A WiFi network is the backbone of modern households. Today, with so many families learning and working from home, it’s more important than ever to understand your home WiFi network. We asked our local “WiFi Doctor,” Comcast Senior Technical Operations Manager Ken Sedberry, to share five simple tips to help families improve the health of their home WiFi network, ensuring students can rock remote learning this school year:
Tip #1: Place your Gateway or router in the center of your home. It’s best to choose a centralized location, ideally in the room where you use your devices most (avoid the basement, garage or far corner of your home). And, check that the cables are tight! A loose connection can have a big impact on the performance of your network.
Tip #2: Make sure your Gateway or router is in an open area, clear of obstructions. Appliances, water sources, wireless electronics or being hidden in a cabinet are examples of obstructions that can interfere with your connection.
Tip #3: Be aware of activities that draw more bandwidth – conferencing (via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.), video streaming and gaming draw more bandwidth. Look at the bandwidth for your internet package and whether it’s sufficient for your needs. Consider pausing gaming or streaming while others in the household are on important video calls. You can also hardwire devices to the Gateway or router to ensure a strong and steady connection.
Tip #4: The device can make the difference! Test devices in different parts of the home. Many school-issued computers may need to be used in the same room as the Gateway or router. Also, older devices can only process so much speed, no matter how fast your internet or router speed is.
Tip #5: Utilize the Xfinity xFi app to run speed tests, and monitor your home WiFi network – in addition to having visibility into the speeds your experiencing on specific devices, the xFi app allows parents to pause devices, set screen time limits for kids and see what devices are connected to your home WiFi network.
To learn more about these and other tips, click here.