WI-FI channel width

Almost everyone now has the Internet transmitted wirelessly, but few people know the factors that affect speed and performance. What is the width of the Wi-fi channel, for example, what affects the speed that can be obtained, and whether it is possible to improve the capacity of the existing channel.

What is channel width in your Wi - fi settings?

The channel width means the bandwidth. You can visualize this hypothetically as a sort of digital highway – and the wider the carriageway, the more traffic it can take. Accordingly, the greater the channel width, the larger the amount of information per unit time that can be transmitted, and the greater the effective speed that you can obtain.

On the other hand, there are adverse factors that affect the flow of information – the number of devices accessing the network, for example. Walls can also be an obstacle to the flow of information. In any case, a standard rule of thumb is that enhancing the width of the channel increases the speed of your network.

What value of the channel width should one set in the settings of one's router?

By default, most routers are configured to 20 MHz with 2.4 GHz bandwidth. Usually, if one locates the router correctly, and without walls in the way, and your devices at the smallest reasonable distance from the router, this is sufficient – at least on a home network.

Is there any way we could better that in practice?

There is another frequency that we can tune to - 40 MHz. 2.4 GHz allows you to broadcast wireless transmission over greater distance, but at the same time, it provides slower speeds than a forty megahertz channel. So which one should you choose? If you are not satisfied with the speeds you obtain normally, switch to 40 MHz in the router settings. However, this works best when devices are in the same room as the router – if you need the internet in more rooms, you will have to install additional routers in each room.

If the most important thing to you is a stable Internet transmission, over a relatively long distance, go with an operating frequency of 2.4 GHz.

What is the difference between these settings?

20

If you do not live in a private house, but in an apartment building, you will see, when you connect the gadget to your Wi-Fi network, that yours is part of a long list of neighboring connections. Surrounded by an "enemy" network, you can best provide yourself with a stable connection to the Internet at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. At this frequency, you need to remember that the fewer devices you connect simultaneously to your network, the faster the transfer of information.

40

If your network is some distance from other connections – for example, if you live in a private house, or if your network is in a detached office building, then you may set your router to a frequency of 40 GHz.

How do I adjust the bandwidth on my router?

To change the channel width, and therefore the bandwidth of the router, you need to go to the settings menu. Any browser on your device can be used for this. To access your router, you'll need to type into the address bar of your browser. First type the IP address of your local network, and then, in a form that pops up, your administrator login and password.

Go to the settings menu, where, in the category that covers wireless data transmission, select the sub-setting ‘channel width'. Check the box that corresponds to the frequency you require, and save the changes. The changes will take effect after restarting the router.

TPLink

Perhaps the most common device that is used for Wi-Fi is the TPLink router. In order to make the initial settings you require, you need to access their site and enter the admin panel. To do this, you should type in the browser - 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1, or tplinkwifi.net, and then enter the standard administrator data - admin and the password - admin.

Attention! According to some reports, the old domain used to log in to the admin panel is tplinklogin.net, which the company forgot to renew, and which was then taken over by another party, who then tried to sell it back to the company at a large price. Therefore, it is not recommended that you use this address. TP Link has not confirmed this, but has not denied it either.

Asus

Instructions for entering the admin panel are present on the back of any model. But if, for some reason, your router does not have them, the standard setup procedure will look like this:

1. Enter 192.168.1.1 in the address bar of your Internet browser

2. At the second stage, you need to enter your login and password. If there is no other data besides the factory default, enter in each of the fields - admin, admin.

3. Make sure the mode is Wireless Router.

4. In the left column, select - Internet - Connection.

5. In the drop-down list, select the required frequency.

Zyxel

If you use a used device to configure access, you should return it to the factory settings. Plug the router into the network and hold down the reset button for thirty seconds, after which you will have to wait about another minute for the reset process to finish.

1. Your internet cable goes into the blue connector slot. The LAN cable connecting your router to your computer goes into one of the yellow slots.

2. Standard for most connections, in the browser window, type 192.168.1.1

3. Entering the admin panel is a combination of login - admin, and password - 1234.

4. In the next step, go to the button - Web configuration.

5. Selecting the item - Internet, Globe, go to the tab - IPoE.

6. Select the active ISP connection.

7. For your IP setting, choose - automatically.

8. Item Mac - address - we take from our computer.

9. And finally, after going through the previous steps, select the required channel width, in the tab - Wi-Fi network.

Summing up

These days it is impossible to imagine a life without gadgets. Social networks, instant messengers, and online games are already in our genes. If earlier we were satisfied with the possibility of downloading a movie overnight, now any child loses their temper if they cannot download an online game that is several gigabytes in size in a couple of minutes. As we found out, increasing the access channel width will not always increase the data exchange rate. We hope our recommendations will help you choose the right option for your connection.