Boost Your Wi. Fi Signal Ten Tips and Tricks. Wireless devices are everywhere now. Even printers and hard drives can be connected to a wifi network. So its important to get the best possible signal from your wireless router. Wi. Fi is a type of radio signal, so its simply a matter of eliminating interference and boosting that signal to extend as far as you need it to, and doing it in a way so youll still get the same amount of power. If the Wi. Fi signal is weak in certain parts of your home or out back in the hammock, there are some clever ways to boost or extend your Wi. Fi signal, and most of them wont cost a penny. Here are my ten ways to boost your wifi signal Position The Router Yes, where you place your router does matter. If your wireless laptop or tablet is in another room, the signal has to go through walls and other interference before it reaches you. You can change the positioning and give everyone equal access. For example, in an open office room setting, instead of placing the router in a corner, try putting it in the middle of the room, where the signal should extend out more evenly, giving better coverage to the entire office. If youre looking for optimal wireless coverage in various parts of your home, position the router in the middle of the house. Moving it up off the floor, to a bookcase or shelf, should also help. If you only have one wireless computer, and its always in the same place ie your office, the kitchen, or the hammock then it makes more sense to place the router closer to the computer, rather than in the center of the house. Can Wifi Go Through Concrete' title='Can Wifi Go Through Concrete' />Jason Fitzpatrick is a warrantyvoiding DIYer who spends his days cracking opening cases and wrestling with code so you dont have to. If it can be modded, optimized. Whats the range on this sucker I gotta go through a concrete wall and kitchen cabinets, and a small room with walls. Can Wifi Go Through Concrete' title='Can Wifi Go Through Concrete' />While prepping a 67yearold female patient for routine cataract surgery at Englands Solihull Hospital, physicians noticed a strange bluish blob in one of her eyes. Boost Your WiFi Signal Ten Tips and Tricks A reader asks How can I boost my wifi signal I finally got highspeed internet with a wireless router, but the wifi. Ive had a few listeners write in all with the same question How can I get better WiFi reception Ask and you shall receive In this weeks episode Ill. Hello Experts, Im currently working on a WiFi upgrade project. We have an apartment building that needs to have reliable WiFi throughout the entire building. D0%9C%D0%B1%D0%B8%D1%82-%D0%A1-%D0%91%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F-%D0%A2%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%94%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D1%83%D0%BF%D0%B0-%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BA-AP-WI-FI-%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%88%D1%80%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80-WI-FI-%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BB%D1%8F%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80-WI-FI.jpg' alt='Can Wifi Go Through Concrete' title='Can Wifi Go Through Concrete' />But experiment Ive heard of cases where there was a very weak signal, and the problem was that the router was TOO close to the computer. Avoid Bad Neighbors Remember, wifi is a radio signal, so the signals from microwave ovens, cordless phones and even fluorescent lights may cause interference and signal degradation. Other things that can wreak havoc on wireless networks are bluetooth devices, wireless game controllers, your neighbors wireless router, and powerful Wi. MAX signals in your area. Even poorly wired electrical connections in a home can interfere with wireless signals due to broad radio frequency emissions. Steering clear of as many of these problems as possible may provide a boost to your wifi. Extend the Antenna There are some decent wireless antenna boosters available that you can purchase as addons to your current wifi router to help the signal extend out further. You just plug them directly into the router base sometimes called the Wireless Access Point, or WAP and it can give you that boost in the signal that you need. Hawking makes several types of wireless antenna boosters. One of the most powerful indoor models is the Hawking Technologies HAI1. SC, which can boost the strength of your wireless signal from the typical 2d. Bi up to 1. 5d. BiThe HAI1. SCs hi gain corner antenna replaces the external antenna of your wireless router, significantly improving signal strength, distance, and wireless performance. This unit sells for about 4. Amazon and many other online retailers. Repeaters and Range Extenders This little gizmo just takes in the wireless signal, boosts it up to full strength, and spits it back out again. Place the repeater within range of the router, and near the computer that needs a wireless signal. Linksys, D Link, and other vendors offer wireless repeaters, also called range extenders. I recently bought a TP Link N3. Typically, installation of these things is very easy. Just plug it into a wall socket, connect it to your wireless router, and youre done. If you have an Apple computer, look into the Airport Express as a signal repeater. Gettin Geeky Some DIY geeks have come up with interesting ways to extend or