If you’re hosting the holidays at your home, chances are you’re going to have a lot more people using your Wi-Fi network than usual. There will be extra strain, but there are several things you can do to prepare your network for that, as well as keep it and everyone using it safe from risks.
Unless you’ve already handled this problem, there are likely areas of your house where the network connection isn’t very good, or perhaps it is even nonexistent. A guest bedroom or bathroom in a far off corner, the basement where your theater room is, maybe even a weird spot in your living room. Regardless, when you have people trying to use your Wi-Fi network, having lots of dead zones is frustrating for them.
Thankfully, improving your Wi-Fi coverage in your house isn’t hard to do. There are two options you can consider.
Move the Router to a Better Position
Oftentimes, simplymoving the router to a better spotwill improve its Wi-Fi coverage. The fewer obstacles there are between the router and the rest of your house, the better. Ideally, you should place it in an elevated position in a central room, without things like books or shelves blocking it. I know it’s tempting to hide the router in a cabinet or something similar, but this can impact its coverage significantly.
Invest in a Wi-Fi Mesh System
AWi-Fi mesh systemtakes your Wi-Fi signal and broadcasts it directly into other rooms using multiple access points to improve the coverage. Some mesh systems use a wireless backhaul to connect your router to the secondary access points, a bit like bouncing a radio signal off of a tower to reach further than the signal could by itself, whereas others use a physical connection. If you have a big home or one that just has some very stubborn dead zones, a Wi-Fi mesh or extender system could be just what you need.
Enable Your Guest Network
A lot of people don’t even realize that their modern router has access to a feature called guest networking. This feature allows you to create a separate network from your usual for guests to use. As forwhy you should bother doing this, a guest network will allow your guests to use the internet, but it won’t allow them to access network resources, including shared folders and connected devices like printers.
Basically, it’s just a way to increase your security and privacy while having guests over. To activate your guest network, you’ll have to connect to the management interface for your router. In some cases, a router will have its own app to do this from, but you may also have to do this with a web browser. To start, you’ll need to type yourrouter’s IP addressinto a browser search bar.
You’ll be asked for a username and password to gain access to the router’s administrative tools. You can find that info in your user guide or the manufacturer’s support website and sometimes written on a sticker on the router itself. Once you’re in, you might want to consider changing the username and password to something unique for the added security.
Next, find the options for controlling your guest network. These are often under a section named “Wireless Settings” or “Guest Network.” section. From here, you’ll be able to do all of the important stuff that you need, such as setting up a network name, activating security keys, and much more.
Use QiFi to Share Wireless Credentials
I’m sure many of you can remember a time when you had to go rummaging for a sticky note containing a password and username. It’s a tradition, sure, but also a relic of the past. You’ll probably need to share your Wi-Fi credentials with a lot of people this holiday season, so you might as well make it as easy as possible by usingQiFi.
There are other ways to generate QR codes as well. With an Android 10 or later device, you can just “share” your network from your settings to generate a QR code. Apple devices can share their credentials automatically with other Apple devices as well. At any rate, it’s all a lot easier than having to find a sticky note and write the whole password out.
Double-Check Your Security Before Hosting Everyone
As a host and provider of a Wi-Fi network, it partially falls to you to make sure everyone using your network is safe. For that reason, there are a few things you should do to beef up or double-check your network security before you let a bunch of guests make use of it.
Check for Malware
We all like to think that malware would be easy to notice, but the truth is, a lot of it sits quietly under the radar,wreaking havoc in silence. If you haven’t run a scan with your computer’s anti-malware program in a while, it would probably be a good idea to do it before you have a bunch of guests hopping on your network. Such programs usually operate automatically, but it never hurts to run a manual scan sometimes.
Put Passwords on Your Network Resources
You won’t have to do this if you were able to set up a guest network for your router, as mentioned before, but if you are unable to do that, it would be wise to protect your network resources. Not to speak ill of your guests, but you never know what they might get up to when accessing your home network.
Adding passwords to your printers, shared folders, servers and other resources will keep things you want inaccessible safe from your guests. To add a password in Windows, search forsharing, and click on Manage Advanced Sharing Settings in the results. Once you’re there, select All Network > Turn On Password-protected Sharing.
For Mac, you’ll want to go to System Settings > General > Sharing and disable the sharing options you don’t want to give everyone access to. To do this, click the “i” icon next to File Sharing, and set Everyone to No Access.
Update Your Router Firmware
As a matter of due course, you should probablyupdate your router firmwarejust to be safe. New updates address issues with the router as it is, including faults it may have in security. Some routers update their firmware automatically as new versions become available. If that option isn’t available to you, you can usually update the router directly from the management interface we talked about earlier. Just type your IP address into a browser search bar and use your credentials to log in.
Ultimately, these are all of the most important things to do to prepare your Wi-Fi network for coming guests this holiday season. There are manysettings you can play around with, but as long as you keep this core advice in mind, you’ll be well-prepared to host all of your friends and family, as well as their networking needs.
