How to get the most out of your WiFi this festive season

Watch out for the Christmas lights! The holiday season is upon us, and with all of the festivities on the horizon (in person or virtually), your WiFi connection may start to slow down; it won’t just be granny after a few sherries! Tablets, smartphones, laptops and gaming devices – to name a few – can use up a lot of bandwidth. So, here are some top tips to help manage your broadband across your devices.

Fairy lights

This one may sound fake, but we promise there is truth behind it. Those twinkling lights on the tree or dotted around your house may help you get into the holiday spirit, but did you know that they can also disrupt the WiFi signal from your router[i]?

Thankfully, this is usually only the case for older lights. They emit a 2.4GHz frequency which can make the lights act as an antenna if not properly grounded. However, the good news is that LED lights are far less likely to cause this issue. So, if you’ve dusted off those old fairy lights and want to get the best signal possible, it’s time to invest in some new ones to make the tree sparkle. 

Swimming with the fishes

Who would have thought that Goldie could be a culprit. Fish tanks (and, generally, all large bodies of water) do a great job at blocking radio waves around 2.4GHz (the typical frequency for WiFi). So, position your WiFi router away from large bodies of water, including the fish tank, and your boiler while you’re at it.

Human beings (yes, that means you)

Similar to fish tanks, human beings do a good job at absorbing radio waves, which we really don’t want to happen when we’re watching the new series of Bridgerton. Placing your WiFi router away from high-traffic areas will help keep you getting the speeds you’re paying for.

Be careful where you put it

Think of your WiFi router as a boombox. If you placed it on the windowsill in the farthest area of a room, your sweet tunes would be flying out the window and annoying your neighbours! With a WiFi router, the principle is the same, instead of connecting to your devices, it will be sending the signal to the street. Worry not! If you move your WiFi router to a central area in your home, away from windows, you can achieve greater coverage.

Change is a good thing

If you’re still experiencing slow speeds and your provider isn’t able to offer a solution, it may be time for you to switch to a new internet provider. If you're looking for a high-quality internet provider, we offer full fibre broadband deals starting from just £21/month*, London's fastest broadband speeds up to 3 Gbps (up to 800 Mbps over WiFi), and our dedicated network is built using the UK's most reliable broadband technology. So you can make speed limitations and those pesky peak-time issues a thing of the past. 

What not to decorate

Not everyone will do this, but if you’re feeling super festive, this one might be for you. While you may decorate the rest of your house within an inch of its life the one place to leave well alone is the WiFi router. While it may look pretty, you risk reducing the power of your WiFi signal. It would be the equivalent of trying to run at the same speed in water as you would on land.

Routers that mesh together…

If you live in a large property, then this one will be helpful for you. For most WiFi routers, the further away you are, the weaker the signal gets. However, there is hope. Using mesh WiFi routers can extend your coverage. They interlink together to form a pretty nifty mesh network that'll give you more consistent coverage throughout your home.

Disconnect to get that connect

This is a quick and easy tip that will help if you’re suffering slow speeds or you're unable to connect devices to your WiFi router. Not all your devices need to be connected to the internet at the same time, all the time. This means your games console can take a little WiFi break, and your laptop under your bed can put its broadband feet up, especially if you don't use them regularly. So turn the WiFi off on devices that aren't in use – it’ll save you precious bandwidth.

A fresh start

If your WiFi speeds have slowed down for no apparent reason, sometimes the best solution is to switch your router off and back on. This allows the router to reassess the best frequency to be operating on, especially if there has been a change in interference from all the new tech the family has got for Christmas. Also, if you have a mesh system which you have moved, you should do the same to reset the router frequencies for optimal efficiency. For existing Community Fibre customers, you can check out our Help section to see how to get started with troubleshooting.

Good to know

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[i] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/advice/improve-bb-speeds-at-home

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* Prices correct as of 31 May 2024. From 1st April every year we will increase the price of our services by up to the Government published Consumer Price Index (CPI) from January of the same year plus 2.9%. For more details and a worked example see communityfibre.co.uk/legal-stuff#promotional.