Looking to enhance your wireless network for improved security or performance? To set up your wireless network and router correctly, just follow these easy instructions.
While installation utilities have been easier to use over time thanks to networking equipment manufacturers, getting the most out of your new wireless router purchase typically requires going a bit farther than what the normal installation procedure would allow. The performance and security of your network may not be as excellent as they may be just because everything is plugged in and all the flickering lights have turned green. To correctly setup your router and improve your wireless network, follow these simple steps.
How Should My Wi-Fi Router Be Connected?
You must determine if you want a Wi-Fi 6 router, a Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) router, or a Wi-Fi mesh network when selecting a router. However, if you want the newest technology and the performance it delivers, you should choose a Wi-Fi 6 router. There is still plenty of excellent Wi-Fi 5 routers available that can handle modest to moderate networking demands.
For those prepared to spend a little extra money, Wi-Fi mesh systems provide two main advantages: quick and simple setup and comprehensive Wi-Fi coverage. While a standard router and a wireless range extender can increase coverage in your home, that solution typically necessitates users to jump through extra hoops in order to get things working properly, most notably requiring users to log into different wireless networks depending on where they are in the house. With a very quick and simple initial setup process and a number of suitable "nodes" that easily combine into a single wireless network to cover your entire home, Wi-Fi mesh eliminates all of that.
The Amazon Eero 6 and Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8) are two more recent Wi-Fi mesh systems that incorporate Wi-Fi 6 and mesh technology into a single unit. The latest Eeros also include Zigbee smart home technology.
Even while Wi-Fi mesh is undoubtedly the simplest way to get the standard set of green blinking lights, mesh router configuration is still only the beginning. But let's assume you want to increase security by implementing parental controls and a guest network, or you want to add quality of service (QoS) settings to secure the traffic originating from a certain application or going to a particular device. The basic installation utility for your router or mesh system will then need to be dug up. The actions listed below will be helpful at that point.
Placement and Setup
You must first decide where to put your router before proceeding. The easiest technique to guarantee ideal coverage is to choose an open area close to your home's center. Be aware that walls and floors will block Wi-Fi signals; thus, the stronger (and sometimes slower) the signal will be, the more barriers there are between your devices and your router. Avoid being too close to huge glass, metal, brick, or concrete objects. By allowing you to position an aesthetically pleasing node wherever coverage is most patchy, Wi-Fi mesh solutions circumvent this issue. However, this will need some perseverance and experimentation to determine your ideal placement locations whether you're using conventional routers or even wireless range extenders.
Connect your modem and router to begin this process. You'll need an Ethernet cable for this, which you should insert into the WAN (wide-area network) port on the back of your router. The appearance of this port may vary slightly from router to router, but it will typically stand out from the others in color and carry the name "WAN," "Internet," or a similar designation. The other end of the Ethernet cable should be connected to the Ethernet connector on the back of your modem from the WAN port. You'll be able to connect to the internet after your modem is turned on. Naturally, you must next switch on your router by plugging it into a wall socket.
As previously indicated, you can now thoroughly setup the majority of mesh Wi-Fi systems and some of the newest conventional wireless routers from your smartphone. To make sure you download the correct setup program, refer to your router's quick-start instructions. Each manufacturer will have their own distinctive setup app. However, not all routers offer a mobile app, and there are alternative methods if you'd prefer not to use one. Usually, this is a specific website URL that opens the internal settings page of the router. You may access this website by using an Ethernet connection to connect your computer to any of the router's LAN ports and typing 192.168.1.1 or a similar address (as provided by the router's manual) into the address bar of your browser.
Establishing a username and password is the first step in setting up your network. If you happen to have a used router, you may press a recessed button on the router to restore the login and password to their factory settings (usually the back). Make careful to alter these defaults immediately away since frequently they are "admin" and "admin," which every would-be hacker is familiar with. Use a strong password that consists of a combination of capital, lowercase, digits, and symbols.
How Can I Set Up My Router?
You can continue configuring your router's settings after setting the login and password. There is no "correct" way to install a router; instead, each model will likely have its own specific procedures based on its capabilities. This is similar to making a meal. As a result, it would be laborious and unnecessary to attempt to cover every configuration route here. For further information, we advise reading the router's handbook.
Having said that, we do have some suggestions. Use the simple setup wizard first. The majority of routers offer some kind of quick setup process that only requires an SSID and password. Start with this if you're unsure. (The SSID is the WiFi name of your router. Out of the box, it may be "Asus" or "Netgear," but feel free to substitute anything imaginative, like "FBI-surveillance-van." Yes, using this application just takes you to the set of blinking green lights stated above, but even for those seeking to advance past that point, you must first get there. The quickest way there is always by following the router's instructions and using its own setup tool.
