Top gadgets for speeding up your home Wi-Fi
Want to speed up your home Wi-Fi? Here are some of the top gadgets for the job. Check them out in the blog!
What internet speed do you need? This is a question you may agonize over if you own a business, run an office, or oversee another meeting place. It is not generally something the average homeowner needs to worry about. But, if you’ve noticed your internet lagging, there are home Wi-Fi gadgets that can help.
Typically, an average home includes 2–5 regular internet users, and there is a speed and bandwidth to match that. A business employing many more people in a single location has more factors to consider, so home Wi-Fi tends to be simpler.
But not always. The Wi-Fi speed you require is not only determined by how many regular internet users there are. It also depends on what they are doing. And that’s where things get more complicated. To illustrate this, it helps to keep in mind what home internet is used for.
The average home user typically downloads and sends small- to medium-size files. They also stream videos, participate in videoconferences, and make computer calls. It all sounds standard and easy, but, on the contrary, it’s becoming more complicated due to the increase in remote work.
Remote work’s effect on home Wi-Fi
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, remote work was already a prominent phenomenon, with the number of home workers increasing every year. Then covid hit, and it only accelerated this trend. After the pandemic subsided, many people did not return to office work.
This resulted in internet users relying more on their home internet for tasks that require a lot of bandwidth. Yes, it’s one thing if a home network needs to support 3 people watching YouTube videos. It’s something else entirely to use your network for full-time work from home. In those cases, typical home internet speeds might not be enough.
So, what can solve the issue? The obvious answer is to invest in greater internet speed, upwards of 500/500 Mbps. Or you could look into new Wi-Fi technologies like Wi-Fi 6E, which provides considerably more spectrum and significantly less interference.
But there is another option—supplementing your home internet with Wi-Fi-supporting gadgets.
Wi-Fi gadgets and internet speed
When we talk about internet speed, we could be talking about your current internet plan and the stated figures for speed and bandwidth. Often, however, this is not entirely accurate as several factors could be slowing your internet down. This is why it is always a good idea to make use of a free internet speed checker to assess your specific situation.
Sometimes the problem can be fixed without paying for greater bandwidth. This is how Wi-Fi gadgets work—addressing those additional factors that could be slowing your internet down rather than actively speeding it up.
Specifically, we are talking about gadgets that, in some way, pair with your router and address some speed-sapping factor. A familiar example would be the Wi-Fi boosters that are common in larger homes.
The problem here is not your internet speed—it is the strength of the signal in areas distant from the router. But it certainly looks like your internet is running slower.
So, instead of breaking the bank for an expanded internet plan, it is worth investigating precisely what is slowing your internet down and investing in home Wi-Fi gadgets that address the problem.
Top Wi-Fi-improving gadgets
More specific advice on solving your internet woes depends on what the problem is and your situation. For that reason, it might be better to look at the gadgets below and what they do. You might find exactly what you need.
And they don’t just solve speed issues, either. Some home Wi-Fi gadgets help with security issues, which are also important for remote work.
Smart internet security devices
Smart devices incorporate some degree of AI to work. And AI is probably the only tool that can identify security threats to your home Wi-Fi before it’s too late.
The input data here is your internet habits, the sites you typically visit, and the type of data you download, upload, and send. Smart internet security devices pair with your router and add an extra layer of security between communicating devices.
A home firewall
Firewalls are a diverse group of software, but a network-wide firewall is still pretty uncommon within the home. Nevertheless, it is certainly available and affordable.
Giving your home network a firewall will protect all devices used on it, and the best firewall gadgets will be able to differentiate between the different devices accessing your home network and configure the protection specifically for each one.
Self-optimizing Wi-Fi
The very fact that a self-optimizing Wi-Fi device exists shows that Wi-Fi is not normally self-optimizing. Indeed, Wi-Fi optimization, which is configuring the settings of your Wi-Fi to deal with the specific interference you experience, is something best handled by AI.
This is not a unique device as you will need to buy a self-optimizing router. But it can certainly improve your internet performance.
Troubleshooting devices
These most often take the form of apps on your smartphone, and they are an AI system that watches out for abnormalities with your home network. Such abnormalities could be unfamiliar devices trying to connect, drops in internet performance or signal strength, or sudden changes in internet use.
These home Wi-Fi gadgets can flag this up to you and give you administrator-like authority, such as blocking certain devices and seeing who is using the internet at any given time.
Wi-Fi boosters
Mentioned above and also called Wi-Fi extenders, these do what their name implies. Or, rather, the most basic ones do.
The Wi-Fi booster is worth another mention because this gadget can come in many forms, including portable pods that can be plugged in anywhere and boost any signals coming towards your device. And, for homes over a certain size, this type of technology is downright essential.
Conclusion
Sometimes you will need to upgrade your Wi-Fi, as internet speed is a fixed value that can be interfered with but not improved without an upgrade.
Nonetheless, what you perceive as internet slowness might not have anything to do with your actual internet speed. It could just be that supplementing your home Wi-Fi with useful gadgets is the best course of action.
