Slow Wi-Fi? My 10 go-to fixes to speed up home internet and get better coverage

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Check your incoming Internet before fooling with your network.
• There are simple steps you can take to speed up your Wi-Fi network.
• To get the most from your network, you’ll need to fine-tune its settings.

Even with a Netgear Orbi 970 mesh Wi-Fi network, backed by a 2Gbps AT&T fiber-optic Internet connection, I sometimes have Wi-Fi slowdowns. That’s because my home has two buildings. One’s primarily an office, while the other is where I lay my head. The former is a new 1,000-square-foot building, while the latter is a 3,000-square-foot historic building with all the thick walls that come with older homes. It’s not easy to cover all that space, even with top-of-the-range network gear.

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Last week, things started to go wrong — the way they always do — so I spent the weekend rebuilding and improving my network. Here’s what I did. You probably don’t face the kind of trouble I did, but these tips will help anyone get faster, more reliable Wi-Fi.

1. How fast is your Internet?

Before you can improve your Wi-Fi network, you need to know what you’re working with. Sure, your ISP may tell you you’re getting 500Mbps of bandwidth, but are you?

You can simply type “speed test” into your browser, and Chrome, Edge, and Firefox will all run a speed test from there. These are not particularly accurate, especially when you’re dealing with speeds above 100Mbps.

Instead, I recommend using Ookla Speedtest. (Now Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s parent company, owns Ookla, but I’d recommend them anyway.)

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Keep in mind that when you look at the results, your download speed is what most people care about the most. In particular, if your Internet connection is cable or DSL, the download speed will be much faster than the upload speed.

You should also recall that your connection is only as fast as the slowest link in your network. For instance, if you have a 1Gbps fiber connection but your PC is connected to it via an outdated 100Mbps Ethernet switch, you won’t be able to break the 100Mbps speed limit.

If you’re consistently not getting the speed you’re paying for, it’s time to call your ISP. Maybe you have a Wi-Fi speed problem, maybe you don’t, but you’ll never know until you’re getting the most from outside your local network.

2. Upgrade your hardware

To repeat myself, always remember that your network is only as fast as your slowest link. So, for example, if you have a 300 Mbps cable internet connection, there’s no point in upgrading your Wi-Fi access point (AP) or mesh to Wi-Fi 7. It’s a different story, though, if you have a Gigabit or better internet hookup. Then, you do look into, say, a Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 7 or Amazon Eero Outdoor 7 mesh setup. Or, if you don’t need a mesh because a single AP will cover your home, then consider an Asus RT-BE86U or TP-Link BE3600.

However, once more, keep in mind that Wi-Fi 7 will only work well for you if your computer supports it. If it can’t understand the Wi-Fi 7 signal, your older gear will still be able to use the network because it’s backward compatible, but you won’t get its fastest speed.

Also: The fastest Wi-Fi 7 internet providers in the US, ranked

You don’t have to buy a new computer to get Wi-Fi 7 speeds. There are external Wi-Fi dongles, such as the Asus RT-BE58 Go or Acer Wave D7, that you can plug into an available USB port to get Wi-Fi 7 speeds.

If you’re running an older router, and your computers support it, you may also get a speed surge by upgrading to a router that supports Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E. With 6E, you can get up to 1Gbps, which is as much throughput as most people will ever need. It still won’t be as fast as Wi-Fi 7 equipment, but it will also be cheaper.

3. Keep your firmware updated

Even if you don’t need or want to buy new Wi-Fi hardware, it’s always a good idea to upgrade the firmware of your router, devices, and adapters. Besides improving their security, it may also boost your speed.

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You should also sign up for email alerts from your router’s manufacturer to get notified when updates are available.

4. Router placement

Whether you’re using a mesh Wi-Fi network or not, you should place your Wi-Fi router in a central, elevated location with as few walls and physical obstructions as possible between the router and workspaces.

With a mesh, make sure there’s as clear a sight line as possible between the router and its satellites. Of course, you can’t do that in all cases. After all, most people use meshes because they need Wi-Fi coverage on different floors or in far-distant rooms.

You should also avoid closets, corners, and spots near large metal appliances. All these can interfere with signals.

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I can’t recommend highly enough that you keep your Wi-Fi gear away from cordless phones and baby monitors. These devices tend to interfere with Wi-Fi. Oh, and never, and I mean never, set one up near a microwave. When microwaves are on, they roar with 2.5GHz interference.

You may also want to consider using an Ethernet cable and an Ethernet router or switch to connect your router to its satellites or computers. For example, I had been using a 6GHz backhaul between my mesh router and the mesh satellite that was closest to the other building and its satellites. Now, 6GHz can deliver a very fast signal. In ideal conditions, it can provide over 9Gbps. But its range and ability to go through walls are minimal. You’re best off using it to connect devices within a single room. 

So, instead of using the 6GHz to connect them, I replaced it with a Cat 6 Ethernet cable via a Zyxel 2.5 Gigabit Switch MG-108. The net result? At the far end of my mesh network, I boosted my speed by 100Mbps.

