Wi-Fi is just as essential equally running water for many people, especially those who work from dwelling. So when it'due south slow or keeps dropping out - and ruining your Zoom call or interrupting your Spotify stream - it can be very frustrating indeed.

Your situation may be even worse than this: no signal at all in some parts of the house, or such a weak connection that it'southward not practiced enough for loading a web page, let solitary checking who's at the front door via your video doorbell.

These Wi-Fi 'black spots' are most often caused past also much distance from the wireless router (wireless signals weaken with range), thick brick or stone walls, and interference from other devices.

There are several ways you tin fix this, but information technology all depends upon how much money you want to spend and where the trouble areas are. Here are the main six ways to extend your Wi-Fi:

  1. Move your existing router to a better position
  2. Purchase a new, better router
  3. Buy a mesh Wi-Fi kit
  4. Purchase a Wi-Fi extender / booster
  5. Buy a powerline networking adapter set up with Wi-Fi
  6. Switch to ii.4GHz from 5GHz

Now let'due south look in more detail at each of those options.

1. Reposition your router

If your house suffers from weak Wi-Fi upstairs, check the placement of your wireless router. Make sure information technology's out in the open (even if it is ugly) and in the middle of the abode if possible, gratis from obstructions.

Don't hide it in a cupboard, on the flooring or behind your Television set. try to elevate it becauseWi-Fi signals accept an easier time traveling through open space.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

Does your router have movable aerials?The Wi-Fi signal beams out from the sides of the antenna, and up (perpendicular to the router) is usually best then the signal doesn't shoot into the ground or ceiling. Yet, if you have multiple antennae, you tin can try adjusting them to dissimilar angles to provide the widest coverage.

2. Upgrade to a improve router

If the weak or slow Wi-Fi continues despite moving the router, consider upgrading it to a amend i.

The oldest to newest Wi-Fi standard are: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac and Wi-Fi six. If yous have an older wireless "b" or "g" router you should consider replacing it with a newer device that offers longer ranges and faster connectedness speeds.

Why not be cheeky and inquire your Isp to transport y'all an updated wireless router? If you've been a customer for a while it should assist you out, only sentinel out if it asks you to sign up for a new contract.

A common misconception is that the latest Wi-Fi standard gives you the all-time operation and range. While that is partially true, the best speeds come up at the expense of range, so you'll really become the best coverage from a router with really good performance using 2.4GHz, not 5GHz. For more, click here.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

Nevertheless, this is where mesh Wi-Fi comes in, and it's why we highly recommend you invest in a kit, which tin cost less than a single router in some cases.

Remember that your devices also need to back up these newer Wi-Fi standards. But rather than buy a new laptop you can purchase a USB wireless adapter – from equally trivial as £ten – that plugs into a USB port. You lot tin also add a new wireless adapter within a desktop PC's case or via a PC Card slot, but good luck trying that with a Mac! Bank check out our round upwards of the best 802.11ac USB Wi-Fi adapters.

Nosotros've also got a divide guide with tips on how to speed upward Wi-Fi.

3. Become a Mesh Wi-Fi kit

In case y'all skipped the intro and scrolled straight to here, a mesh network is two or more than routers that piece of work together to provide much wider Wi-Fi coverage than a single router can ever deliver. It replaces your existing router's Wi-Fi, and is easy to fix.

Yous attach one of the units from a mesh Wi-Fi kit to a spare port on your existing router, and it creates a new Wi-Fi network to which all your Wi-Fi gadgets connect.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

Y'all and then identify the second (and third if required) mesh device somewhere else in your business firm - usually on another flooring, or on the other side of your habitation. The devices all talk to each other and create a single super Wi-Fi network that's both strong and fast and tin can ordinarily extend into your garden, if you accept ane.

You can read more than about the differences betwixt the cheapest and most expensive systems in our roundup of the best Mesh Wi-Fi, but our current top pick, which combines Wi-Fi and powerline networking for great coverage and speed at a reasonable price is the TP-Link Deco P9.

  • Purchase the TP-Link Deco P9 from Amazon

4. Utilize Powerline adapters

Powerline adapters are slowly beingness phased out and replaced past mesh Wi-Fi, but at that place is withal a place for them - the Deco P9 kit uses the engineering equally we've only said. But traditional powerline adapters can exist the cheapest solution to extending Wi-Fi if y'all need to go a indicate in one particular room, or even a separate building such as a garage.

