How to maintain wireless speeds when adding more devices

Captaingmurd · Jul 3, 2014

Hi! I want to use many devices in my home on my wireless, but find the speed gets slower with every device added. Is there a way to boost the wireless signal so it doesn't reduce speeds? I am not a big techie, but understand enough with normal tech talk - lol

Phillip Corcoran · Jul 3, 2014

I rather think you mean the internet speed/download speed, not the wireless speed? They are not the same thing.

You can wirelessly connect a signal booster to your wireless router, but all that does is improve it's effective range around the building, with the downside that it also reduces the speed over wireless, so that's not going to be any good in your situation.

Only a higher internet speed/greater bandwidth from your ISP is going to improve the situation if it's the download speed that's being affected by having multiple devices online all at the same time.

ex_bubblehead · Jul 3, 2014

Nope, that's how wireless works. The bandwidth is shared among all of the connected devices. Add more devices and each slice of the pie gets smaller.

jitpublisher · Jul 3, 2014

Well, about the only way to improve this situation is buy more bandwidth from your service provider. You will see ads for internet boosters, wifi extenders, boosters etc, but they are mostly just a rip off. There is nothing that can improve your connection speed (unless there is something wrong with your hardware) except purchasing a faster connection.

kanewolf · Jul 3, 2014

If you have a single WIFI access point, the problem is that there is only so much time to service each connected device. See this article (problem section) http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-features/32451-mu-mimo-vs-xstream-the-coming-battle-for-wi-fi-airtime

Each device gets a chunk of time in the channel. Too many devices means not much time for any one of them.

Easiest solution -- add additional access points with different SSIDs and manually allocate your devices among the multiple access points. Pick different wifi channels for each AP. Connect all the APs back to the router with wired ethernet.

Pooneil · Jul 3, 2014

Captaingmurd :

You can do this by adding more wifi access points to share the wifi load. This will not make your internet faster, but it can make your devices run better up to the point you are using all your ISPs bandwidth. You may also be experiencing signal loss from being too far from your wifi router.

So assuming you have a wifi problem, buy an access point or router that can be set up as an access point, most can. The best situation is if you can run an Ethernet cable from the router to the new access point. Secondarily, a powerline network will substitute for a cable, just not as easily. In the worst case or if you live in an apartment, you can place the access points close to each other.

Always set access points to different channels among 1,6, or 11.

But your diagnosis might be wrong too, you could be experiencing problems from another wifi user. You should try changing the channel on the current equipment to see if you get sufficient improvement before buying new equipment. If you have 5 GHz equipment, try forcing stationary devices, such as a TV, to use the higher band and leave the 2.4 GHz for roaming devices.

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