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thanks for watching techwiki click the subscribe button then enable

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notifications with the bell icon so you won't miss any future videos

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so chances are that unless you've got a huge mess of Ethernet cables running all

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over your house you've got a wireless router that's in a

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corner somewhere dutifully flashing its little leds

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and when you first set it up you probably pretty much changed your wi-fi

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network to something clever set a password and then completely ignored the

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boatload of other settings in that overly complicated dashboard

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but does it make sense to go digging around in these options

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well while you don't want to blindly experiment like some kind of mad

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scientist tweaking a handful of these dials can enhance your wi-fi experience

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we don't have time to go over every setting you could conceivably want to

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change but we'll cover some of the more important ones starting with the things

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that affect security you set up your password before of course

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but not all wireless encryption settings are

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the same older standards have broader

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compatibility with certain legacy devices but i would strongly recommend

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that you switch to wpa2 aes encryption

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as soon as possible if you haven't already

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other options are just less secure wep

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in particular can be easily hacked by some malcontent parked outside your

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house with a laptop and if they're up to something illegal it is possible that

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law enforcement will come knocking on your door thinking that it was you many

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routers offer a guest network option this way visitors can use the internet

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but they'll have no access to files and computers on your internal home network

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this guest network can use a different password so that you won't have to share

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your main one and you can even limit speeds and access time if you don't

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trust your friends to stay under your data cap

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anyway you've secured your wi-fi to your liking now let's talk about performance

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these days most routers can broadcast on both the 2.4 and 5 gigahertz bands if

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you want the fastest speeds possible 5 gigahertz is the way to go as it has

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larger bandwidth and it's not as congested as 2.4 so less interference

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however five gigahertz has less range

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and may not be supported on older devices so

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test your speeds before deciding to switch permanently you may only notice a

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difference if you have a sufficiently fast internet connection anyhow you'll

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also want to have a glance at your channel settings

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a channel is simply a small slice within

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the wireless band that you chose over which the data is actually transmitted

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most routers will pick a channel for you automatically but if you're getting

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slower than expected speeds a congested channel could be the culprit especially

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if there are lots of other wi-fi networks in the area

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a good idea is to use a wi-fi analysis app on your smartphone to see which

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channels are the clearest then set the channel on your router accordingly you

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can also select how wide you'd like your channel to be think of it kind of like

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picking how fat of a pipe you'd like your data to flow through

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while the wider channel could potentially help performance it only

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benefits devices that support the same channel width and you'll also increase

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the possibility of interference with your neighbors as your channel will

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overlap with more nearby traffic so again run yourself a speed test before

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committing to one setting and use a lower channel width if the higher ones

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give you any problems now by now you may have also noticed a

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mode option that presents you with a weird jumble of

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letters most new devices use either the n or ac

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wi-fi modes so it's a good idea to have at least those two enabled

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if you have a device though that isn't seeing your network at all try enabling

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wireless g some devices notably including the nintendo 3ds use it

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instead of newer modes so once you've gotten these sorts of

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internal networking settings the way you want them you might want to also

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consider configuring your router to use a custom dns server you can learn more

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about dns up here but it's basically a set of servers that your system uses to

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look up the ip addresses of different websites so you'll be directed to the

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right place your internet service provider already

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provides you with a dns service but third-party dns offerings such as google

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public dns can offer enhanced speed and security especially if you're noticing

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long delays between typing in a web address and seeing the page you want

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start to load by setting a preferred dns in your router settings all traffic

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going through it will use that dns instead of having to set it up

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individually on every device and pro tip

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you can also do this with a vpn service so that all your traffic will

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automatically be securely routed just refer to your vpn provider's website for

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which settings to use let's wrap things up then with one

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slightly more obscure setting if you have two routers and are dealing with a

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weak signal you can try using wds a

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feature that allows you to bridge two wireless networks wirelessly which is

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kind of like using your router as a wireless repeater instead but

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be cautioned that this can cut your speeds by up to 50 percent so

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simply getting an additional access point and running a cable to it is

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usually the more practical option do you have two or three or four or even more

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computers you're trying to use at a time well

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synergy solves once and for all the problem of

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which keyboard and mouse goes to which one

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so whether you're using Windows mac

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Linux or some combination of all three

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it lets you take one keyboard and mouse and seamlessly control all of your

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machines so maybe you've got like a render workstation that you only need to

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use to check on once in a while now you can use synergy to just whip over there

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fix up your queue and then go back to whatever it is else that you were doing

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it's a simple software solution and it includes powerful features like

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clipboard sharing dragging and dropping between computers custom hotkeys and

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more and the pro version is even available with ssl encryption to secure

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data between the computers synergy is offering a 50 discount to techwiki

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viewers so just click the link in the video description to check it out

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so guys have you customized any router settings we didn't mention how'd that

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turn out for you let us know down in the comments and also let us know if there

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are any other home wi-fi topics you'd like us to discuss here on techwiki

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leave a like or a dislike leave a comment if you have suggestions for

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just any other future comments and don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss

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