boost your Wi. Fi signal. One example is the Pringle Cantenna method. This may seem like a hoax, but the technique actually appeared in an OReilly book titled Building Wireless Community Networks. Another method that works is adding a home made parabolic wifi extender to your routers antenna. Other techniques, such as the satellite dish using a cell phone are elaborate hoaxes, and Ill admit I fell for this one before a kind reader set me straight. Wired Wifi One idea that sounds counter intuitive is to use the existing wiring in your home to extend a wireless signal. My article One Cool Solution to Weak Wifi Signals discusses how to eliminate wifi dead zones with powerline ethernet. In a nutshell, this technique uses your homes electrical wiring to transmit an Internet signal to another room, where it can be rebroadcasted as wifi. Upgrade Your Router If youve owned the same router for several years, it might be good to go pick up a new one if you want to enhance your wireless network performance. Some of the latest models have a stronger signal. The newer N routers generally have a stronger broadcast signal, and theyll work even if you have an older 8. Toefl Listening there. B or G adapter in your computer. One caveat. if you have a router supplied by your Internet service provider, and youve got a tvphoneinternet bundle, you may have difficulty duplicating all your router settings on a new off the shelf router. Using a wireless extender or repeater would be a better idea in such cases. Tweak Your Settings Your wireless router has special features that you may or may not want. Read the manual that comes with your router or Google it and tweak it to fit your needs. Most modern ones are just plug it in though there might be ways to boost signals or to make sure it is sending out signals that are optimized for your computers wireless adapter. For example, most routers are set to broadcast on channel 6, but its possible there may be less congestion or noise on a different channel. Try switching the channel to 1 or 1. Is Your Wireless Router Secured Make sure your neighbor isnt hogging all the juice from YOUR wireless router, or doing illegal stuff that could get YOU into trouble. Get your network secured so only you are using the signal. Tap into your routers security features and make sure you use secure passwords. See my Wireless Network Security Checklist for help with this. And if youre not convinced about the need to secure your wifi, read about The Wi. Fi Security Mistake You MUST Avoid. Upgrade Your Router Software Another thing you can do without spending any cash is to make sure your router software is up to date. To do this, visit the website of the maker of your router, whether it is Linksys, D Link, or some other brand. Check for your model number and make any updates necessary. Another option is to use alternative firmware. While your routers original software aka firmware should be all you need, some routers do not output the signal at the maximum possible strength. You might want to check into alternative firmware, like Open. WRT, which promise to boost the wireless signal. But be careful with firmware updates if you load the wrong code for your router, you can foul it up with no recourse. Id recommend this option only for tech savvy tinkerers. Do you have any tips or tricks to boost a wifi signal Post your comment or question below. Norton Wi. Fi Privacy VPN Review Rating. Even before the US government opened the gates for ISPs to sell your information, the big names in antivirus rightly identified virtual private networks as the next frontier in security. Norton Wi. Fi Security began as a VPN on mobile, and recently made the jump to the desktop. It comes with a featherlight footprint, good geographic server diversity, and a strong security pedigree, but the high price and inflexible subscriptions are hard to justify. Unless youre already locked in to other Norton purchases, consider a more affordable and robust service, such as Editors Choice winner Nord. VPN. What Is a VPN The internet wasnt designed with bad guys in mind, and as a result, its not very hard to gather information on users and their movements across the web. Throw in the popularity of unsecured public Wi Fi networks and its a recipe for disaster. This is why you need a VPN. When you switch it on, the VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and a server controlled by the VPN company. Your data enters the tunnel, which keeps it secure from anyone snooping around on your network. Most VPN companies also include a custom DNS server, so youll be protected against attackers redirecting a genuine URL to deliver you an authentic looking but fraudulent phishing site. Recent changes in Washington mean that your internet service provider ISP can now sell anonymized, bulk data about its users. Thankfully, using a VPN keeps most of your data beyond this reach and off the market. Out on the web, advertisers and three letter agencies can track your movements between websites with sophisticated trackers and by recording your IP address. Some VPN companies offer tracker and ad blocking as part of their subscriptions. But even if they dont, anyone watching your movements will see the IP address of the VPN server, not your real IP address. Thats another layer of security. Crack The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim Pc Requirements there. Youll