How To Change The Channel On Wifi

If you live in a crowded place, y'all might have noticed times when your WiFi of a sudden slows down or drops off out of nowhere. These performance bug often have to do with besides many people accessing the same WiFi channels in your area. To optimize your WiFi signal, information technology's best to find and use a WiFi channel that no one else is using. Here's how to change the channel on your router to speed up your WiFi signal.

What is a WiFi Channel?

Most WiFi routers these days broadcast data using the 2.4 GHz and v GHz frequency bands. Each of these bands is divided upward into channels that are used to ship and receive information over your WiFi network.

You can think of the 2.iv GHz and five GHz frequency bands like two highways, and the WiFi channels are similar lanes on those highways. If y'all wanted to pick the fastest lanes on either highway, you would desire to choose the ones that have the least traffic.

If you're using the 2.4 GHz band, channels i, 6, and xi are usually the best choices because they don't overlap with each other.

On the other hand, if you're using the 5 GHz band, in that location are 24 non-overlapping channels you can choose from.

To find out more near the difference between 2.iv GHz and 5 GHz , and which one you should utilize, check out our article here.

Many routers employ the aforementioned aqueduct past default. So, if you don't change your WiFi aqueduct, your router will probably apply the aforementioned channels as all your neighbors, which could boring downwardly your WiFi signal. Hither'southward how yous can modify your WiFi aqueduct on a router.

How to Change Your WiFi Channel

To change your WiFi channel, log into your router using any web browser. Then open the Wireless Settings and find the Channels drop-downwards menu. Select a channel and click Save.

Note: Every router is different, then these steps might not be exactly the aforementioned for your router.

Open a web browser and type your router's IP accost into the address bar. If yous don't know what your router's IP address is, check out our stride-by-step guide on how to find your router'south IP address on a Windows 10 PC or Mac.
So hit Enter on your keyboard. Your browser might display a alert screen at this point. To proceed, click Avant-garde > Keep.
Adjacent, enter your username and countersign. If you don't your login credentials, cheque out our footstep-by-stride guide on how to notice your router'south username and password here.
Then open Wireless Settings . The verbal name and location of this option will depend on your router. In near cases, you volition have to select Avant-garde Settings first.
Notation: Make certain to choose the frequency band you want to change the channel for (2.four GHz or 5 GHz). There might besides be an car-connect feature that you have to turn off equally well.
Adjacent, click the Channels drop-down menu and change your WiFi aqueduct.
Finally, make sure to hitting Salve or Apply .

Notation: Once yous save your settings, information technology might crusade your router to reboot, which could hateful that you lose your WiFi connectedness briefly.

Once yous know how to modify your WiFi channel, you lot should find out which WiFi aqueduct is the least crowded. Here'southward how to use the NetSpot app to notice the best WiFi channel:

Troubleshooting-WiFi

How to Find the All-time WiFi Channel

To find the all-time WiFi channel in your area, download the NetSpot app for Windows 10 or Mac. Then install the app and launch information technology. Next, click Details and select your frequency ring. Then you lot volition be able to see which channels are the about crowded.

Note: The NetSpot app only works for computers running Windows seven and higher or macOS 10.10 and higher.

Go to NetSpot's official website. You can observe this at netspotapp.com.
And so click Get NetSpot . You can observe this in the top-right corner of the folio.
Next, whorl down and click on Download now . This will download the free version of the awarding.
And then open up the downloaded file to install NetSpot. If you tin can't find the downloaded the app, check your Downloads binder.
Next, launch NetSpot and click Go on. This will let you use the gratis version of the app.
Then select your WiFi network. You can see the WiFi networks in your surface area by proper name under the SSID (service fix identifier) cavalcade. To make things like shooting fish in a barrel, you can click SSID at the top of the column to sort by name. To select your network, click the proper noun and brand sure the box to the left is checked. You can also see which aqueduct your WiFi network is currently using under the Channel column.
Side by side, click Details . Y'all can find this in the bottom-left corner of the window. This will open up a new window.
Then select your frequency band. Yous tin find tabs for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands in the summit-correct corner of the window. If you lot selected your network in the previous window, you lot should encounter it highlighted now.
The all-time channels will exist the ones with the least traffic. Each network in your area volition evidence upward as a different bar. Y'all can tell which aqueduct each network is using by looking at the numbers in the center of each bar.

In the prototype above, the highlighted network is using channel 36 on the v GHz band. That channel is fairly crowded, and then it might exist a expert idea to alter the channel to the other end of the band's spectrum.

One time you change your network to a less crowded WiFi aqueduct, you should notice that your bar gets taller, pregnant your network speed has increased.

If your WiFi signal is still weak, cheque out our guide on how to heave your WiFi signal here.

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