Slow Wi-Fi can interrupt Zoom meetings, cause chaos in MMOs, and pause your video stream for buffering. When your world relies on near- instant connections, these little inconveniences add up quickly and become frustrating obstacles to work, school, and life in general. No one wants that—so we’ll walk you through ten simple steps to get faster Wi-Fi connections. Before we begin, take an internet speed test. This isn’t part of our official list of ten things, but it’s good for context. You want to know the speeds you have now so you can compare results as you go through each step— that way you know if it’s helping. After you get your results, compare them to the speeds you’re supposed to be getting from your internet service provider (ISP). You can find this in your online account or on your internet bill. That way you know if your speeds are actually underperforming, or if it’s just time to upgrade to a faster plan. If your speeds are near where' they should be, but you find yourself running into internet speed issues, you’re probably overwhelming your current connection and need a faster internet plan. Find out how many Mbps you need to support your network with our How Much Speed Do You Need? Tool. If you suspect your internet speeds are slow because of your ISP, it might be because the ISP’s network is simply slow or your speeds could be getting throttled. Our guide to ISP throttling will help you figure out if you’re experiencing throttled internet speeds.
1. Turn things off and on again.
Do it to your router. Do it to your modem. Do it with the devices you have connected to Wi-Fi. Everything needs a break once in a while—but especially your modem and router. Your modem translates internet signals between- your home network and the ISP. If your internet is acting up, resetting your modem is a good place to start troubleshooting. You may be able to fix modem issues with a quick power cycle. Sometimes you have to call your internet provider to reset your modem on its end to make sure your modem is properly calibrated to be compatible with your ISP’s signals. Your router could also benefit from a quick reset to clear its memory and give it a fresh start on tasks that were bogging it down before. It might seem simplistic, but turning your home 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. But keep in mind that doing this will leave you without internet for a few minutes, so plan to restart your equipment at a time when no one needs an internet connection.
2. Move your router to a better location.
Wi-Fi can travel only so far, and its signals can get interrupted or blocked by walls, floors ceilings, furniture, appliances, and basically any large physical object. They can also get interrupted by radio waves from other devices, including cordless phones, baby monitors, microwaves, and Bluetooth speakers. So if your router is stuck in a corner of your home, you may have issues with Wi-Fi at the other end of your home. The best place for your router is in a central location, near where' you use the internet most often. Don’t relegate your router to a basement or closet—that’s just setting yourself up for connectivity issues. Pro tip: If your router is already in a great location but you’re still having troubles in specific areas of your home, skip ahead to step nine: extend your network.
3. Adjust your router’s antennas.
Many routers have internal antennas—meaning that they’re built in to the body of the device and you can’t adjust them. If that’s the case for you, skip this step. But if you do have adjustable antennas on your router, try reconfiguring them. Router antennas are usually omnidirectional, which means they send out signals in all directions perpendicular to the antenna. For example, a vertical antenna sends out Wi-Fi signals horizontally, and vice versa. So if you need to stretch your Wi-Fi signals to multiple floors, adjusting an antenna to sit horizontally to spread Wi-Fi signals up and down could help.
4. Make sure you’re on the right frequency band.
Modern routers work primarily on two radio frequency bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The band you use for your connections can affect your speeds and the quality of your connections at different distances from your router. The 2.4 GHz band has been used for Wi-Fi since the beginning, but it’s also used for a ton of other wireless communications, so the airwaves in this frequency can be a little crowded. This band also has slower max speeds than 5 GHz, but its range is better. The two frequency bands often appear as two separate Wi-Fi networks. So to reorganize your connections, you should log off incorrect bands and reconnect to the correct band on each device.