probably want to select a VPN server thats nearby, in order to get better speeds and a more reliable connection. But if you connect to a far flung server, your traffic will appear to emanate from that servers country. Journalists and activists have used this technique to get around a governments restrictive internet policies. You, on the other hand, can use it to access region locked streaming content. Some services, such as MLB and the BBC, offer free streaming only to certain regions. Simply select the correct region on your VPN and hey presto, youre ready to watch. Do note, however, that Hulu, Netflix, and other popular video streaming services actively block VPN users. Pricing and Features. When I reviewed the original Norton Wi. Fi Privacy for Android, I was puzzled by the services high price and lack of monthly billing options. At the time, it was particularly troubling because Norton Wi. Fi Privacy only supported mobile devices. You can now get a subscription for mac. OS and Windows computers, too, but the price remains high. A subscription for a single device costs 4. Most other VPN services offer more flexible rates. Editors Choice winner Keep. Solid VPN Unlimited, for example, lets you purchase a week long subscription for just 2. Five devices is the norm for VPN subscriptions, and Im happy to see that Norton Wi. Fi Privacy now offers plans for more than one device. Unfortunately, it comes at an even higher price. Virtual Reality Baseball Games Software. Five devices cost 7. Note that there are discounts available, but that most discounts revert to list pricing after a year. Though five is average, Avira Phantom VPN goes far beyond with as many devices as you care to use. Its undeniable that Norton Wi. Fi Privacy is significantly more expensive than other VPNs. Editors Choice winner Private Internet Access VPN, which costs 6. Keep. Solid VPN Unlimited offers one week subscriptions for as little as 2. Happily, a subscription purchased through Norton or your mobile device works for any platform. Thats an improvement over Nortons previous mobile only restrictions. But given the prohibitively high cost of entry, the best way to get Norton Wi. Fi Privacy may be to get it bundled with another Norton subscription. Currently, a subscription to Symantec Norton Security Deluxe includes a year of Wi. Fi Protection for five devices. If you decide to go ahead and purchase a subscription with Norton, youll have a hard time doing so anonymously. Norton only accepts Pay. Pal and major credit cards. Other VPN services, such as Tor. Guard VPN, will accept anonymous Bitcoin payments and even prepaid gift cards from other merchants, such as Best Buy and Starbucks. Tor. Guard also offers a host of special add ons for its subscribers, including access to an extra fast 1. Gb network and static IP addresses. Norton offers little more than VPN protection. Norton offers a good mix of server locations across 2. That said, it does not offer any servers in Russia or China, but it does cover Turkey and has servers in South Africatwo oft ignored regions. If a VPN company has a diverse offering of server locations, you can be assured that no matter where you go, youll find a server nearby for better performance. It also means youll have several locations to choose from when spoofing your location. Norton Wi. Fi Privacy has servers in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK, and the US. That solid geographic distribution is backed up by a robust number of VPN servers, some 1,4. Thats excellent, and well beyond most of the competition. Note, though, that Private Internet Access, has more than 3,0. Most VPN companies spin servers up and down as necessary, but maintaining a healthy apportionment means that youre more likely to enjoy faster speeds because youll be sharing those servers with fewer people. In addition to its VPN protection, Norton Wi. Fi Privacy also blocks ad trackers. These are used by advertisers to track your movement across the web. It does not, however, appear to block ads wholesale. Its also not a configurable tool, unlike the Tunnel. Bear Blocker browser plugin, which lets users decide what they want blocked. If youre keen on file sharing, Norton probably isnt for you. While most VPN services, such as Nord. VPN, allow Bit. Torrent and P2. P services on specific servers, Norton has a blanket ban. If youre keen on the torrenting, consider Tor. Guard VPN. This product is made with file sharing in mind, offering a high bandwidth network and static IP addresses for sale. Hands On With Norton Wi. Fi Privacy. I had no trouble installing Norton Wi. Fi Privacy on my Lenovo Think. Pad T4. 60s laptop running Windows 1. It took just a few minutes to install and set up, and was ready to work immediately out of the box. Youll find that Norton Wi. Fi Privacy is available for Android, i. OS, mac. OS, and Windows. Most VPN companies have opted to create an app that stands apart from the operating system, as any other app would. Norton Wi. Fi Privacy, on the other hand, is anchored to the System Tray. On the one hand, it means its always within reach and feels more concrete than just a floating window. That said, Norton Wi. Fi Privacy is a very, very small app with text thats even smaller. Being stuck to the bottom of the screen didnt help with visibility, and I felt I was often squinting and hunched inches from the screen while testing it.