Wireless Internet & Small Business – Tips To Improve Signal Quality

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Wireless internet, cloud computing solutions, mobile devices (smartphones & tablets) – they all go hand in hand in today’s small business environment.  It’s important that they all work properly to help businesses get the job done.  Wireless internet signal quality is often taken for granted.  As long as it generally works, no one really pays attention.  As soon as it stops working, that’s when things get ugly.  To avoid the frustration of dealing with a poor quality internet connection, here are 8 ways to help improve signal quality:

  1. Position the wireless router differently. Positioning away from walls, floors and metal objects is preferable.  The closer to these obstructions, the more severe the interference.
  2. Remove other electrical devices which may be a source of interference.  Cordless phone bases would be a prime example.  Anything running on the 2.4 GHz band is also a possible culprit.
  3. Re-position antennas or replace standard omni-directional antenna with a high gain directional antenna.  This may not be possible with newer routers with internal antennas but consider it as an option on routers with external antennas.
  4. Change frequencies and/or channels on the router settings.  Are there other wireless networks in your neighborhood that your computers are identifying?  They might broadcasting on similar frequencies/channels and interfering.
  5. What devices are connecting wirelessly?  Macbook, iPad, windows notebook –  check to see if there are any issues with certain operating systems running on specific brands of routers.
  6. Make sure all devices have the lastest firmware and drivers.  They should be running the latest standard (801.11N).  Newer standards have more speed and less channel interference.
  7. Try disabling the SSID broadcasts.  Other computers may be querying the network to determine its features and slowing things down.
  8. Look at adding  a wireless repeater.  This extends WiFi coverage for your network. It works with any standard router or gateway and enables a better WiFi connection for laptops, tablets, smartphones and more.

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