Second, connect Wi-Fi devices by pressing the WPS button. You already have a rudimentary knowledge of how this operates if you've ever linked two Bluetooth devices, such a smartphone and headphones. Consider the scenario when you wish to link a Windows laptop to your router. Your router's SSID will appear on your laptop's list of visible wireless networks in Windows. Windows will ask you to input the network security key when you choose the SSID and try to join (which is a needlessly technical way of saying "password").
If you've taken necessary security precautions and created a password using randomly selected capital, lowercase, digits, and symbols, you will have completely forgotten it and will never want to fiddle with entering it in again. Instead, push your router's WPS button. For the router and laptop to effectively pair, you need to let them at least a minute. Remember that only Windows and Android-based devices may use WPS.
Last but not least, trust the router to handle it. Your friends are the auto-configuration tools. While it is possible to manually create your own internal IP address range and assign static addresses to each of your devices, simply checking the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) box in your router's settings will take care of that issue right away. This is because DHCP is a protocol that assigns IP addresses to devices automatically. The lesson here is that you shouldn't always alter something simply because you can. Use the auto settings as much as possible, at least during the first setup and use.
5GHz? 2.4GHz? Which frequency ought I to employ?
You may connect your client devices to either a 2.4GHz band or a 5GHz band if your router is a dual-band Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6 router. A tri-band router gives you access to a second 5GHz frequency that you may use for streaming video and playing games. A 5GHz connection will operate better than a 2.4GHz connection at close ranges. This is owing to the fact that, although being a little quicker, 5GHz cannot transmit through all objects or travel as far. In contrast, the 2.4GHz band has a longer range but is frequently congested and offers fewer channel possibilities.
However, if you want to continue utilizing 2.4GHz, think about adjusting the channel choice. If you're having trouble with client connections, consider manually changing the channel to 1 or 11. "Auto" often performs a good job of hopping around the available channel selections and selecting the optimal one. There are a total of 11 channels in the 2.4GHz range that you may switch between to prevent interference, with channel 6 often being the default. There is often some signal spillage when you choose a certain channel. Thus, choosing channel 2 for instance will frequently cause traffic to spill over onto channels 1 and 3. As a result, moving to the furthest points from the default of 6-1 or 11-can occasionally guarantee the best connectivity.
The majority of Wi-Fi 6 routers support the 5GHz band's 160MHz channel capacity, which provides faster transmission speeds than 2.4GHz channels (and thus increased performance). Additionally, the most recent upgrade to the Wi-Fi 6 standard, known as Wi-Fi 6E, enables users to connect to the comparatively uncrowded 6GHz radio band, which provides lower latency and quicker performance than what is possible on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Older devices can connect to routers that support Wi-Fi 6E, but only Wi-Fi 6E-compatible devices can connect to the 6GHz band. Although these routers are already available, client devices are still taking their time to reach the market.
Some routers will guide you through a few more steps after the "simple" setup, such as setting up parental controls (features that let you restrict particular kinds of material) and automatically upgrading the router software. After completing these steps, click "wireless setup" or a page with a similar name to activate your Wi-Fi network. You may connect any device to your network after it has been set up and begin browsing the internet.
The majority of routers allow you to do much more than just activate your network and connect to the internet. Even though a tab with a name like "advanced settings" can sound a little frightening, you can frequently handle some of your router's most useful capabilities from the menus found here. Below, we'll go through some of the more interesting points.
Setting up Quality of Service (QoS)
One of the most helpful characteristics of online entertainment is QoS, as was already discussed. Your preferred streaming service or online game may function better as a result of the ability to choose and prioritize the upstream and downstream traffic on your network. The majority of routers offer a tab on their setup page or app specifically for traffic monitoring. Find the QoS tab by navigating to this. Prioritize certain services, such as online gaming or video streaming, by turning on QoS.
The network's devices can also be prioritized. In the past, this was often accomplished by providing the device's specific MAC address and assigning it a priority level. As seen in the Manual Prioritization picture below, companies like Netgear are progressively offering more user-friendly, graphical methods to the same concept.
You may also use QoS settings to examine how your overall bandwidth is being allocated across your devices, enabling you to identify anyone using more than is reasonable or desirable.
Nowadays, downloads make up the majority of traffic, especially with multimedia streaming. Try utilizing QoS to give their traffic priority if you notice that your streaming services occasionally pause to buffer. Upstream priority, however, is often just a concern for games.
