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At some point, we've all tried to stream a fine episode of Tech Quicky and run up against a Wi-Fi range limit.

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So, have you ever wondered, why can't we just boost it to maximum power and extend the range?

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To answer, we reached out to our good friend and Wi-Fi expert, Joel Crane, and we'd like to thank him for his contributions.

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Two of the most obvious ways that we can increase range present other technical problems.

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You see, at slow speeds, the modulation scheme, the small adjustments in the waveform that actually carry the data,

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is much simpler and easier for equipment to understand.

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But as speeds get faster and faster, the modulation schemes are more complicated and more prone to errors and interference.

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So, the farther away from the access point you get, the slower you have to go.

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In fact, if your access point is sending out a signal and not getting any kind of reply from another gadget,

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acknowledging that it received the signal, the AP will keep slowing the speed down and down and down until it gets a response.

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And this is a big part of the reason that speeds get slow if you walk farther away from your router.

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Now, as we demand faster speeds for high-def streaming, gaming, and file transfers,

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simply slowing down our Wi-Fi to make it go farther isn't a viable solution.

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So, back to more power then, right?

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Well, not quite. The Wi-Fi standard doesn't have a super high-transmit power to begin with in order to comply with telecommunications laws in different countries.

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For example, in the United States, you can't go higher than 200 mW and most routers are configured by default to transmit at this maximum.

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So you can't turn it up any further, legally. However, that doesn't mean that getting better Wi-Fi range is a fool's errand.

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One trick that actually does work fairly well is to focus the Wi-Fi signal in one direction.

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You see, a typical home router has omnidirectional antennas,

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where the signal is transmitted evenly in all directions and kind of like a big donut shape.

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But if your router is at one end of your house and your couch is at the other, that's not the best setup.

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Instead, you can get something called a patch antenna, which looks like a big flat panel and sends the signal out in one direction.

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They're more common in commercial settings or at trade shows,

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but there is nothing stopping you, for example, from sticking one on the side of your house

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and blanketing your backyard in a strong Wi-Fi signal. Another trick that's built into some Wi-Fi standards is the use of a long guard interval.

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Here's what this means. Between short parts of the transmission called symbols are short-time intervals before the next symbol is sent.

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These guard intervals are there to cut down on the interference between symbols.

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So if they're short, you get more data, but if they're long, you get less interference

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and therefore longer range at the expense of some speed.

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Wi-Fi 6, by the way, is introducing extra long guard intervals for outdoor use,

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where ranges often need to be longer. Of course, another winning strategy is to cut down on interference in other ways.

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You can do this by using narrower channels, so by using 40 MHz instead of 80 on the 5 GHz band,

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as well as making sure that you don't have unnecessary transmissions flying around your house,

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like from baby monitors or Bluetooth devices that you aren't actually using.

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And this one can make more of a difference than you might think. In fact, a huge part of how wired Ethernet has gotten faster

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has simply been by cutting down on noise inside the cable.

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However, other than the tips we've mentioned in this video, I wouldn't expect too much new tech in the near future that can extend Wi-Fi range

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without adding more antennas in something like a mesh network.

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Speed and range are always going to be balancing acts, so you gotta pick.

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Do you want the Baconator, or do you want to lose weight and feel good?

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You only get to pick one. So thanks for watching guys, like, dislike, check out our other videos,

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leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future fast as possible, and don't forget to subscribe.

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It's worth it, I promise.