5. Optimize antennas

While you’re at it, if your routers have external antennas, point them in different directions. At least, make one perpendicular to another. That is, place one horizontally and the other vertically. For me, this reminds me of when I was a kid and we had to move the TV’s rabbit-ear antennas to get the best signal. That was a long time ago, but the technique still works.

6. Adjust channels and bands

As I sit here at my office desk, my default Wi-Fi analyzer app, the open-source WiFi Analyzer, tells me that, not counting my networks, there are 14 Wi-Fi networks near me. That may sound like a lot, but if you live in an apartment or have an office, that’s nothing. All those routers are fighting for the same limited amount of spectrum space.

Most modern Wi-Fi routers, including those from TP-Link, Asus, Netgear, Ubiquiti, Acer, and most mesh systems, support automatic channel selection. That means they scan for the least congested channel and switch to it.

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However, and this is important, most of them only do this when you first turn them on. So, if you’re seeing a lot of APs all camping on your default channel, you may want to turn your router off and on to find a less crowded channel for your network. Advanced mesh or enterprise gear uses protocols such as Dynamic Channel Selection (DCS), Automatic Channel Selection (ACS), or Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) to automatically scan for the best channels.

Many APs also allow you to set channels manually so that you can set them yourself. Typically, you do this in the router menu under “Advanced” or “Wireless” settings.

Mesh networks, however, usually don’t allow you to do this, as you’d be juggling three or more Wi-Fi devices. Even if you can do it on your mesh network, I’ve found it to be more trouble than it’s worth.

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Whenever possible, use the 5GHz range. While everything supports 2.4GHz, and it can cover the longest distance, that also means it’s the most crowded section of bandwidth. Besides, you’ll get faster traffic on the 5GHz and 6GHz ranges.

7. Testing your network

If you’ve done all this, and your signal strength is still weak in certain spots, or even if you have dead spots, you may want to map your Wi-Fi signal with a program that can generate a heat map.

The best of these programs is NetSpot, but if you’re not already network savvy, you’ll probably find it too complicated. If you want a simple program to find your Wi-Fi cold spots, I recommend WiFi Heatmap. It’s easy to use, and it’s good enough to be useful.

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Once you’ve spotted these, if there aren’t too many, you may want to add wireless repeaters or additional APs. These devices help rebroadcast the primary signal to cover distant areas. Just make sure that when you buy these, they’re compatible with your AP. That usually means getting them from the same vendor.

Finally, if you have a large area to cover, it’s time to switch to a mesh network.

8. Monitor your network

I’m not asking you to be a network administrator. Still, you should use your built-in router software or third-party management tools, such as Ubiquiti WiFiman or InSSIDer, to check on your Wi-Fi usage and identify bottlenecks or unauthorized devices.

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For instance, perhaps the reason you’re not getting all the speed you’re paying for is that a neighbor is piggybacking on your bandwidth so he and a bunch of his buddies can play Call of Duty: Warzone all night long.

9. Fine-tuning your network

Fair warning: These tips require you to be comfortable getting your hands dirty with your network’s advanced controls.

Let’s start with prioritizing your video calls, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), gaming, and streaming by adjusting your Quality of Service (QoS) settings. QoS gives you the ability to prioritize specific types of network traffic, applications, or devices, ensuring optimal performance for critical services.

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While higher-end routers do this automatically, most routers require you to turn on QoS features manually. For example, while my Orbi automatically turns on Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) QoS, which prioritizes voice, video, and gaming traffic, if I want more precise control, I need to manage it myself.

If your router supports beamforming, you should enable it. Beamforming directs the Wi-Fi signal toward specific devices rather than broadcasting it equally in all directions. This targeted transmission improves speed, reliability, and range.

You may also want to disable 20/40MHz Coexistence on the 2.4GHz band. This forces your Wi-Fi network to always use a 40MHz channel. This increases potential wireless speed, but this also comes with trade-offs. 40MHz use can dramatically increase interference with your neighbors’ 2.4GHz Wi-Fi hardware. I recommend you only use it if there are few other APs in your neck of the woods.

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Another problem is that older 2.4GHz Wi-Fi equipment may not work well, or at all, with 40MHz channels.

While you’re at it, you can enable short preamble to improve network speed. This works exceptionally well on modern Wi-Fi devices because it reduces the amount of overhead in each data packet, allowing for faster transmission and higher throughput. 

So what is it? The preamble is the bit sequence at the start of a Wi-Fi packet that’s used for synchronization and channel estimation. However, if you have a lot of older devices or high interference, sticking with long preamble provides better error correction and stability. Me? I use short all the time. It’s just faster.

10. Final tips

Just like security, keeping your Wi-Fi up to speed is a never-ending job. You should routinely check Wi-Fi speed with online speed tests and local signal analysis tools. I wish I could say I check it monthly. I don’t. Instead, like most of you, I usually wait until something goes awry before fixing up my network. Still, do try to check your network out occasionally. I really had better plans for my weekend than to spend it fiddling with my network.

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Finally, over time, you’ll end up buying newer and faster networking gear. When you do that, it’s an ideal time to give your network a checkup.