This site may earn chapter commissions from the links on this page. Terms of employ.

Wireless networks have come a long fashion in the past couple of decades. And yet, sustained Wi-Fi speeds are nevertheless a vexing problem in a lot of situations. A number of subtle factors can come into play, including the way your router is set up, the presence of nearby interference, whether yous live in an flat building or a stand-lone house, where your microwave sits in relation to the remainder of your network, and how far your devices are from the router. Fortunately, there's almost always a way to fix ho-hum transfer speeds.

If you've ever messed around with your Wi-Fi router's settings, yous've probably seen the word "channel." Most routers have the channel set to Car. Merely many of us have looked through that list of a dozen or and then channels and wondered what they are, and more importantly, which of the channels are faster than the others. Well, some channels are indeed much faster — but that doesn't hateful you should go ahead and alter them just nevertheless.

The fastest version of Wi-Fi currently bachelor is branded as "Wi-Fi 6E," aka 802.11ax-2021. If y'all're wondering why nosotros moved to branded naming every bit opposed to the standard number + a signifying letter combination, it'due south because there are a lot more depression-level updates and specification changes to 802.11 than at that place used to be. After 802.11ac in 2013, we've had .ad, .af, 802.xi-2016, .ah, .ai, .aj, and .aq. Rather than asking people to continue playing "Guess the relevant Wi-Fi standard," somebody decided it would exist easier to just call the electric current major consumer version "Wi-Fi 6." There'due south an even newer standard, Wi-Fi 6E, which supports signals in the five-6GHz band, but the Wi-Fi 6E hardware in-market place is a rather poor bargain at present.

Channels 1, vi, and 11

Starting time of all, let's talk well-nigh two.4GHz, because even in 2021, the bulk of Wi-Fi installations nonetheless employ the 2.4GHz band in some fashion. 802.11ac, which debuted in 2013, is driving adoption of 5GHz, helped along by adoption of 2020's 802.11ax / Wi-Fi half dozen — but cheers to backwards compatibility, dual-radio routers and devices, and lower-cost peripherals with less expensive chipsets, ii.4GHz will continue to reign for a while.

2.4GHz WiFi channel diagram

All versions of Wi-Fi up to and including 802.11n (a, b, g, northward) operate between the frequencies of 2400 and 2500MHz. These 100MHz are separated into 14 channels of 20MHz each. As you lot've probably worked out, fourteen lots of 20MHz is a lot more than 100MHz — and equally a issue, every 2.4GHz channel overlaps with at least two, if not four, other channels (see diagram above). And as you can probably imagine, using overlapping channels is bad — in fact, it'south the chief reason for poor throughput on your wireless network.

Fortunately, channels one, half-dozen, and 11 are spaced far enough autonomously that they don't overlap. On a non-MIMO setup (i.east. 802.xi a, b, or g) you lot should always try to use channel 1, 6, or 11. If y'all apply 802.11n with 20MHz channels, stick to channels ane, vi, and 11 — if y'all want to use 40MHz channels, be enlightened that the airwaves might exist congested, unless yous live in a detached house in the heart of nowhere.

What aqueduct should y'all use in a crowded expanse?

Funny WiFi SSID namesIf you desire maximum throughput and minimal interference, channels 1, 6, and eleven are your best choices. But depending on other wireless networks in your vicinity, one of those channels might be a better option than the others.

For example, if yous're using channel 1, simply someone next door is annoyingly using channel ii, and so your throughput will plummet. In that situation, y'all would accept to change to channel 11 to completely avoid the interference (though 6 would be pretty good every bit well). Information technology might be tempting to use a channel other than 1, vi, or xi — but remember that you volition so be the cause of interference (and everyone on 1, 6, and 11 will stomp on your throughput, anyway).

In an ideal world, you would talk to your neighbors and get every router to employ channels i, 6, or 11. Bear in heed that interior walls do a pretty good job of attenuating (weakening) a betoken. If there's a brick wall between you and a neighbor, you could probably both use channel 1 without interfering with each other. Simply if information technology's a thin wall (or in that location's lots of windows), you should use different channels.

There are tools that can help you find the clearest aqueduct, such equally Vistumbler. But information technology'due south probably faster to merely switch between channels i, 6, and eleven until you find one that works well. (If you have two laptops, you tin can copy a file between them to test the throughput of each aqueduct.)

But what about 5GHz?

Back

Get ready for lots of antennas.

The great thing near 5GHz (802.11n, 802.11ac, and Wi-Fi half-dozen) is that because in that location's much more than free space at the higher frequencies, information technology offers 23 non-overlapping 20MHz channels. 6GHz should keep this tendency, with even more than frequency space (although with slightly worse propagation characteristics).

Starting with 802.11n and standing with 802.11ac, wireless technology in full general became much more advanced than the prehistoric days of 802.11b and g. If y'all own at least a decent 802.11n or 802.11ac router (i.due east. if y'all bought a router in the last several years), it likely has some hardware within that chooses the right channel automatically and modifies the output ability to maximize throughput and minimize interference.

If yous're using the 5GHz band, and your walls aren't paper-thin, then attenuation and the general lack of 5GHz devices should mean there'south piffling interference in your apartment — possibly even allowing you lot to utilize the fatter forty, 80, and 160MHz channels if you experience like it.

Eventually, equally everyone upgrades to newer hardware and moves towards 5GHz, picking the right channel will by and large become a affair of the past. In that location may nevertheless exist some cases where it makes sense to fine-melody your router's channel selection. But when you're dealing with MIMO setups (upwards to eight in 802.11ac), it's more often than not a amend idea to permit your router do its own thing. Eventually, of class, 5GHz will fill up besides — just hopefully by then, we'll have worked out how to use even college frequencies (60GHz WiGig) or entirely new antenna designs (pCells, infinite capacity vortex beams) to cope with our wireless networking demands.

WiFi 6E volition eventually change some of this guidance, merely right at present the only WiFi 6E devices are poor deals. In one case Wi-Fi 6E hardware is available, the 6GHz band is expected to create opportunities for clearer networking since information technology'southward unused spectrum at the moment. Total performance of WiFi 6E is not higher than WiFi 6, but information technology should exist easier to hit that throughput in real-world scenarios.

Now Read:

  • How to Fix Up a Mesh Network
  • Killer Motion: Intel Acquires Rivet Networks
  • Huawei Subsidiary Distributes 0-Day Backdoor in DVRs, NVRs, IoT Cameras

Sebastian Anthony wrote the original version of this article. It has since been updated with new information.