Network Guests
If you'd want to keep all the information and files on your personal network away from unauthorized users, a guest network might be useful. Navigate to the wifi settings on your router's app or setup page to configure one. There will often be a page to set one up here because guest networks are typically deactivated by default on routers. The network will be configured after the name and password have been verified.
Although you may wish to leave your guest network "open" for quicker access, we strongly advise using at least WPA2 encryption on your main Wi-Fi network. While practical, this may also stimulate interactions between neighbors and wandering individuals that park on your curb. Extra care should be taken to restrict guest network's access rights, such as the band that users may connect to or the network's operating hours. Additionally, you might wish to prevent the guest network from using both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands.
Tracking traffic
Knowing how to monitor and manage the traffic that passes through your network might be valuable. Go to the advanced settings option on your router if any of these two capabilities appeal to you. Typically, a choice with a name like "traffic monitor" or "traffic meter" will be available. You may watch the traffic on your network if you enable this function. In certain routers, you may also decide whether to restrict downloads, uploads, or both types of traffic. Although not all routers include a traffic monitoring capability, there are several internet services, such as Solarwinds RTBM or PRTG, that can perform this task for you.
Even a small firm may gain a lot from routinely monitoring traffic when putting up a wireless network for a business. Traffic monitoring may be useful for identifying security breaches and making sure that important apps (like your phone or video conferencing system) always receive the bandwidth they require. The majority of organizations choose a specialized network monitoring tool, but if your company's primary local area network (LAN) is a wireless network, a specialized Wi-Fi management tool, like Ekahau Pro, is your best choice.
FTP Servers
Internet veterans may recall the time before Dropbox when moving huge files between systems required navigating a number of hoops using specialized file-transfer protocol software. FTP programs may no longer be widely used, but the technology can still be useful for large-scale file transfers without using cloud services.
Only routers with at least one USB port may access FTP servers. An external hard drive or other USB storage device hooked into your router is the first item you'll need. Next, navigate to the advanced options section of the program or setup page and select the USB Storage, USB Settings, or a similar-sounding item. Once there, select "FTP through the internet" or a comparable option and then click the checkbox. Users on your network can now access your USB device. You can change the read and write access to admin-only if you want to be the only person with access to the USB device.
For some directories, you may need to configure read and write access on some routers. Simply pick the relevant folder on your USB drive by clicking "new folder," "select folder," or a similar button. Apply your modifications after selecting the folder.
Filtering MAC Addresses
Imagine a network device's MAC (media access control) address as its one-of-a-kind moniker. The address is linked to the hardware of the device. Some routers let you choose a list of particular MAC addresses that are allowed (or not allowed) access to your network. What devices can access your LAN is similar to blacklisting or whitelisting.
To achieve this, select the advanced options tab and look for the MAC filter. You normally choose which band the filter will apply to with dual- or tri-band routers, and some routers let you choose whether the MAC address you provide will be the only one allowed onto the network or the only one excluded from it. The next step is to locate the MAC addresses of the devices you want to filter and enter them after setting your preferences for those settings.
When using a mobile device like a phone or tablet, you can find the MAC address by going into the settings of the device and selecting the About Phone page. The MAC address may be found on certain smartphones from this point in the Status page, however, on others, it is easily accessible in the About Phone section. Open the network and sharing center on a Mac or PC by going to the network settings page for your device. Look for Details or Properties when you click on your Wi-Fi connection. The "physical address" of your device, also known as its MAC address, will be shown in this section along with a wealth of additional data. (Wi-Fi Address is the name it goes by on a Mac.)
Parental Controls
Setting time limitations for each permitted device (identified by MAC address) on the network is the bare minimum of parental control. Therefore, it's no problem if your child has a poor habit of using electronics after sleep, even though you don't want to play the bad policeman all the time and have to continually monitor where and when devices are handed in.
Make sure that only authorized devices may connect to your network by first using MAC address filtering. Use parental restrictions to ensure that those permitted devices may connect only during the predetermined hours. It simply takes a few minutes to set up, and like having a router that is properly setup in general, it will solve many problems and ensure that your home operates much more smoothly.
Last Steps
By following their router's fast start instructions, anyone can set up an internet connection in a matter of minutes, however, the majority of models conceal lesser-known features in their configuration menus. Take the extra time to investigate these advanced choices if you want to get the most return on your router investment. And if you're still looking for a new router, think about looking past the list of features on the box and the product's spec sheet. Discover which features will be most useful in your context by downloading the guidebook, and exploring these advanced choices. Check your internet speed after you're up and running.
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