Simply plug one adapter into a ability socket nigh your router and connect information technology to the router using an Ethernet cablevision (normally supplied in the box).

Then plug the second adapter (which must be a model with built-in Wi-Fi) into a ability socket in the other room such as a loft room, garage or other outbuilding. Equally long as any separate edifice gets its power from the primary house where the router is located, it will work.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

In most cases these create a new Wi-Fi hotspot - they do not boost the wireless network that already exists like a Wi-Fi extender. Powerline kits with Wi-Fi price more than than extenders but are much more versatile and can provide faster speeds.

Read our roundup of the best Powerline adapters for recommendations.

5. Purchase a wireless booster

Wi-Fi extenders - also called repeaters or boosters - increase your Wi-Fi signal by 'capturing' the wireless signal from your router and then rebroadcasting it. Some people rightly wonder whether they really work: they do, but they're not the best option if you need very fast Wi-Fi speeds.

They are cheap, though, and easy to install. Models such equally TP-Link'south TL-WA860RE can toll at little as £twenty / $20 or so. However, this uses the older 802.11n standard. If you want something faster and more up to date, then the TP-Link RE300, which supports 802.11ac, is nearly £35 / $35.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

You can utilize a Wi-Fi repeater to boost the bespeak from a router on a different flooring of a business firm or on the reverse side of a edifice.

WiFi extender home booster repeaters

A repeater uses half its internal antennae to receive a wireless betoken and the other half to transmit a new point – effectively halving the potential speed of the original Wi-Fi signal.

This shouldn't be that noticeable for light web browsing, email, etc, but can exist felt when moving big files around the network such as high-definition video. That's why we adopt Powerline for the more than demanding tasks. But y'all might observe it's still perfectly good for streaming Netflix or YouTube.

A Wi-Fi extender needs to be placed in a central location, not too far away from the main router, every bit shown in the image to a higher place. If y'all put the repeater at the far edge of your principal network hoping to strengthen the signal you volition reduce the speed of your connectedness to the rest of the network and to the internet.

Remember that the extender is just boosting the signal. If it'due south placed in a spot where Wi-Fi is already weak and then information technology volition merely push around that weak point. Place it in an area with better Wi-Fi and the signal information technology pushes out will exist stronger, besides.

The ideal location for a range extender is half way between your principal router and the intended wireless devices – in an open corridor or spacious room rather than a crowded space. It should be abroad from interfering devices such as cordless phones, Bluetooth gadgets and microwave ovens.

6. Use 2.4GHz instead of 5GHz Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi tin utilize 1 of two frequency bands: 2.4GHz or 5GHz. Many people think the latter is better considering it offers faster speeds.

Nevertheless, this comes at a price: range. The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. And 5GHz signals cannot penetrate walls, ceilings, desks, and, aye, people as well as ii.4GHz signals. (Incidentally, this is why 5G is promising such fast speeds, because it uses much higher frequencies - chosen millimetre wave - only these signals have a tough fourth dimension getting through drinking glass, copse and even rain.

  • Hither'southward how to tell which is my Wi-Fi.

2.4GHz, on the other manus is better at delivering a signal over a greater distance, at slower speeds. That'south why you might be able to go meliorate range from your router by forcing your phone or laptop to connect to your router'south two.4GHz network. Many routers combine the ii frequencies into 1 network name. That's washed for convenience, but it ways you can't choose which network to connect to.

If your router is similar this, log in to the settings web page and look for a Wi-Fi menu where you can carve up the ii frequencies into two carve up network names.

Information technology's worth bearing in mind that two.4GHz devices face a battle considering lots of other things also employ this frequency including microwaves, baby monitors, Bluetooth and more.

These can cause interference, which reduced the less speed and range a Wi-Fi signal has. The greater range you desire, the less speed you can have; the greater speed you lot want, the more you have to mitigate interference and work closer to an access signal.

And then your mileage may vary, but it is well worth understanding the difference betwixt Wi-Fi bands, equally you can use these to your reward.

Nosotros accept a separate step-by-stride guide on how to change the channel your router uses to avoid interference.