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Battle of the best connection

This week, our interest in maintaining incredible internet connection has lead us to finding out which countries Wi-Fi is performing best.

 

And the results have been interesting…

 

Rotten Wi-Fi’s latest findings show that the UK is surprisingly quite far behind other countries in terms of interest speed.  Public Wi-Fi has become a pretty essential part of everyday life for most of us and the demand has certainly increased in recent years.  Interestingly the UK falls behind countries such as Lithuania and Switzerland when comparing the average download speed.

 

Although we do come in behind Lithuania, Singapore, Denmark and Switzerland in terms of internet speed, we are placed ahead of the USA and Germany.  In fact, the USA and Germany haven’t been doing so well in recent years and their internet speed hasn’t made the top 20 until this year.  The latest findings show that countries such as Latvia, Hungary and Estonia are still ahead of Germany and the USA in terms of download speed.

 

Lithuania tops the charts with the fastest public Wi-Fi, followed closely by Denmark.  Fast and effective public Wi-Fi is hugely important in the modern day and we’ll be interested to see if the UK can develop their Wi-Fi speed to keep up with the demand in the coming years.
Data source: www.rottenwifi.com; November 2016

Image Credit: Alto Digital

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Dreaded Dead Spots

We’ve all been there.

 

You’ve set out to do some work in a coffee shop and after ordering your coffee and finding the perfect corner to settle down in you realise the Wi-Fi doesn’t work there.  ‘Typical’ you think as you pace around with your device in hand trying to find a connection.

 

This week we’re trying to discover what it means to have a Wi-Fi dead spot and how to avoid these cursed spaces.  

 

There can be so many reasons for these dead spots but the main ones are building interferences ie – thick walls or awkwardly placed Wi-Fi access points that can’t reach certain areas.  With that in mind, it can be quite easy to fix these mysterious dead spots which makes it all the more frustrating when you come across one.

 

If you find a dead spot in your home or business space the first thing you can do to try and close up these dead spots is to re-position your access point.  Often central locations suit access points best, where they can get away from thick walls or fire exits which can all interfere with signal.   

 

That brings us to our second suggestion – removing obstructions and ensuring that your access point is free of any interference.  Often clients don’t realise how easy it can be to eliminate these obstructions from the area.  If you identify anything near the access point that you think could be causing problems then remove it and see if the dead spot remains – in most cases dead spots require a trial and error approach. Other electronic devices and thick metals can be a source of interference that often go overlooked but it’s worth getting to the bottom of the issue and ensuring that you try removing as many obstructions as possible to see if that affects the dead spot.
If you need more advice on how to avoid these frustrating dead spots then don’t hesitate to get in touch.  It’s always helpful to get an expert opinion if the problem persists.

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Hotel Wi-Fi: Why doesn’t it work?


We have all experienced the frustrations of hotel Wi-Fi.  It seems that despite hotel Wi-Fi being an essential these days, it’s rare that hotel networks actually work efficiently.

 

Incorrect channel plans are the main source of interruption and in some ways the easiest to control.  In most cases channels 1, 6 and 11 are appropriate channel plans and work well in most countries.  Difficulties arise when hotels have each adjacent AP connected to the next available channel.  This causes adjacent channel interference whereby your device connects from channel 1 to 2 to 3 and so on as you move around the space.  As previously mentioned, channels 1, 6 and 11 work well in most countries and using these channels appropriately can significantly improve your network.

 

The other common error is trying to connect to 2.4GHz instead of 5GHz.  As we’ve discussed in previous blogs 5GHz is the more appropriate bandwidth in most cases, yet hotels still connect to 2.4GHz, which as we know is overcrowded and somewhat of a junk space.  Turning off 2.4GHz will help to reduce this interference.

 

Access point placement is also crucial to hotel networks and can sometimes be the downfall.  Client devices need to be in clear range of the AP without things like smoke detectors, exit signs or thick walls getting in the way.  Again, this is easily solved by finding the areas where signal is experiencing interference and relocating the AP’s to more appropriate areas.  Often hotels can try to do the job cheaply and thereby place AP’s in convenient places which turn out to be rather ineffective.  


Those top three hotel Wi-Fi fail are the reason for lots of customer frustration and complaining which could be easily avoided.  If you, or a business you know needs help with hotel Wi-Fi then be sure to put them in touch!

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Wi-Fi – it’s not rocket science!

Here at Geekabit we are passionate about good Wi-Fi.  Increasingly we have found that clients think of us as wizards who have fallen upon some secret knowledge about Wi-Fi – this is not true.  This blog is all about sharing the easy tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of your Wi-Fi.

Firstly, we need to mention the importance of 5GHz band vs 2.4.  As you probably know 5GHz is way more effective as a primary band and delivers 8 times the capacity of 2.4GHz.

Secondly, a useful tip is to put APs near users.  It sounds so simple, but so often Wi-Fi fails are caused by APs that are located in bizarre and hard to reach places.  Client performance will significantly increase if you place APs in rooms where users are and avoid hallways and staircases as AP sites.

Our next tip is about coverage.  Coverage should always be tailored to the building or facility that you are in.  Radio frequency obstructions should be assessed before you get fitting APs and you should always consider the correct antennas and orientation for the location.

Another way that you can improve your connection is by disabling 2.4 GHz Radios since there are fewer available channels and they can cause interference which is unnecessary.

To increase efficiency you may also want to disable low data rates.  Low data rates can impact the networks overall performance and disabling these will give a reduction in traffic which will improve your connection.

Once you have done the hard work, it is important to check that what you are doing is working in practise and not just in theory.  Validate and check the design using actual client devices to see for yourself how client performance is affected.  You could also use a RF site survey to check how your improvements are working.

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