WiFi - Optimize Your Wireless Network in Five Simple Steps
Anyone who has tried to deploy a WiFi router will wonder if the network actually works where it serves its purpose. Establishing a wireless Ethernet network is significantly more complicated than setting up a wireless network for four reasons:
Wireless networks clearly have no cables, so it becomes difficult to determine where devices such as laptops are connected.
The adjacent network does not hang on the boundary of the wall between your properties
There are a lot of wifi configuration options that most people don't understand
WiFi design of end devices (laptops, iPhones, etc.) has a large impact on overall performance
Setting up a wireless network was originally a trial and error. You set up a network, walk around with your laptop, look at the number of bars on the display, and try to download some web pages to see if the network is working. The problem with this approach is that you never really know if you've started your network "enough" or if you've actually achieved the best performance and strength. For more click this article.
A new, completely free product called WaveDeploy has recently become available, which you can use to find out where you are using your network the most. With WaveDeploy you can see your network performance on your home map. It also helps to see that your neighbor network enters your home so that you can plan accordingly. How to use WaveDeploy to learn how to configure the network? A simple but effective 5-step plan is as follows:
Before switching to your WLN router, do a "passive" assessment to determine which networks will appear in your home and which channels they are using.
Configure your wifi router to use the best channel based on the data above
Evaluate "active" on your laptop to see how network data is delivered from anywhere in your home
Repeat test to improve experimentation and performance with wireless router settings
Reuse and test client settings to increase performance
First download the WaveDeploy Basic and install it on your wireless laptop. To use the application you must register first. However, it is completely free and does not share your information with third parties such as WaveWave, a company that develops wavedowels.
The next step is to use a tool like Microsoft Paint to create a floor plan for your home (or to download and create an image from Google Maps if you are lucky enough to have a home!). Do your best to make a map to measure as much as possible. However, note that this should not be 100% correct. Take 15 minutes to create the best possible image and save it to an image file (bmp, png or jpeg formats are fine).
Follow the instructions in the help file to perform passive evaluation with WaveDeploy Basic. In short, you start the app, load the floor plan of your house, and then take a series of measurements at various locations in your home. To take a measurement, click on the position that matches your position. WaveDeploy scans the air and measures which network is visible, which channel it is on, and measures the signal strength of each network. The measurement takes about seven seconds. Then move to the next location and repeat the process. Size for your entire home in about 10 minutes.
Complete the review and view the results. Your card will display a list of all the networks found in your home through your laptop. Green means the network is very well received. Red means that he was weakly identified. Pay particular attention to which channels were used for the most widely received signals in most parts of your home. You should avoid using these channels for your wireless network.
Now set up the channel for your WLN router. First check the manufacturer's information for the configuration of the router or router whether you are using the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band. You are probably in the 2.4 GHz band, where you should only use channels 1, 6 and 11. Yes, this band has other channels, but don't use it in a way that tempts you. It turns out that these other channels overlap, so channel 2 also interferes with channel 1 and channel 6, resulting in poor performance. In the 2.4 GHz band, you should stick to channels 1, 6 and 11 better and configure your WLN router so that it transmits over the channel with minimal competition.
If we depend on it, we will not be sure that we have not mentioned security. Business security has been available for many years for wireless networks and devices. If it is supported by all your devices, it is best to use WPA2, also known as AES encryption, with PSK or password authentication. Situations are complicated, but WPA2 is quite easy to choose and enter a password. Then configure the client device to access the network with the same security setting and password. If WPA2 is not available, use WPA or TKIP with PSK. This security setting is still very good, but not as strong as WPA2. If this does not work, you cannot use authentication, also known as "open". WEP may be available, but its use is not recommended. WEP was once considered safe, but broke years ago and there are many tools that now decrypt these messages automatically. WEP is dangerous because it gives users a very wrong sense of security. You would think that if the reality is that a simple hacker can easily access their data, then they will be safe. Note that you need to choose a security method that is supported by your laptop and smartphone as well as a WiFi router.
At this point you can do more passive evaluation, showing you the areas in which your WLAN router's signal is clearly visible. However, if another computer is available, it is preferable to use it with WaveDeploy for active evaluation. With active evaluation, in addition to signal coverage and interference, your network transfers data between two computers to measure the maximum download speed at each location. Instructions for configuring active evaluation can be found again in the help files in the application.
Active evaluation takes some time. However, when you are working, your efforts will be rewarded with a card called "heatwave", which shows how fast your wireless network can transfer traffic to your laptop anywhere in your home. You might be surprised that the chic 802.11n router you've purchased can only provide a fraction of the promised 300 Mbit / s performance! Part of this is due to marketing specifications. WaveDeploy measures the amount of basic application traffic, e.g. B. Web pages that can transmit networks. The marketing number for network devices refers to the raw physical speed of network technology regardless of total wireless protocol overhead or general network overhead. In practice, you can usually get half of the advertisement as the best case if this overhead is taken into consideration. In poorly designed or poorly placed WiFi routers, performance may be poor.
To do this, change the settings in the router to determine which settings will improve performance. For example, the biggest benefit is to disable support for 802.11b. If all your laptops are A, G or N, then turn off 802.11b support and try again. Work your way through each option and determine which ones benefit and which ones don't. When you have finished setting up your network, repeat the exercise by changing and re-testing the settings of your laptop driver or smartphone.
The whole process may take a few hours, but it is worth the effort. Using the above techniques, you can determine where your network is, how fast your network works, interference from neighboring networks, and check your laptop and smartphone for the best.
