At any given time, if you try to connect your smart-phone to a WiFi access point, you will find that there are dozens of WiFi networks available. At least, this is true for my work place where all the different companies have their own WiFi access points for their employees. With so many WiFi networks available throughout the day, interference occurs and the signals drop-out easily if you move a little farther from your own WiFi hot-spot. One solution to this problem is obviously to use a WiFi router with higher gain antennae. Furthermore, sometimes you are not able to connect to WiFi networks because of compatibility issues. Thankfully you can tweak your existing WiFi router to make the signals much more compatible and stable. Here is how you can do this:
- Enter 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 in the address bar of your web browser to open the web interface of your WiFi router. You may have to enter the username and password to access the router settings interface. If you do not know the password, then you can consult the documentation or manual that came with your router for this information.
- All the different models of WiFi routers have a different web interface. You have to open the WiFi settings section in the web interface. For example, in the TP-Link TL-WR740N WiFi router, you can access Wireless → Wireless Settings from the left side menu.
- In the wireless settings, choose a higher channel number like 11, the mode should be selected as bgn mixed and channel width should be set at 20 MHz.
- Save the settings and restart the router. Now you would have a much more stable WiFi network.
By using the 20 MHz channel width for your wireless network, you are making the network compatible with older devices that cannot connect properly over the 40 MHz channel width. Similarly, the selection of bgn mixed mode ensures that all types of WiFi devices will be able to connect to your wireless network without any problems.