Improving Your WiFi Antenna Performance

WiFi is a great technology that makes use of radio signals in order to transmit data across a computer network. While this technology is certainly convenient, it's not without its problems, as sometimes you'll find that you have a dead zone in your home, making it hard to get your WiFi access just where you want it. Sometimes this is a problem of interference with your WiFi antenna and other times you may simply need a stronger WiFi antenna altogether. Let's talk about some of the possible solutions you can have for improving your WiFi antenna.

Cutting The Interference

Sometimes your WiFi antenna is working just find, but the airwaves are crowded with other wireless signals, whether it's from your phones or from neighbors using their own wireless connections. If you're having trouble, try reconfiguring your WiFi antenna to receive information on a different channel than the one you're using. Changing to one of the other of the eleven channels you have available is a simple way to try to improve the performance of your WiFi without making further changes.

Getting A Stronger Antenna

Another solution, if simply changing channels doesn't work, is to use an external WiFi antenna, that is, one not encased in your computer housing, to transmit data. External antennas are usually capable of putting out greater power when transmitting, and since wireless performance is linked to the strength of the signal, changing to a stronger, external WiFi antenna can be a big help. There are solutions that exist, from ready-made to projects that you do yourself.

Directional Antennas

One problem with an external WiFi antenna is that you can actually make your network less secure, by making it easier for people outside your home to access your network due to the stronger signal. This is mostly a problem if you purchase what is known as an omnidirectional WiFi antenna, which radiates its signal equally in a sort of donut, with the center of that donut located where the antenna is. But there are solutions to this, requiring a different sort of antenna.

In contract to omnidirectional antennas, directional WiFi antennas focus the signal and point it in a particular direction, meaning that you need to aim the antenna at the part of your home where you're trying to get a signal. While this might seem like an inconvenience, because the signal is strongest only in one direction, people not along that line, people outside your home, for example, won't receive a strong signal, which makes this a more secure solution. But however you choose to approach the solution, you should be able to find a way to ease your WiFi antenna woes.