How to minimize Wi-Fi range

When on a wireless network, you may notice your signal strength is poor or unavailable which implies that you’re out of range. Despite most of us wishing for a network with wider coverage, others wish for Wi-Fi with less coverage.

The internet has become a basic need in most if not all people’s lives. It connects us to other people besides giving us access totons of information and services online. Having a Wi-Fi network with a wider coverage is great meaning that you can still access it from far away. However, it comes with its own fair share of issues. It’s prone to hacking attacks from any passersby with a laptop and Wi-Fi antenna. These hackers may hack into your router and carry out illegal activities. Besides signal encryption, router firewalls, and passwords, one of the best ways to protect you against such is by minimizing your Wi-Fi range.

To minimize Wi-Fi range, assess your router’s wireless signal range, move the router to a different location in the house, or change the router’s wireless antenna orientation, if your router has radio power settings then reduce it, and finally paint your house’s exterior walls with wireless signal blocking paint.

What is a Wi-Fi range?

A wireless router uses radio waves which reduces the farther one moves away from the router. The range of a wireless router is determined by the router standard and how far one is from the router. A standard home network with a single router is enough for average household size. Business networks on the other end require several access points to serve a large office building. Mostly, a modern wireless router operating on the 2.4 GHz band can reach a maximum of up to 150 ft. indoors and 300 ft. outdoors.

Factors influencing Wi-Fi range

Router or Access point

The Wi-Fi range of any access point varies from one device to another. This is due to several factors including the device transmitter’s strength, the specific 802.11 protocol, physical obstructions, and any radio interference in the area. From how far one can connect to an access point depends on the antenna orientation. If you aren’t getting the expected signal strength, then change the antennas.

Wireless standard

Wireless standard directly affects your router’s signal strength and range. The 802.11n protocol has a range of 235 feet indoors while the 802.11g protocol has a range of 125 feet.

Building

A wireless signal is affected by physical obstructions such as walls and metal frames. A Wi-Fi signal weakens every time it comes across an obstruction like your walls and even interference from appliances such as microwaves.

How to minimize Wi-Fi range

The first step is to assess the range of your internal router’s wireless signal by monitoring its signal strength on a wireless device such as a smartphone or laptop. You can do so by walking around your house and yard and then noting down the area covered by the wireless signal. The wireless signal meter can be found on your phone’s home screen next to the time/data bar and on the taskbar on your laptop.

Next, move your router to a different location within the house with the most ideal place being the center of the house. Keep moving it and checking the signal until you reduce it. The next step is to change the router’s wireless antennas orientation. Point your router’s antennas away from the street or neighboring building and keep changing their orientation while monitoring the signals until you reduce them. You can consider removing an antenna if your router comes with more than one antenna.

On modern wireless routers, there’s usually a ‘radio power’ setting’ which when reduced minimizes the signal range. Check for instructions from your router’s technical manual before proceeding. The last step to take is to paint your house’s exterior walls with paint that blocks your router’s wireless signals. This paint contains aluminum-iron oxide that prevents not only the wireless signals from passing through the wall but other radio waves too. All the above steps are extreme measures to take against hackers and snoopers trying to access your router.

FAQs

Does a 5 GHz band have a wider range than 2.4 GHz?

A 5 GHz band is usually prone to obstructions than a 2.4 GHz band and will have a shorter range of about 10-15 ft. than 2.4 GHz.

What’s the maximum Wi-Fi range?

The maximum Wi-Fi range ranges between 150 ft. ad 300 ft. depending on the band.