A quick speed test on a Mac and 1 Gbps home internet plan.
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Wi-Fi dead zones and disconnection issues disrupt your day.
- Help is at hand, and most steps don’t require a big investment.
- Focus on areas like router location and your home wiring.
Your home network should be seamless, not a source of frustration. While router placement and device load play huge roles in performance, sometimes standard troubleshooting isn’t enough to eliminate dead zones. If you’re still battling buffering and dropped connections, it’s time to look deeper at your home’s layout. Here is how to eliminate signal attenuation and ensure a rock-solid connection in every room.
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For years, my home network was plagued by dead zones and lag, and I had to make some serious fixes to improve it. When adding a router to create a mesh network wasn’t enough, I adjusted router placement, expanded the network, and even switched brands to improve performance. Here’s a breakdown of what I did and what you can do to eliminate Wi-Fi dead zones for good.
The most common issue with Wi-Fi dead zones is most closely related to your router’s placement. Nothing can fix your network issues when the problem is that the router is in a bad spot.
Optimal router placement is in a central location in your home. However, just because a router is centrally located doesn’t mean it’s the best placement. A centrally located router won’t work well if it’s in the basement, for example.
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The router should be in the open, not inside furniture or enclosed by obstacles. Some people go so far as to put their router in the attic, at the center of the house.
Different items around your home can interact with your router in different ways, creating dead zones. Always avoid placing your router near thick brick or concrete walls, appliances, mirrors, and metal objects.
It may not sound like a big deal, but something as innocuous as a mirror can block network signals, creating a dead zone directly behind it, even if it’s in another room.
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You can elevate your router to avoid nearby obstacles that can affect your network, such as placing it on a tall shelf.
A powerline adapter extends your internet connection via your existing electrical wiring. It differs from an extender, which operates wirelessly, and from MoCA, which works with your home’s coaxial cable.
Powerline adapters can be plugged into an outlet. You can then use the adapter as an Ethernet port.
If you decide to add powerline adapters to your home, you’ll need to start with at least two: one to plug your router into and another for a separate outlet. Once you have a pair of powerline adapters set up, you’ll have a wired Ethernet connection for connecting computers, smart TVs, or a gaming console.
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The biggest downside to powerline adapters is that they are susceptible to electrical noise common with household appliances. Interference from other appliances in your home can weaken your signal.
Wi-Fi extenders are a decent, inexpensive way to boost your network’s signal. They can be placed almost anywhere you’d like and moved to adjust your coverage as needed. Extenders aren’t a full fix, though; they’re meant to extend the signal to a specific dead zone, not your whole house.
You can place an extender in a bedroom, sunroom, or office, preferably about halfway between your router and the dead zone. Extenders should not be placed in the dead zone, as they won’t have a network to work with.
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There are downsides to both extenders and powerline adapters. Wi-Fi extenders often degrade performance and don’t replace a router, so they can’t be placed in a dead zone. Powerline adapters, on the other hand, are susceptible to electrical noise common with household appliances. Interference from other appliances in your home can weaken your signal.
One of the best ways to permanently fix a spotty Wi-Fi network is to upgrade to a mesh network. A mesh network is the best solution if your network problem is consistent throughout most of your home, not just a single room.
A mesh network is the best option for a medium- to large-sized home with many devices, which is often the case for smart home users. Mesh networks use multiple nodes that act together to create a seamless, often self-healing network rather than each node sending separate signals.
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My smart home has over 100 devices, which bog down the network, and we experience frequent buffering, slowdowns, and spotty connections, even with 1Gbps service. Switching from a two-router setup to a mesh network with three nodes stabilized our connections throughout the entire, almost-3,000-square-foot home.
Since I’ve upgraded to an Eero mesh network, I don’t see myself switching brands in the near future. I have an Eero Max 7, two Eero Pro 7s, and an Eero Outdoor holding down the fort, and they handle all my smart devices without a stutter.
For maximum stability, you can use your home’s existing coaxial wiring to create a wired network. Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) delivers near-Ethernet speeds over cables already in most US homes. Coaxial cables carry cable TV signals in your home, so you likely already have them, even if you don’t have cable.
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MoCA turns those coax ports into high-speed wired internet connections. It requires a closed coax network that you don’t share with neighbors, and you will need a set of adapters to create a point-to-point connection over coax. This will include an adapter at your router, unless your router has MoCA built in, and an adapter in the rooms where you want internet.
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