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Change settings on 802.11N Wireless Router to make it faster+not disconnect

Wireless routers speeds can be slow, and disconnect at random times which is frustrating to wireless users which use laptops, tablets, and Smartphones to connect wirelessly to the internet. But, changing the settings could make your wireless router faster, and more reliable with fewer wireless disconnects. Making websites load a second faster, videos taking less time to download, and games not lagging is worth the few minutes to change a few settings on your 802.11N wireless router. Changing your router’s settings is free, and simple to do. It is also pretty safe since you can easily reverse the settings by selecting the default settings for your router if something does not work after you made a change to the settings.  It is also cheaper to change settings on a router than buying a new router, or subscribing to a faster internet subscriber plan like T3, Fibre, and Faster DSL and Cable internet plans with faster speeds.  You can also re-use the wireless router if you plan to someday subscribe to super fast internet like Fibre Internet.

The most popular faster routers are 802.11N wireless routers which usually have a maximum wireless signal speed of 150Mbps-300MBps.

It is usually pretty easy to change the settings like the Channel, DNS server, and other settings on your router.

You just need a web browser on a computer which is connector to your wireless router to change settings on your wireless router. Your computer can be either wirelessly connected to your router, or connected with network cables to your router. You can even use your tablet, laptop, and eReader to connect to your router.

It is simplest to use a computer which uses networking cables to connect to your router because you do not need to login to the wireless network. The default user name and password for most routers when you login is usually admin for the username, and admin for the password.

To login to your router, open your web browser, and type in your I.P. Address for your router in the address bar of your web browser, and hit enter. You can usually find the I.P address in your router’s instruction manual. The I.P. address would look like this 192.168.0.1   .

I own a Medialink – Wireless 150Mbps 802.11N Broadband Router , so once I login I just click the Wireless Settings Link in the router’s sidebar on its settings website to change the wireless settings.

I notice changing the Wireless signal channel to 1 can make wireless disconnects less common if I have disconnect problems.

I also change the Operating Mode for my MediaLink router to Green Field, and it seems to make YouTube videos load a few seconds faster, and the rest of the video loads faster, so there is less buffering. I also change the Channel Bandwidth to 20/40, and enabled both Reverse Direction Grant(RDG) and Aggregation MSDU(A-MSDU). Lastly, I click the Apply button at the bottom of the Wireless settings page.

If your Wireless router is not password protected, make a password for it in the Wireless security settings. I also recommend you use WPA2 or WPA encryption because it is more secure, and harder to hack. Make sure you use a combination of upper case and lower case alphabetical letters, numbers, and symbols like !@# in your password. Pick TKIP&AES Algorithm, so it is compatible with both TKIP&AES wireless devices.

People using your signal without your permission when it is not password protected can make your internet slower.

In some routers, there could be settings like WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia) like MediaLink’s Wireless router which will improve multimedia performance when enabled in the advance settings, so I recommend turning on WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia) if you have it. There also might be modes like Gaming Mode which you can turn on to improve gaming and non-gaming networking performance, or adjusting the Wireless signal strength to full which could improve the range, and speed of your wi-fi signal.

If you only use 802.11N and newer 802.11AC Wireless computers, laptops, tablets, and laptops, changing your wireless router’s wifi mode to 802.11N Performance would make your wireless connection faster. But, if you have 802.11G 54MBps computers, and devices, you should use the Balance mode which let you connect 802.11G and 802.11N devices to your wireless network. Wireless balance mode is not as fast as the 802.11N Performance mode, but you can use both 802.11 N and G wireless devices on the same computer. If you use very old devices which uses 802.11B, you would need to use compatibility mode which makes your wireless router compatible with 802.11 B/G/N wireless devices. But, compatibility mode is slowest compared to Performance and Balanced mode which are faster.

Changing the DNS Server settings could improve both your wired and wireless internet performance. Google DNS which is located at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 are fast and reliable DNS servers which you can use instead of your ISP DNS. In your router, under DNS Settings usually found in the Advance settings or internet DNS settings, you can enter 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 to change to Google DNS. Some people claim using Google DNS makes YouTube videos start faster, and websites load faster.

You can also try restarting your router in the router control panel to fix your router problem. Sometimes upgrading your router’s firmware could help fix your speed and reliability problems. Some wireless router’s have an option to automatically restart on a schedule time, or you can just unplug the router from the wall, and re-plug it back in after a few seconds to restart your router to fix your problem with your router by restarting it which usually fix most problems in my experience.

If your router still have poor signal strength, or disconnect a lot, try moving it to a better location with more air flow, and a cooler place like a place away from your home’s heater, or in the middle of the room.

If your router has external antennas, you can try re adjusting them, and make sure they are pointing up. Moving your router closer to the location where you use your wireless computers can make the signal better as well.

It may not be your wireless router, but your computer, laptop, and other device which is making the internet slow. You can try emptying your temporary internet files, and if you use Windows, pick the High Performance power plan in the control panel’s power plan. Also, make sure your wireless wi-fi adapter is using the latest driver software, and your operating system like Windows, Linux, Android, OS X, etc are all up to date.

Do you have any tips for improving Wi-Fi performance?

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