Mike-Ward.Net

Improve your Wireless for Free

In the “Why didn’t I try this sooner” column add this tip. Improve your wireless signal by moving the antenna. Yeah, brilliant you say. Really though, if your wireless throughput is lower than you’d like, try fiddling with the antenna position. In my case, the difference was dramatic. I have a Vonage enabled router similar to the one pictured here. I installed it as prescribed and it worked. However, I was only getting a low signal strength and 11 Mbps. That’s fine for surfing the Internet I suppose but transferring files between computers and printing was a bit slow. The router is located in the basement and I’m on the first floor so the “number” didn’t bother me all that much considering it was clear across the house and on another floor. I was about to make some aluminum antenna gadget to see if I could boost the signal when it occurred to me to just start fiddling with the antenna position (just because I can write programs doesn’t mean I’m smart about technology). And the result?

I went from 11 Mbps to 48 Mbps and a signal strength of “low” to “very good” according to my wireless status monitor. Not the most scientific experiment but it’s hard to argue with the result.