Eliminate the WiFi "Black Hole" in Your Home

Almost everyone has experienced the dreaded WiFi “black hole” in the house, the place where you just can’t get a good signal. There are a few reasons why this happens, but luckily we have some recommendations to help.

First: The Why

Your home’s wireless Internet likely works via a wireless router, which uses your Internet connection to send data over the air waves. The air brings friction and interference that a hard-wired connection eliminates. As a result, your speeds will naturally slow down some over a wireless connection. The signal also gets weaker as your device (computer, tablet or television) gets farther from the router. This is typically an issue with your equipment, not your service provider.

Next: What to Do

Luckily, a few simple things can help with your black hole woes.

First, check your equipment. Older devices and routers aren’t capable of the same speeds as newer ones. If you lease your router from your Internet provider and are having trouble, ask about a replacement. But remember, a new router won’t do much good if your devices are more than a few years old.

Second, consider moving your router. Since proximity results in a better, stronger connection, see if you can put your router in the area where you spend most of your time online. If you have DSL service, try moving your equipment to a different jack. If you have fiber services, moving equipment will be trickier, but it might be worth looking into.

But, what if you want to watch streaming TV in an upstairs bedroom at the same time the kids are playing the iPad in the basement? There are several neat little gadgets you can get to help boost the WiFi signal around your home.

Repeaters

Repeaters take the wireless signal and boost it from your router, helping bring stronger WiFi coverage to more areas. You simply plug the device into a power outlet in the area where you struggle to get a signal. Then connect the repeater to the router with the press of a button.
 
Click here to find wireless repeaters available from Amazon.

Home Hot Spot

The home hot spot functions in a similar way. Like a repeater, it comes with a WiFi extender which plugs into a power outlet.  The home hot spot, however, comes with Ethernet ports. That means you can hard-wire a device (like a smart TV) using a wired connection, eliminating the additional “over the air” signal loss. This would be your best option if you knew you wanted to hard-wire a device into the hot spot.
 
Click here to find home hot spots available from Amazon.
 
While it’s always ideal to hard-wire your devices directly to a modem or router to get the best possible speeds, wireless Internet provides so much more convenience and portability. With a few simple changes, you might just eliminate that WiFi “black hole” and get better connectivity throughout your home.