WiFi: Simple route to better signals, security
The other day I was chatting with someone over coffee about how quickly she was using up her home internet quota. Her quota wasn’t small either; 75GB, which is far more than the global average consumption of 51GB per month. Was she streaming TV, I asked her, downloading hours of ‘Game of Thrones’ at the weekend or perhaps uploading all of her photo’s to the cloud? No, none of that, just regular usage.
It turned out that she did not have password protection for her WiFi router so someone was stealing her WiFi (‘piggybacking’ the cooler members of society call it). We found this out by doing a check of all the IP addresses accessing her connection.
Anyway, we fixed this for her, but it got me thinking about WiFi in general and other problems that people have with their connections.
According to our customer service team at Ooredoo there are three main issues that customers face with WiFi.
The first one is what I’ve just described, securing a WiFi network.
The second one, but probably the most prevalent, is that the WiFi signal doesn’t reach through the whole house. The thing about many houses here is that they are full of concrete and reinforced steel, which makes it a bit of a challenge for the signal to even get upstairs. There are a couple of tips and tricks to use to help with this. First, try to avoid anything dense. I don’t mean keeping the router away from Dad, but there are certain things that interfere with the signal, including objects with a high water content (fish tanks), solid walls and metal pipes. Even other electrical devices will interfere ( baby monitors are a prime suspect). Your best bet is to position the box somewhere high and clear of obstructions.
If this doesn’t help, you’re going to need an extender. These are great bits of kit which cost around OMR30 and are easy to install. They even have ones which fit into your electrical outlets. Once in place, they will extend your WiFi range by about 20 metres.
The third most common issue is when people have trouble connecting to the WiFi, even when there is a good signal. This is a common problem, especially after you’ve just upgraded your Operating Software (OS).
Apple users recently had issues when upgrading to Yosemite, and Windows users had a few problems when they upgraded to Windows 8.1.
It’s a bit trickier to fix these as they are both completely different and I only have 450 words for my column…
However, Apple users should be fine after a quick trip to the Network Settings within System Preferences, and Windows users should take a tour of The Device Manager area of Settings. The good news is, though, that both Apple and Microsoft put a great deal of effort into the user experience, so it is easy to do.
Enjoy the Internet. Simon Baldwin is the Director of Consumer Marketing at Ooredoo. He has plenty of useful insights and tips that are easy to understand and essential in today’s mobile connected world. This columns series provides some tips and tricks for all telecoms users; whether browsing or streaming, using apps or travelling and more. If you want to control costs, get a better picture of how things work or even need tips on security and safeguarding, these columns are for you.