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so chances are that unless you've got a huge mess of Ethernet cables running all
over your house you've got a wireless router that's in a
corner somewhere dutifully flashing its little leds
and when you first set it up you probably pretty much changed your wi-fi
network to something clever set a password and then completely ignored the
boatload of other settings in that overly complicated dashboard
but does it make sense to go digging around in these options
well while you don't want to blindly experiment like some kind of mad
scientist tweaking a handful of these dials can enhance your wi-fi experience
we don't have time to go over every setting you could conceivably want to
change but we'll cover some of the more important ones starting with the things
that affect security you set up your password before of course
but not all wireless encryption settings are
the same older standards have broader
compatibility with certain legacy devices but i would strongly recommend
that you switch to wpa2 aes encryption
as soon as possible if you haven't already
other options are just less secure wep
in particular can be easily hacked by some malcontent parked outside your
house with a laptop and if they're up to something illegal it is possible that
law enforcement will come knocking on your door thinking that it was you many
routers offer a guest network option this way visitors can use the internet
but they'll have no access to files and computers on your internal home network
this guest network can use a different password so that you won't have to share
your main one and you can even limit speeds and access time if you don't
trust your friends to stay under your data cap
anyway you've secured your wi-fi to your liking now let's talk about performance
these days most routers can broadcast on both the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands if
you want the fastest speeds possible 5 gigahertz is the way to go as it has
larger bandwidth and it's not as congested as 2.4 so less interference
however five gigahertz has less range
and may not be supported on older devices so
test your speeds before deciding to switch permanently you may only notice a
difference if you have a sufficiently fast internet connection anyhow you'll
also want to have a glance at your channel settings
a channel is simply a small slice within
the wireless band that you chose over which the data is actually transmitted
most routers will pick a channel for you automatically but if you're getting
slower than expected speeds a congested channel could be the culprit especially
if there are lots of other wi-fi networks in the area
a good idea is to use a wi-fi analysis app on your smartphone to see which
channels are the clearest then set the channel on your router accordingly you
can also select how wide you'd like your channel to be think of it kind of like
picking how fat of a pipe you'd like your data to flow through
while the wider channel could potentially help performance it only
benefits devices that support the same channel width and you'll also increase
the possibility of interference with your neighbors as your channel will
overlap with more nearby traffic so again run yourself a speed test before
committing to one setting and use a lower channel width if the higher ones
give you any problems now by now you may have also noticed a
mode option that presents you with a weird jumble of
letters most new devices use either the n or ac
wi-fi modes so it's a good idea to have at least those two enabled
if you have a device though that isn't seeing your network at all try enabling
wireless g some devices notably including the nintendo 3ds use it
instead of newer modes so once you've gotten these sorts of
internal networking settings the way you want them you might want to also
consider configuring your router to use a custom dns server you can learn more
about dns up here but it's basically a set of servers that your system uses to
look up the ip addresses of different websites so you'll be directed to the
right place your internet service provider already
provides you with a dns service but third-party dns offerings such as google
public dns can offer enhanced speed and security especially if you're noticing
long delays between typing in a web address and seeing the page you want
start to load by setting a preferred dns in your router settings all traffic
going through it will use that dns instead of having to set it up
individually on every device and pro tip
you can also do this with a vpn service so that all your traffic will
automatically be securely routed just refer to your vpn provider's website for
which settings to use let's wrap things up then with one
slightly more obscure setting if you have two routers and are dealing with a
weak signal you can try using wds a
feature that allows you to bridge two wireless networks wirelessly which is
kind of like using your router as a wireless repeater instead but
be cautioned that this can cut your speeds by up to 50 percent so
simply getting an additional access point and running a cable to it is
usually the more practical option do you have two or three or four or even more
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it's a simple software solution and it includes powerful features like
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so guys have you customized any router settings we didn't mention how'd that
turn out for you let us know down in the comments and also let us know if there
are any other home wi-fi topics you'd like us to discuss here on techwiki
leave a like or a dislike leave a comment if you have suggestions for
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