Hosting this Holiday? Here’s a Checklist to Get Your WiFi Ready
Of course, we all want to enjoy time with family and friends around the holidays, which includes being present and having great conversations. But it’s inevitable that devices like phones, laptops and tablets will come out. Especially if you are connecting via video chat with loved ones that are far away.
Since that’s the case, your guests are going to expect WiFi. Is your WiFi holiday ready? If not, here’s a checklist to make sure that you are ready:
1. Make sure your WiFi signal is strong
Without a strong WiFi signal, it’s likely that with a bunch of guests in your home, your WiFi connection will be slow or may not connect at all. This is a problem if you are trying to stream holiday music, a movie with the family, gathering around to play a game online or trying to video chat relatives and friends far away. Without a solid WiFi signal, your options for entertainment or connection could tank.
If your WiFi seems slow, or you want to check it to prepare for hosting the holidays, here are some things you can do:
Reboot your router
If your signal seems weak, try rebooting your router. This will often do the trick. But if your internet is still slow after a reboot then check to make sure your WiFi network isn’t the problem itself.
Check your WiFi
Make sure that your WiFi is performing as it should be. You can check it by using an Ethernet cable to connect a device to the internet. If this does not work, the problem could be your WiFi signal strength.
Check your WiFi signal strength
Lastly, check your WiFi signal strength by moving throughout your home with your device. As you move around holding your device, monitor how strong the WiFi signal is in different spots. You can also use paid tools to measure the signal strength. Paid tools give you exact numbers to measure the signal strength instead of a general idea.
If you find areas that are struggling to get a good WiFi signal, you can invest in WiFi extenders. WiFi extenders will ensure that WiFi exists throughout your home, so that none of your guests suffer from a poor connection while visiting.
2. Make sure your Internet connection and speed is fast
Now that you have checked your signal strength you want to check your Internet speed. Don’t let slow WiFi Internet connection be the buzzkill of this year’s gathering. Here’s how to check your speeds and how to increase them if they are slow:
Start by running an internet speed test. This will give you an idea of how fast or slow your WiFi is currently. If you have slow speeds (generally anything below 10 Mbps) then you will want to look into increasing your Internet speed.
If your WiFi speed measures between 10 to 12 Mbps, you and your guests should be able to connect to the internet. But as more people try to jump on your WiFi, the slower the connection will be. If your guests are looking to play video games, stream videos and TV, and upload or download files, then you will want to increase your WiFi speed. Increasing to 20 Mbps or more will help you avoid any lag or disconnection issues and keep everyone happy.
3. Make sure your home network is secure
Last but not least, make sure that your home network is secure. You don’t want to have a house-full of guests connecting to an unsecure network.
Start with making sure that your network and password are both strong. You can do this by investing in a strong virtual private network (VPN), which encrypts your data throughout your entire WiFi connection. This way, when your guests connect to your network, no one has to worry about their data being gathered by unwanted guests.
Learn more about home networking and Wi-Fi signal strength and speeds with ScreenBeam’s Complete Guide to WiFi Networking. For the latest news in technology, check out ScreenBeam’s blog.