More and more video and audio material that we play at home comes from the cloud and is therefore displayed via streaming on your TV or via your home cinema system. However, the quality of the stream often leaves something to be desired, often in the form of a low resolution or a faltering image. You can then use an ethernet cable for a stable connection, but there is also a simple solution to optimize your WiFi signal.
optimize your WiFi signal and streaming
If you have set up a WiFi network at home, you can probably access the internet from every room and stream content from the internet to your mobile devices, your TV, your receiver or your home cinema system. However, there is a good chance that many people in the vicinity of your apartment or house also have a WiFi network and therefore may influence the quality of your WiFi signal and therefore the quality of your streams. Yes, they have a different password, but the WiFi signal is often over the same frequencies as your signal. This leads to congestion.
If you stream video and audio material, you naturally want the ‘clean’ WiFi signal possible for the highest possible speeds. After all, buffering content can cause a lot of irritation. The goal is to receive as little interference (interference) from other WiFi stations in the area as possible, so that the way is clear for your own WiFi signal. Of course the signal depends on factors such as the quality of the router, the subscription that you have and the WiFi receiver in the device that is being streamed to, but something you can easily influence yourself is the WiFi channel. The big advantage is that you can often make a lot of profit with this.
optimize your WiFi signal – Change the WiFi channel
Changing the WiFi channel is one of the simplest settings, but also one of the solutions to improve the quality of your streams, especially if you live in an area with many WiFi networks. WiFi signals are sent via 11 channels, each channel can be set manually, but many WiFi routers are set to the same channel by default, often channel 6 for example. If no one changes this and so many people use channel 6, it quickly becomes busy. There are also routers that look for a less busy channel themselves, but if every router in the area does that, you will still encounter the same problem; a busy channel.
The analysis
It is therefore the intention that you go and see which WiFi channels are busy so that you can avoid them. For this you can install a simple program on your Mac, your Windows computer or your Android device. This program is a so-called WiFi sniffer and gives you information about the WiFi networks in the area. On this page you will find a number of programs that you can use for this. Once installed you will see a lot of information but the information that matters most is the channels that are used. From this you can determine which channels are used the least and what you should go for.
Set WiFi channel
Adjusting the WiFi channel on your router is also a piece of cake. Make sure you have the manual for your router at hand or look it up online. Log into the router as described in the manual and search for the WiFi channels / settings page. This option can often be found under ‘advanced settings’. All you have to look for is the WiFi channel. Once found, you will see the channel that is used by default for your WiFi signal. You can adjust this channel by means of a drop-down menu or an input field. Now use the most quiet channel, as the analysis with the aforementioned software showed. Save the settings and you’re done.
Enjoy better streams
Then nothing more needs to be done and there is a good chance that the WiFi signal, and thus the quality of streaming content, will improve. All devices that connect to your WiFi network will automatically switch to the new channel, so you do not have to make any changes. Not only will your speed increase in some cases, it will also improve signal stability, which is just as important.
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