How to decrease the range of Wi-Fi router

A lot of people will always be quick to look for the best possible ways to increase the range covered by their routers. However, were you also aware that a controlled and limited Wi-Fi range may also serve as an advantage to you and your family members?

Wide coverage enhances easy access even to passers-by that walk past the compound of your home. It will be quite unfair of me to accuse passers-by of always having malicious intentions but we are also not supposed to give too much room for naivety. This is because any person who has ill intentions can simply connect their device to your unprotected Wi-Fi and conduct illegal activities. Without doubt, you can put security measures on your network such as passwords and signal encryption but this is not enough to stop hackers.

In addition to this, you can also take the necessary steps to reduce the range of your Wi-Fi router as another preventive measure. You should first evaluate the maximum range offered by your Wi-Fi router. After this you should then move your Wi-Fi router to a different place in the house which will reduce the internet connectivity on the outskirts of your house.

Once you have gone through these three steps, you can now change the direction of the antennas and focus them to face your house rather than the outside of your walls. Most times this usually gets the job done however there are two more processes that you could still take into consideration. The first one being reducing the radio power setting of your router in order to limit signal strength and painting your house using special paint that blocks wireless signals.

Some of the routers with the longest range include:

Name	Download speeds	Maximum Range	Action
NetgearOrbi	3000Mbps	Up to 5000 Sq. ft.	Buy here
Asus RT AC88U	3100Mbps	Up to 5000 Sq. ft.	Buy here
Netgear Nighthawk X10	7200Mbps	Up to 3000 Sq. ft.	Buy here
Google Wi-Fi	1200Mbps	Up to 4500 Sq. ft.	Buy here

Steps to decrease the range of your Wi-Fi router

Assess the maximum range of your Wi-Fi router

You should first be aware of the maximum coverage your router delivers to your home. Well, you shouldn’t be worried if you don’t know the exact figures because you can easily search for its range on the internet. I mean, what would we do without internet huh? However, certain situations may arise where the company of your router don’t mention the range of your Wi-Fi router.

Well, the good news is I still have a solution for you in the event you don’t get the information you need from the internet. All you have to do is connect any of your devices to your Wi-Fi and start walking further away from the router as you keep an eye on your internet connectivity bar. The point where the connectivity bar disappears or shows very weak signal strength is the maximum range your Wi-Fi router sends signals.

Move your Wi-Fi router to a different place in your home

After you have discovered the maximum range your Wi-Fi router offers, you should then think of moving it to a different location. You can move it to different locations as you gauge which position will limit signal strength from the outskirts of your home best. Well, the best place to put it in your house should be right in the centre of your house. This is because if your Wi-Fi router is in the centre of your house the signals will have to travel through a number of walls which will eventually weaken single strength especially on the outskirts of your house.

Change the direction of antennas

It’s important to note that not all routers usually come with physical antennas. So, this step will only be effective for you if your router has antennas that you can physically see and touch. Therefore, if you router is the latter, you should change the direction of the antennas to face away from the outside walls of your house. Once you have done this you can do the little hack I gave you by walking with a connected device and check whether you have limited the range of Wi-Fi signals.

However, if you see that this method is still not effective enough you can remove a number of antennas if your router has detachable antennas. This will most definitely reduce the signal range of your Wi-Fi router. Although, you may experience slightly slower data download speeds especially when you connect multiple devices simultaneously.

Other steps you could take to decrease the range of your Wi-Fi router

Reduce the router radio settings

Most routers nowadays are equipped with a radio power settings which help to stabilize and maintain great range of Wi-Fi signals throughout your compound. It also enhances great signal strength throughout. Therefore, you can reduce this which will help to limit your router’s maximum range. You can also check how to do this on the router’s manual if you have never done this before.

Paint the walls of your house

Well, this is not the most popular method because it is not only costly, but also entails quite a lot of work and time. However, it works! There is a special paint you can apply on your walls which will actually act as a pretty effective signal barrier. Interesting, right? This paint usually consists of aluminium iron oxide which help to prevent the signals of you Wi-Fi router from passing through.

Conclusion

Reducing the range of your Wi-Fi router will limit you to connect to the internet only when you are close to the router. However, better safe than sorry right? To be honest, we’d all rather stay close to our router every time we connect to Wi-Fi than being susceptible to strangers who will use our for all the wrong reasons.

FAQs

Will reducing the range reduce the data download speeds of my Wi-Fi router?

No, it won’t. Unless you remove the antennas as this may hinder the data download speeds you receive on your device.

Is painting my walls with aluminium iron oxide paint an effective method?

Yes it is. However, it is very time consuming and consists of a lot of work.