Wi-Fi is just as essential every bit running water for many people, specially those who work from home. And then when it's slow or keeps dropping out - and ruining your Zoom call or interrupting your Spotify stream - it tin can exist very frustrating indeed.

Your situation may exist even worse than this: no signal at all in some parts of the firm, or such a weak connection that information technology'due south non good plenty for loading a spider web page, let lonely checking who's at the front door via your video doorbell.

These Wi-Fi 'blackness spots' are virtually often caused by also much distance from the wireless router (wireless signals weaken with range), thick brick or stone walls, and interference from other devices.

There are several ways y'all can fix this, merely information technology all depends upon how much money yous want to spend and where the problem areas are. Here are the main 6 ways to extend your Wi-Fi:

  1. Move your existing router to a better position
  2. Buy a new, ameliorate router
  3. Buy a mesh Wi-Fi kit
  4. Buy a Wi-Fi extender / booster
  5. Buy a powerline networking adapter fix with Wi-Fi
  6. Switch to two.4GHz from 5GHz

Now permit's look in more detail at each of those options.

1. Reposition your router

If your firm suffers from weak Wi-Fi upstairs, check the placement of your wireless router. Make sure it's out in the open (even if it is ugly) and in the eye of the home if possible, free from obstructions.

Don't hide it in a cupboard, on the floor or backside your Television set. try to elevate information technology becauseWi-Fi signals have an easier time traveling through open up space.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

Does your router have movable aerials?The Wi-Fi signal beams out from the sides of the antenna, and up (perpendicular to the router) is usually best so the point doesn't shoot into the ground or ceiling. Even so, if you lot have multiple antennae, y'all can endeavor adjusting them to dissimilar angles to provide the widest coverage.

2. Upgrade to a better router

If the weak or tedious Wi-Fi continues despite moving the router, consider upgrading it to a better one.

The oldest to newest Wi-Fi standard are: 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac and Wi-Fi half-dozen. If you lot accept an older wireless "b" or "1000" router you should consider replacing it with a newer device that offers longer ranges and faster connectedness speeds.

Why not be cheeky and enquire your Internet service provider to ship y'all an updated wireless router? If you've been a customer for a while it should help you out, but watch out if it asks yous to sign upwardly for a new contract.

A common misconception is that the latest Wi-Fi standard gives y'all the best operation and range. While that is partially truthful, the all-time speeds come at the expense of range, so y'all'll actually get the best coverage from a router with really good performance using 2.4GHz, not 5GHz. For more, click hither.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

Nonetheless, this is where mesh Wi-Fi comes in, and information technology'due south why we highly recommend you lot invest in a kit, which can cost less than a unmarried router in some cases.

Remember that your devices as well need to back up these newer Wi-Fi standards. Just rather than buy a new laptop you can buy a USB wireless adapter – from equally little as £10 – that plugs into a USB port. You can also add a new wireless adapter inside a desktop PC'southward case or via a PC Bill of fare slot, just good luck trying that with a Mac! Check out our round upward of the best 802.11ac USB Wi-Fi adapters.

Nosotros've also got a separate guide with tips on how to speed upwardly Wi-Fi.

iii. Get a Mesh Wi-Fi kit

In instance you skipped the intro and scrolled straight to here, a mesh network is 2 or more than routers that piece of work together to provide much wider Wi-Fi coverage than a single router can ever evangelize. It replaces your existing router's Wi-Fi, and is easy to gear up.

Yous attach one of the units from a mesh Wi-Fi kit to a spare port on your existing router, and it creates a new Wi-Fi network to which all your Wi-Fi gadgets connect.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

You so place the second (and third if required) mesh device somewhere else in your house - usually on another flooring, or on the other side of your home. The devices all talk to each other and create a unmarried super Wi-Fi network that'due south both potent and fast and can ordinarily extend into your garden, if y'all have one.

You tin read more about the differences between the cheapest and virtually expensive systems in our roundup of the all-time Mesh Wi-Fi, but our electric current top choice, which combines Wi-Fi and powerline networking for great coverage and speed at a reasonable toll is the TP-Link Deco P9.

  • Purchase the TP-Link Deco P9 from Amazon

4. Utilize Powerline adapters

Powerline adapters are slowly being phased out and replaced by mesh Wi-Fi, only there is still a place for them - the Deco P9 kit uses the applied science equally we've just said. Only traditional powerline adapters tin can exist the cheapest solution to extending Wi-Fi if you need to become a bespeak in one particular room, or fifty-fifty a separate building such as a garage.

