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How to Prevent Your Wi-Fi Signal from Cutting Out

What is a Wi-Fi Connection?

The Wi-Fi connection works to connect computers to the Internet using a wireless signal.  It involves all standards in the 802.11 series.  One common standard within this series is 802.11b, which costs less than the other standards and tends to be the slowest wireless connection because it supports 11Mbps.  802.11a and 802.11g standards perform faster and more efficiently because they support 54 Mbps. 

How Does Wi-Fi Work?

All the standards in the 802.11 series use signals within a radio frequency.  The Wi-Fi signal range is 2.4 GHz, which consists of 11 channels or bands.  This 2.4 GHz range is used by not only wireless signals, but also by cordless phones, baby monitors, microwaves, electric garage door openers, and other electronics in and around the home.  This also means that neighbors share your signal.  With so many electric devices used in homes today, if all of them were set to work on a certain channel within the range, the wireless connection could slow down or malfunction. 

How to Protect Your Wi-Fi Signal from Malfunctioning

It’s frustrating when you are doing research or checking e-mail on the Internet, and your Wi-Fi connection cuts out.  What can we do to avoid this from occurring?  Because there are so many household items that function within the same 2.3-2.4 GHz range, we need to pay attention to which channel they are on. 

Many wireless items have a pre-established default channel of six.  If you notice a lot of interference with your Wi-Fi connection, changing the channel away from six may solve the problem.  However, make sure that all of the wireless devices that are on that same network are also using the same channel. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that some Wi-Fi channels can overlap with one another.  If you keep your channels as far apart as possible, there will be much less of a chance of overlap and interference.