Figure out the best possible router position

Have you wondered why your wireless signal is strong in some rooms and incredibly weak in
others? Its not only a matter of distance between your wireless router and your PCs or laptops.
Its also a matter of what objects (walls, doors, furniture, electrical equipment/outlets) interfere
with a good signal.
In many scenarios, you will be able to boost wifi strength significantly by just repositioning either
your router or the connected PCs slightly.
Now, the Trial and error method works eventually, but is a waste of time. To get the best possible
location you need to create a visualization of network coverage across your home. Heatmapper, a
free software for Windows, will do just that:

Click here to download Heatmapper (100 MByte). Note: A registration is required to download this
free tool.
After installation, the program asks you if youve got a map of your map of your floor no worries,
if you dont, you can create this heatmap based on a grid. Simply walk around your apartment or
house with a laptop in your hand running Heatmapper. As you walk (slowly!), use the left-click
button frequently as you walk. Walk through all the areas of your home left-clicking as much as
you can.

When youre done, right click and HeatMapper will create a map of your home, showing you where
the Wi-Fi signal is stronger or weaker. Heres how my map at home looks like

The green area in the middle is also the center of my apartment a good location for the
router! However, in the bedroom (upper part of the screen) I only get ok wireless strength
because the router is blocked by three walls.
By looking at the heatmap, I quickly knew where to position the router in order to get a better WiFi signal!
General advice: Make sure not to position the router directly on the floor or next to thick walls.
Ideally, the best position is in the center (probably the corridor) of your apartment with no or
minimal objects blocking the signal!
Use the latest drivers and firmware
Its rare to find firmware for a router or driver for a network adapter that works perfectly right out
of the gate. Most V1 drivers and firmwares of network equipment I have used were bad and
came with all sorts of problems: slow connections, drop outs, missing features and other quirks.

The first thing I always do when I get a new network device is: look for updates!

For example, when I bought my Linksys WUSB600N adapter it didnt work (at all!) under the 64bit-version of Windows 7. I actually bought the device and couldnt use it for a couple of weeks
until the manufacturer delivered an updated driver that worked under the x64 architecture.
Upgrading the firmware of your router has become somewhat easy over the past couple of years:
Simply open up the firmware configuration page in your browser (see below) and find the
Firmware Upgrade page.

Here you will find direct links to drivers for some popular router manufacturers:

Broadcomm

Atheros

Intel

Ralink

Realtek

These links will you to the most recent Wi-Fi drivers available. Your wireless adaptor is not on the
list? You havent found anything using popular search engines? Hit the comment section and
provide us with the detailed specs of the Wi-Fi adaptor as shown in your device-manager.

Upgrade your Wi-Fi hardware

If youre using the 802.11g (or even b/a) wireless standard, more bandwidth-related tasks such as
video streaming, launching remote applications or file copy operations will be painfully slow. All
three network standards provide a relatively low maximum bandwidth:
Theoretical speed
802.11 (1997)
802.11a (1999)
802.11b (1999)
802.11g (2002)
802.11n (2006)
802.11ac (2012)

2 MBps
54 MBps (short range, high cost mostly in business use)
11 MBps (slower, but higher range than a)
54 MBps (long signal range)
300 MBps (through multiple channels and frequencies)
1 GBps (through multiple channels and frequencies)

As you can see, 802.11ac is the way to go these days. Over the next couple of months, itll replace
the older 802.11a/b/g networks, and offers much improved speed, coverage and reliability. In
general, 802.11ac is at least twice as fast than its predessor n while promising theoretical speeds
of up to 1000 Mbp/s.
If youre suffering from a low network bandwidth, be sure to pick a router and Wi-Fi adapters that
supports at least the 802.11n specification. If you bought a PC or laptop within the last couple of
years, itll (very likely) have a 802.11ac wireless adapter. To go check, simply fire up DeviceManager

or take a look at your hardware specification sheet, for example:

If your adapter does not support 802.11n or ac but your router does, itll obviously use the lower
N, G, B or even A modes. So make sure that all parts of your wireless chain are n compatible!
When shopping for a new network adapter or a router that supports 802.11ac, you should take the
following three tips into consideration.
Pick a dedicated USB adapter:
Even if your laptop or desktop has a built-in 802.11ac adapter that is connected to a full-fledged
802.11n router, you might want to look into getting a dedicated (external) USB wireless adapter.

Sounds ridiculous, but in my experience many external Wi-Fi adapters perform much better than
built-in devices.
When I first got my Linksys WRT610N router, I got quite mixed results and only an average of
100-170 Mbps when the theoretical limit of this beast is around 300 Mbps. So I drank the cool-aid
and ordered the adapter that, according to the manufacturer Linksys, works best with my router
the WUSB600N USB wireless adapter! And what a difference that made: Signal strength did not
change, but the speed went up significantly. Heres a screenshot of my laptop thats using both the
built-in Wi-fi chip as well as the external USB adapter to connect to the router:

The maximum speed meter went up from 130 Mbps to 300 Mbps. Of course, that is the peak
value, but only with this little addition was I able to stream full-definition 1080p video across my
apartment with no stuttering or delay whatsoever.
Stay in the family: Besides using external dedicated Wi-Fi devices, Id also recommend to pick a
router and the adapter from the same company. Now, that doesnt mean that a Linksys router
wouldnt work with a Broadcom or D-Link network adapter, but its also my experience that you get
the best-possible performance if you stay in the family. Now I know that this is what the
manufacturer wants but in this case Id go with it.
Use an external antenna for your router. You can significantly boost your Wi-Fi connection by
replacing the antenna or add another external antenna. This guide as well as this one help you
figure things out.

