Wifi use
within the home and business continues to grow with more and more devices
demanding use of this technology. The “internet of Things” will mean
increasingly non computer devices in your home will rely on this technology to
communicate with you. Understanding how it works, why it fails, and how you can
optimize can make your life much easier.
Confusion reigns, not surprisingly, amongst many users of the technology and
it’s failings. From streaming TV to accessing your email from your phone at
home you rely on the technology to perform well. Unfortunately many factors can
affect its performance.
Types of
Wifi
Wifi is NOT
3g 4g or 5g. Your phone is equipped with both methods of communication but its
important to understand these are separate technologies. For the purpose of this
article I will address WiFi only.
Wireless B
G N and AC
The original wireless technology was wireless
B and since its introduction faster versions have been released up to the very
latest wireless AC. It is highly unlikely you have more than one device you use
that has Wireless AC and even if you do the rest of your configuration is
probably wireless N.
Wireless N
can easily support streaming of TV, gaming, and your regular phones but it
comes with several caveats as follows:
#1 your
Wifi Connection is only as good as the strength of the signal to the
broadcasting source.(usually your broadband modem).
#2 Your
Wifi Speed is only as good as the speed of the connection to the broadcasting
device and onward what speed that device has to the internet.
#3 The more
devices you have on Wifi the more it will degrade the speed of ALL devices
using the wifi signal.
#4 Any
single Wifi enabled device can hog the wifi connection meaning it can consume
virtually all of the bandwidth of the wifi signal,
#5 Wifi technology
suffers from “phantom signals” and also channel saturation.
Next Month,
God willing, I will continue on this topic.
