For best Wi-Fi service in house, location of router is everything
Q: We have a 2,700-square-foot twostory home. Our 4-yearold Netgear router is on the southwest corner of our upstairs den. It provides wireless to the upstairs and our downstairs living room, dining room and kitchen but has never been able to reach our downstairs bedroom, bathroom and utility room, which are all on the northeast side of the house. Would it help to purchase a newer, more powerful model router to cover the whole house?
A: The main problem is having the router in a corner of the house. The wireless signal radiates out in a circle, and if it’s in the corner, then much of the signal is just covering the outside of the house.
If it is at all possible, I would recommend moving the wireless access point to a more central location. I recently moved mine from the corner bedroom to the living room, and I have strong service all over the house.
If you cannot move the router, you may want to try a new device. Find something that is dualband and in the medium price range.
I upgraded my $50 wireless router to a $150 wireless router and noticed a much stronger and more reliable signal. There’s no guarantee a new router will fix the problem, but it might be a worthy upgrade just the same.
There are also possibilities like Eero, which offers a means of covering your property with multiple devices to extend your WiFi network. You can learn more at eero.com.
Q: I installed Chrome on my computer, and I really like it. Unfortunately, I selected “no” when the installer asked me if I would like to make it my default browser, not knowing if I would like it or not. Now that I know I like it, how do I set Chrome as the default?
A: Setting default programs is as easy as clicking Start or Search and typing in the words default programs. This will launch the default programs control panel.
Once you do that, you then click on Set Your Default Programs and look for Google Chrome. Highlight it, and then select “Set this program” as default, and click OK.