Only plug ane adapter into a power socket near your router and connect it to the router using an Ethernet cable (usually supplied in the box).

And so plug the 2d adapter (which must be a model with congenital-in Wi-Fi) into a power socket in the other room such equally a loft room, garage or other outbuilding. Every bit long as any split building gets its power from the main house where the router is located, information technology will work.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

In well-nigh cases these create a new Wi-Fi hotspot - they do not boost the wireless network that already exists similar a Wi-Fi extender. Powerline kits with Wi-Fi cost more extenders only are much more versatile and tin provide faster speeds.

Read our roundup of the best Powerline adapters for recommendations.

five. Buy a wireless booster

Wi-Fi extenders - also chosen repeaters or boosters - increase your Wi-Fi signal by 'capturing' the wireless signal from your router and then rebroadcasting information technology. Some people rightly wonder whether they really work: they practice, but they're not the all-time option if you need very fast Wi-Fi speeds.

They are inexpensive, though, and easy to install. Models such equally TP-Link's TL-WA860RE can cost at little as £twenty / $20 or so. However, this uses the older 802.11n standard. If you want something faster and more up to date, then the TP-Link RE300, which supports 802.11ac, is near £35 / $35.

How to extend your Wi-Fi

Yous can utilize a Wi-Fi repeater to boost the signal from a router on a different floor of a firm or on the opposite side of a building.

WiFi extender home booster repeaters

A repeater uses one-half its internal antennae to receive a wireless indicate and the other half to transmit a new indicate – effectively halving the potential speed of the original Wi-Fi bespeak.

This shouldn't be that noticeable for light web browsing, email, etc, but tin be felt when moving large files around the network such every bit loftier-definition video. That's why nosotros prefer Powerline for the more than enervating tasks. But yous might find it's however perfectly good for streaming Netflix or YouTube.

A Wi-Fi extender needs to exist placed in a primal location, not besides far abroad from the principal router, as shown in the image above. If you put the repeater at the far edge of your main network hoping to strengthen the indicate yous will reduce the speed of your connectedness to the rest of the network and to the net.

Call up that the extender is just boosting the indicate. If it's placed in a spot where Wi-Fi is already weak then it volition but push around that weak signal. Place it in an surface area with better Wi-Fi and the betoken it pushes out will be stronger, too.

The platonic location for a range extender is one-half manner between your main router and the intended wireless devices – in an open corridor or spacious room rather than a crowded space. It should exist away from interfering devices such as cordless phones, Bluetooth gadgets and microwave ovens.

6. Use 2.4GHz instead of 5GHz Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi can use 1 of ii frequency bands: 2.4GHz or 5GHz. Many people remember the latter is meliorate because information technology offers faster speeds.

However, this comes at a toll: range. The college the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. And 5GHz signals cannot penetrate walls, ceilings, desks, and, yep, people likewise as ii.4GHz signals. (Incidentally, this is why 5G is promising such fast speeds, because it uses much college frequencies - called millimetre wave - only these signals have a tough fourth dimension getting through glass, copse and even rain.

  • Here'southward how to tell which is my Wi-Fi.

2.4GHz, on the other hand is ameliorate at delivering a bespeak over a greater altitude, at slower speeds. That'due south why you might be able to get better range from your router by forcing your telephone or laptop to connect to your router'southward 2.4GHz network. Many routers combine the ii frequencies into 1 network name. That's done for convenience, just information technology means yous can't cull which network to connect to.

If your router is similar this, log in to the settings web page and look for a Wi-Fi menu where y'all can divide the two frequencies into 2 separate network names.

It's worth bearing in listen that 2.4GHz devices face up a battle because lots of other things also employ this frequency including microwaves, baby monitors, Bluetooth and more than.

These can crusade interference, which reduced the less speed and range a Wi-Fi betoken has. The greater range you desire, the less speed you can have; the greater speed you lot want, the more you have to mitigate interference and work closer to an admission bespeak.

And then your mileage may vary, simply it is well worth understanding the deviation between Wi-Fi bands, as you tin can use these to your reward.

We have a separate step-by-step guide on how to modify the channel your router uses to avert interference.