What Router Settings Should You Change?
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2018-05-06
·
1,239 words · ~6 min read
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thanks for watching techwiki click the subscribe button then enable
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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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so whether you're using Windows mac
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machines so maybe you've got like a render workstation that you only need to
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more and the pro version is even available with ssl encryption to secure
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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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