Improve Your Wi-Fi Router's Performance

Do you have one of those rooms that the router's Wi-Fi signal just can't seem to reach? Of course you do; we all have one of those. (We also have a conference room that someone thought was a great idea to paint peach, but that's a different problem). Well fear not, because I've got a slew of tips for eking a little more range from our wireless router.

MakeUseOf has 8 handy tricks for increasing your router's performance. Some of them are free; others might require shelling out a few bucks. Here are my favorites:

Move it. Don't keep it in a corner, where it's going to radiate into a wall or the hallway that no one ever uses. Locate it as centrally in the work area as possible.

Change the Wi-Fi channel. Your router's broadcast channel might be crowded with a number of other appliances (like cordless phones, for example) that impede transmission and cause dropped connections between the router and laptops. A program like NetStumbler lets you change the channel to one less crowded.

Replace the antenna. You can purchase a more efficient antenna -- or, if your router is indeed tucked away in a corner -- a directional antenna to blast your Wi-Fi energy where it's needed instead of omni-directionally where it will only help insects and rodents. (Freeloading insects and rodents...)

Add a repeater. That's what I've done in my home office; you can get them pretty inexpensively and they just plug into a wall outlet; no need to run another Ethernet cable. They repeat the signal, dramatically extending your range.