Change the Wi-Fi channel

All modern routers are capable of communicating to your PC or laptop on several different
channels. However, if your neighbours Wi-Fi equipment is communicating on the same channel,
your network speeds and reliability might suffer. Windows offers a built-in solution that lets you
see on what channels all your surrounding Wi-Fi networks conmunicate. This is how it works:
Step 1 Launch the command line. To do that, click on the Start orb, go to All
ProgramsAccessories and click on Command Prompt.
Step 2 Type in the following command: netsh wlan show all.

Step 3 Youll see a large list of all wireless networks in your area.
Scroll through the list and watch out for the entry that says Channel. Out of those 7 networks, 4
are using channel 6 to send data, two use channel 5 and one is using channel 13.
This is why I should probably choose either a lower channel or a channel between 6 and 13.

Try changing the channel on the routers configuration page.

To open the page, youll usually enter its IP adress into your browser (check the manual to see
which address you need to type in), for example http://192.168.1.1, and enter the user name and
password you specified at setup or the default credentials if you never specified it (which is
potentially dangerous)!
Find your wireless channel settings. On my router, thats under the Wireless tab right in the
Basic Wireless Settings categor

Pick the channel that is not (or barely) used in your area. In my example, I choose channel 10.
Reconnect all your devices and see if youve got better speed or if youre reliability issues are
fixed!
That was part 1 look out for part 2 thatll show you even more in-depth tricks to improve your
wireless network speed!

Saya rasa majoriti pengguna internet TM (terutama Streamyx) menggunakan router yang dibekalkan sendiri
oleh TM. Kalau mampu, tukarlah kepada router jenama lain seperti Asus untuk kualiti dan usability yang lebih
baik berbanding router TM. Jika anda tidak bercadang untuk menukar router, saya galakkan praktik tips seperti
di bawah untuk dapatkan sambungan Wi-Fi yang lebih memuaskan.
Langkah 1 : Akses Configuration Router Anda

Untuk mengakses configuration router, taip 192.168.1.1 pada pelayar internet anda. Jika anda menggunakan
router seperti dalam gambar di atas, model INNATECH-W700N (Innacom) username dan password adalah
seperti berikut :
Login : tmadmin
Password : Adm@XXXX disini XXXX merujuk kepada empat angkat terakhir MAC Address router tersebut.
Boleh rujuk di pelekat di bahagian bawah router.
Langkah 2 : Menukar Wi-Fi kepada Wireless N sahaja

Setting asal bagi kebanyakan router ialah Wi-Fi B/G/N iaitu signal radio yang menyokong peranti legacy dari
zaman sedekad lepas hingga ke sekarang. Peranti moden seperti laptop generasi baru, iPhone, peranti Android
kebanyakannya menyokong sambungan Wifi b/g/n/ac.
Masalah utama ialah penggunaan mode wifi b/g/n pada peranti moden boleh menjejaskan speed wifi transfer
itu sendiri. Oleh itu, bagi mengurangkan bottleneck saya sarankan bahawa anda set wifi mode kepada Wifi
N sahaja.
AMARAN : JIKA ANDA MENGGUNAKAN DEVICE YANG MENYOKONG Wifi G sahaja, jangan buat
langkah ini kerana di khuatiri anda menghadapi masalah tidak dapat connect ke WIFI.
Tekan Apply Changes untuk menyimpan setting terbaru.
#Nota 1: Kalau tak boleh proceed, sila buat langkah 3 dulu kemudian baru tukar kepada WPA2.
#Nota 2 : Laptop atau model telefon lama mungkin tidak mesra wireless N atau tidak dapat connect langsung.
Langkah 3 : Menukar security kepada WPA2

Kebanyakan router juga masih mengekalkan wifi security jenis WEP sebagai default settings. Masalah utama
WEP ialah boleh menyebabkan kelajuan transfer data melalui wifi dibawah prestasi sebenar selain sekuriti WEP
yang mudah digodam.
Biasa dengar kes curi wifi? Saya yakin kebanyakan wifi yang kena curi itu masih guna sekuriti WEP.
Untuk lebih lajukan wif transfer, tukar sekuriti kepada WPA2 (AES) dan apply changes, kemudian restart
router anda.
Langkah 4 : Menukar DNS kepada Google DNS

Saya pernah tulis mengenai Google DNS, enam tahun lepas. Tapi hari ini ianya masih relevan. Google DNS tidak
meningkatkan kelajuan wifi tetapi membantu anda melayari web dengan lebih pantas. Untuk menukar DNS
pada router TM, masuk 192.168.1.1 > Service > DNS > Set DNS Manually > 8.8.8.8 dan 8.8.4.4.
Langkah 5 : Menukar kedudukan router
Router TM biasanya guna internal antenna jadi signal tidak kuat berbanding router yang ada 2 atau tiga
tanduk, dan boleh menjadi bertambah lemah sekiranya banyak halangan. Letak router di kawasan utama dan
terbuka dan elakkan dari meletak router di bilik paling hujung atau tempat tersorok. Percayalah, kalau signal
tidak banyak halangan, wifi pun akan jadi kuat dan laju.

Secara teori anda akan merasakan perubahan yang agak drastik terutamanya bila streaming dan bermain
online games. Router TM banyak limitasinya, seperti signal yang tidak kuat kerana antena terbina dalam,
jumlah RAM yang rendah (tidak mampu menambung banyak peranti pada masa sama) dan tiada sokongan
dual-band.
Saya merupakan pengguna modem dan router Asus yang menggunakan custom firmware. Kalau post ini dapat
sambutan, mungkin saya boleh cerita sikit mengenai pengguna modem dan router Asus di dalam artikel akan
datang.
Jangan lupa kongsikan artikel ini dengan rakan-rakan anda