In case you use Wi-Fi in your laptop and the connection is lower than passable, we’ve obtained a easy and cheap approach to enhance your Wi-Fi reception.
This Hack Gained’t Clear up Critical Wi-Fi Issues
Earlier than we dig in, let’s get one factor out of the best way. The Wi-Fi hack we’re about to share is an easy approach to get higher Wi-Fi reception to your laptop.
It really works for desktop PCs, and it will probably even work for some laptops, relying on the way you get Wi-Fi in your laptop computer. However what it will probably’t do is make Wi-Fi out of nothing.
If the sign out of your Wi-Fi router on the location of your laptop is extraordinarily weak or not even current, then that’s an even bigger subject you’ll want to handle first.
We’d advocate utilizing the following pointers to enhance your Wi-Fi sign on the router after which, if vital, transfer on to coping with the sign energy the place your laptop is situated. You would possibly take into account upgrading your router to get higher protection not simply to your PC however in all places in your house.
The best way to Get a Higher Wi-Fi Sign at Your PC
For the aim of this Wi-Fi-enhancing trick, we’re assuming that you’ve a setup much like the Wi-Fi setup present in our tutorial on including Wi-Fi to your PC.
Whether or not you added a Wi-Fi card to your PC, the motherboard got here with a Wi-Fi card built-in (just like the MSI motherboard I utilized in my Fall 2021 rebuild), otherwise you’ve been utilizing a Wi-Fi dongle in your PC or laptop computer, you may comply with alongside.
There’s a easy approach to get a greater sign: use an extension cable to maneuver the antenna or dongle the place the sign is stronger.
Why is that this so efficient? It will get the antenna above the stuff blocking the sign. Let’s say your PC is sitting in your desk and your Wi-Fi router is a number of rooms over.
The metallic shielding within the laptop itself can mess with the sign (which is why desktop PCs have exterior Wi-Fi antennas). The metallic shielding in your laptop monitor doesn’t assist, both. Even your physique absorbs some sign should you’re between the antenna and the router. Every part else between the antenna and the router additionally dampens the sign and, in our houses, nearly all of all that “stuff” is about desk top.
So in case your router is on a facet desk in the lounge and your laptop is in your desk throughout the home, there’s an entire lot of waist-height junk between the 2 antennas.
Merely unscrewing the antennas off the again of your PC, attaching extension cables, after which screwing the prevailing antenna into extension cables will help you get the antennas up and away from the radio-blocking stuff.
The connection factors on Wi-Fi antennas are standardized and use a connection format known as SMA (SubMiniature model A)—it seems to be so much like a bit of miniature model of the coax cables you employ to your cable field as a result of that’s precisely what it’s.
You need to use a 3-foot extension to get it on high of the PC case or a bit of up the wall, and even a 10-foot extension to get all of it the best way to the ceiling.
You’ll be able to even change the prevailing antenna with this extension + base for a extra handy approach to place the antenna excessive up on the highest of your case or a close-by shelf.
In case you’re utilizing a USB Wi-Fi dongle, you need to use the identical trick. You need to use your present Wi-Fi dongle and pair it with a high-quality USB cable. They even make USB extensions particularly for optimum dongle-mounting—which isn’t a phrase you get to make use of day by day—that place the dongle in a vertical orientation on a small stand.
Or, particularly in case your specific USB dongle is a bit previous and old-fashioned, you might choose to purchase a brand new Wi-Fi USB dongle that features the extension just like the TP-Hyperlink Archer TX20U or the ASUS USB-AX56, each of which assist Wi-FI 6.
Nevertheless you method the issue, although, the purpose is to get the Wi-Fi antenna increased than your laptop and higher positioned to get a direct “line of sight” shot at your Wi-Fi router with minimal stuff blocking the sign.
