we hope these tips will do the trick for you, sometimes your internet connection is simply too slow to sustain your internet consumption. If that’s the case, you’ll need to upgrade to a faster internet plan to get better Wi-Fi speeds.
7. Install Virus and Malware Removal Tools
we highly recommend installing an antivirus- and malware-scanning software. It’s probably obvious that any viruses or malware lurking on your computer will put a major drag on your internet speed. Plus, you should have protection software installed as a general rule anyway.
Once you have some good software on board, set it to scan for viruses and malware automatically on a regular basis. If the software does find existing viruses or malware (hence your slow internet speeds), get it removed by a computer technician and get back to easy browsing.
