Quick Tips To Speed Up Your Business Wi-Fi With businesses going digital in today’s tech era, having speedy business Wi-Fi is not a luxury add-on anymore. Today, it’s really important for businesses to provide their clients as well as employees with a speedy and reliable wireless network. Wireless networks that receive heavy traffic must be maintained properly. The same stands true for the networks that are often used for streaming voice or video over Wi-Fi as speed turns out to be vital for such connections. Congestion, interference, improper configuration, poor design, and insufficient maintenance are some of the factors that can be responsible for poor Wi-Fi speeds. Fortunately, however, there are some tips for faster wifi that you can use to speed up your wifi in 2021. Let’s have a look at these!
- Minimize Interference
First and foremost, you should reduce or completely eliminate any interference that may be causing your wi-fi connection to slow down. Unlike wired networks, controlling the transport medium for Wi-FI – the airwaves – is not that simple. You will always face some interference, either from other Wi-Fi networks in the vicinity or any non-Wi-Fi signals in that same radio spectrum as your Wi-Fi. You may also face co-channel interference coming from your own business Wi-Fi network. Co-channel interference is usually caused by two or more access points that use the same channels or the overlapping ones. Most APs come with an auto-channel function that is meant to pick the best available channel. You just need to double-check the selection to fix the issue.
- Use 5GHz Band and Band Steering
More channels are available in the 5GHz frequency band as compared to 2.4GHz. So, it is a good idea to use dual-band access points with support for 5GHz available as well. As a result, older Wi-Fi routers can connect in the lower frequency band while the devices compatible with the dual-band feature can connect through the higher frequency band. Reduced congestion in the lower frequency band will result in faster business Wi-Fi. In addition, devices that belong to the higher band generally extend support for the higher data rates and it helps reduce the devices’ airtime. Besides using 5GHz, it is also a good idea to use the band-steering function that the APs offer. It helps ensure that the dual-band devices are connected to the higher frequency band.
- Use WPA2 and/or WPA3
WPA is a securer alternative to WEP security, but how secure it actually is depends on the version you are using. Remember that when you are using WPA’s first version, the data rates will be limited to only 54 Mbps, which is the highest data rate that could be achieved with the older 802.11a and 802.11g Wi-Fi standards. So, if you want to make sure that you get the higher data rates available with newer devices, make sure that you are using WPA2 and/or WPA3 security on your AP.
- Reduce The SSIDs
When you have multiple SSIDs configured on your APs, every virtual network broadcasts beacons as well as management packets separately. As a result, more airtime is consumed. So, make sure that multiple SSIDs are only used sparingly. You may still use one private and one public SSID, but virtual SSIDs are a big NO. Follow these tips for faster Wi-Fi and speed up your Wi-Fi in 2021. Even Business Wi-Fi connections can take advantage of these simple tips and tricks.