Easy When You Know How
After moving to a new house, Jane Hoskyn realises her internet could use a boost and works out how to…
Jane sets up a router in her new home
Idream of living in a shack in the woods with no human neighbours (a 10-mile radius should do it), a space telescope and 400Mbps Wi-fi. I recently edged closer to that dream by moving to a house with a new router and some nearby trees.
The new router certainly isn’t 400Mbps, but it works. And when you’ve just moved house and you’re living out of boxes, you are deliriously grateful for working Wi-fi, whatever its speed. A few weeks on, I have reverted to shouting at my PC when Wi-fi is anything less than supersonic. So it’s time to get the best out of my new router with a few settings tweaks.
As I write this, my download speed is about 40Mbps on my PC and my upload speed is 5Mbps (according to www.
speedtest.net). Not bad, but nowhere near the 100Mbps I’m paying for. So I opened my router settings by typing http://192.168.0.1 into my browser bar then entering the settings password that’s slapped on to my router’s bottom. I promptly replaced this with a new password which may or may not be more secure (the joy of never quite knowing which security strategy is most doomed).
Once in, I clicked ‘Configure your Wifi network’ to change the default network name and Wi-fi password. The official reason for changing them is to make them harder to hack and easier to remember. The unofficial reasons are, of course, to show everyone how clever you are and send veiled threats to your neighbours. Network names like ‘Get orf my Wifi’ and ‘I can hear you at 3am’ (find more options at www.snipca.com/31958) should ensure that no one ever invites themselves round for tea and biscuits. I settled for ‘Jane’s Wifi’, because I’m not very good with confrontation.
More personalisation beckoned under ‘Hub status overview’, where my three connected devices – PC, phone and Roku streaming stick – were given the rather impersonal names DESKTOPM9TLQO8, ‘Galaxy-s8’ and ‘Unknown’, each easy to change with one click. Bizarrely, these were the only settings tweaks that produced a red-lettered warning. More deep-seated tweaks merely threw up a small note that my router would go offline while changes took effect.
I installed a couple of Android apps so I could carry on tweaking using mobile data. Virgin Media Connect ( www.snipca. com/31954) is effectively an app version of my router settings, while the fab Wifianalyzer ( www.snipca.com/31948) shows which channels you and your neighbours are using. If you’re all using the same ones, you’ll get a speed boost by switching to a less congested one – much like motorway lanes.
According to Wifianalyzer we were all on different channels, so there didn’t seem much point in changing mine (two channels, actually - one for the 5GHZ band and one for 2.4GHZ). But my PC would benefit from a Wi-fi speed boost, so I blundered in and switched channels anyway. First I disabled ‘Channel Optimization’ (auto-channels), then chose Manual mode and channel 36 (see screenshot). I went for 36 partly because it’s supposed to be good; partly because no nearby networks were using it; and partly because I wish I were still 36.
I could have changed wireless mode and channel width as well, but I was already on the most powerful option for each. So I clicked ‘Apply changes’ and waited for my world to collapse. My internet did grind to a halt, but only for two minutes as my router restarted. Then I measured my PC’S Wi-fi and, sure enough, download speeds were 20Mbps faster.
Router-tweaking enthusiasts reckon you should always switch off channel optimisation and choose channels yourself, but that assumes you have the time and inclination to tinker with settings frequently. Default settings put convenience above power, and that’s fine by me - until next time my PC’S Wi-fi needs to be reminded who’s boss.
I went for Channel 36 partly because it’s supposed to be good and partly because I wish I were still 36