How to Increase the Speed ​​of Your Home Internet

Internet, which is everywhere in our lives, is now a necessity in every field. Corporate internet connections offer very high-performance connections in terms of the network equipment used. But what should you do if your home internet is slow?

In today’s conditions and pandemic environment, we are going through a process where the need and use of the internet has increased considerably all over the world. We have come to do almost all of our plans, programs, shopping and business over the internet. This heavy usage naturally affects internet speeds as well.

With the pandemic, we have never used the internet in our homes this much. The needs of the technological devices in our homes and the simultaneous connection of other individuals in the house to the internet also creates density in our local networks. This also applies to other users. In other words, there is an intense internet use in hundreds, maybe thousands of homes in your area. With the increase in usage, internet performance may decrease regionally. It’s all about internet service providers. But when it comes to our home connection, our local network, it’s all up to us.

Our computers that we use in our homes are usually connected to the internet via cable. Although a wired connection is always healthier, it does not offer the convenience of a wireless connection. Many smart devices in the home, televisions, media devices, smartphones, tablets and laptops require wireless connection. Having so many devices connected to the network also negatively affects the wireless connection performance. During the current pandemic period, wireless connection performance losses have also increased considerably. Although these performance losses are something that happens all the time, they did not affect our daily lives much. Especially those who only use the internet for browsing, reading or listening to music were not affected by these performance losses at all.

Since the performance of the wireless internet depends on many variables, losses can be experienced more. For example, even a mirror next to your modem or a device emitting electromagnetic signals can affect its performance. If the number of wireless internet users in the houses around you is high or your modem is at one end of your house, you are likely to experience performance losses. The reason for this is that wireless internet uses certain frequency ranges. Your modem transmits wireless internet thanks to the radio waves it emits. We connect to the internet with these waves that spread over a certain channel. Modems have an average of 13 or 14 separate channels. Waves propagate through these channels. However, many modems use the same channel. We can think of it as a four-lane road. If everyone tries to go in one lane, traffic will occur.

What Can We Do For Better Internet Connection?

1- Best Solution: Connect by Cable

The sharpest and most effective solution to the above-mentioned wireless internet problems is to connect your devices to the internet with a cable. There may be many devices in your home that will not connect to the internet with a cable, but reducing the number of devices that connect to the internet with a wireless connection will slightly improve the wireless internet performance.

However, if the wireless internet distribution power and coverage area of ​​the devices you use such as modem, router, access point is low, it is possible to experience problems even if the number of wireless connected devices is low, no matter how fast your internet is.

Wired internet not only solves these problems, it also offers you a more stable internet speed. Various disconnections or high speed changes can be seen in the wireless internet. It is possible to minimize them on wired internet. Switching to this system is not as difficult as it seems. As soon as you plug one end of cables such as CAT5, CAT6, CAT7, known as Ethernet cables, into the Ethernet port on the modem and the other end into the computer, your wired internet becomes ready for use. You do not need to take any other action. If you want to use wired internet on more than one computer or smart device and your modem does not have enough Ethernet ports, you may need a little more work. You can duplicate your Ethernet port with the help of a device called “Switch”. Again, you need to connect one end of your Ethernet cable to the modem and the other to the switch. Then you can connect to the internet by connecting one Ethernet cable to the swicth for all computers.

In addition, there is wired connection support for media devices, smart televisions and many smart devices in your home. Connecting these devices with a cable will provide a better performance as it is healthier than a wireless internet connection, as we mentioned.

2- Leave Your Modem Surrounding Empty

There are also precautions you can take if you cannot connect your devices with a cable. The first of these is to keep the surrounding of the modem clean so that the signal can propagate properly. The waves emitted by the modem can be affected by the objects around it. Although not every item affects this situation, some items can reduce the performance of your modem. For example, devices that emit electromagnetic fields.

So what other measures can be taken?

• Put your modem in a high place. For example, it could be a shelf or a bookcase. Its presence below may reduce the efficiency of the signals.
• Do not keep too many items around. Items containing metal can greatly affect the strength of the signals. For example, metal surfaces are generally used behind mirrors. In addition, if your modem is located in a place where the walls are covered with tiles, you may still get bad results. So be you, keep the modem away from materials such as metal and tiles.
• Apart from all these items, the most important point is the walls. If there are too many walls between you and the modem in the house, the strength of the signals decreases. At this point it’s best to be as close to the modem as possible. If you use it together, not alone, as we mentioned in another article, keeping it in the middle of the house gives the best results.

3- If Your Modem Supports it, Use 5 GHz Connection

Some modems have a feature called dual band. This feature allows the modem to operate on two different frequencies; 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. If your modem supports it, you can enter the modem interface and perform the operation. Login to the interface by typing 192.168.1.1 (if not, try 192.168.0.1) in your browser, just like you would a website. Then find and enter the “Wireless Network Settings” settings in the interface. Select and activate the 5 GHz band in the wireless network settings. Today, we can say that the number of devices with 5 GHz support is still low. Therefore, fewer devices mean faster internet!

However, the capability of the 5 GHz frequency offers a much wider data range than the capability of the 2.4 GHz frequency. For this reason, it is possible to reach much higher speeds. Especially in our country, 2.4 GHz is under heavy use. 5 GHz connection is a good option to avoid traffic congestion. Of course, you have to make a manual selection while switching to this channel. Because especially phones automatically connect from 2.4 GHz. Even if you set it once, it will reconnect to 2.4 as soon as you turn it on and off. You can choose this manually on your devices regularly, or you can use the two channels as two different Wi-Fi networks. If you create a new Wi-Fi network from your wireless network settings and name one as 2.4 GHz and the other as 5 GHz, it will be easier to choose directly from your devices.

4- Modem Location is Very Important

The best location for the modem in your home is in the middle of the house. Thus, you will not have any problems connecting to the internet from anywhere in your home.

So what other measures can be taken?

• As the device you connect to the internet moves away from the modem, you experience performance loss. If you are on one end of the modem and your internet speed is as high as you want, you will experience performance loss when you cannot get enough signal.
• Modems at one end of your house may interfere with the signals of modems located in neighboring buildings. Again, this causes performance loss.
• As we mentioned before; The fewer walls, the stronger the signal! If you are using the internet alone, be as close to the modem as possible. But if you’re communal and have someone connecting to the internet from all over your house, the midpoint is ideal.

5- You Can Use Wi-Fi Booster

If you are too far from the modem where you are, it is very likely that you will experience loss of performance. If you can’t zoom the modem in your home or office, you can get stronger signals by getting a Wi-Fi booster.

These products, available in many brands, extend your Wi-Fi range. Although it differs from model to model, the main purpose is to get stronger signals by using this booster close to your computer. Some models can be connected to a computer with a USB port, while some models can work directly wirelessly. These small but effective devices are a good alternative.

When choosing these products, it is more effective to use the ones with the mesh feature rather than the ones with the repetitive feature. For example, there are boosters that automatically switch between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, which we mentioned above. In addition, they detect where the device you connect to the internet is and give more intense waves to that area. In short, these smart products provide you with the most optimal connection. Unfortunately, not every product shows this performance. For this reason, we recommend that you be careful when choosing a product and buy a mesh reinforcement.

6- Turn your modem off and on at regular intervals

You should turn your modem off and on once a week on average. Just turn it off with the power button, wait 30-40 seconds, and then turn it back on. For this simple but effective method, just try it and see the effect.

In addition, on some devices, this process can be done completely automatically. If you have a supporting modem or router, you can do this automatically by activating the auto-restart setting. For example, you can ensure a more stable connection by automatically restarting your modem in the early hours of the morning when you have not started using the internet yet.

7- Renew Devices Using Old Technology

Technology is always changing. Of course, it’s getting harder to keep up with the pace of it. However, using very old technologies can cause you to get bad performance, especially on the internet. 11N and 11G technologies now have updated versions. Using new ones instead of these old technologies will give you better efficiency.

In addition, as we mentioned above, devices that support 5 GHz networks (Wi-Fi 5 and later) are the most performing devices when it comes to wireless internet.

8- Update Your Modem’s Software

Using an up-to-date modem with software also affects your internet network. Do not skip updating your modem’s firmware. Usually this is done from the modem interface 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. All modem manufacturers recommend using the latest version. In addition, your security is guaranteed with updates. Many firmware updates serve to close emerging security vulnerabilities.

You need to download the latest firmware version available on the website of the modem brand you are using. Each brand publishes this version on its website. After downloading it, access the modem interface by typing 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 in your browser. Next you need to find the Firmware update option. This menu is usually called System, Update, or Advanced Settings. Once you find the update menu you usually have 2 options; local update and online update.

Local update is the part where you can upgrade the software by downloading the firmware file we mentioned above and selecting the file in question from the file selection section of the interface.

Online update, on the other hand, is the part where you can perform an update check from your modem manufacturer’s own servers and automatically update the firmware. If there is no update in the online update option, it is useful to check the version update from the manufacturer’s website.

9- Renew Your Modem

Renewing your modem on average every 3-5 years can improve your performance. We are in an era where technology is constantly evolving. For this reason, old products can sometimes cause performance loss. In addition, assuming that they work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they make a lot of effort. In addition, using the old technologies we mentioned above is also valid for modems. Using modems that support standards such as 11AC / Wi-Fi 5 speed or the new Wi-Fi 6 speed, Wi-Fi 6E speed allows you to get the highest performance from your internet.

After all these procedures, there will be an improvement in your internet performance. Make an effort to apply the methods carefully.