TechLife Australia – September 2019

Improve network

reliability

FOLLOWTHESEESSENTIALSTEPSTOENSUREYOURNETWORK

ISSTABLEANDINGOODWORKINGORDER.

THEREARESOmanypotentialnetwork

performanceissues.Doyouhaveproblems

withso-called‘deadzones’whereyourWi-Fi

connectionis weakornon-existent?Doyou

findyourinternetconnectionslowsdownat

certaintimesofdayorevendropsout

periodically?Arethereintermittent

connectionissues– eitherforyourentire

networkorjusta fewdevices?

Lesscriticalissuesrequirea systematic

lookat yournetwork.Let’sstartbyquickly

mappingitstopography.Somerouters(like

theTP-LinkArcherVR900)mayprovide

thisinformationaboutwhat’sconnected

withintheiradministrationpages,butif not,

trysketchingthisoutonpaperorusea

toollikeSimpleMindLitetocreatea simple

mindmap.

Placeyourrouterat thecentreandthen

createnodesforeachdeviceconnectedtothe

Ethernetport,plustwoadditionalnodesto

representyour2.4GHzand5GHzWi-Fi

networksrespectively(ifyouhavepowerline

adapters,addindividualnodesforthesetoo).

UseanapplikeNetworkRadar(witt-

software.com) toscanforallactivedevices,

wirelessorwired,onyournetwork,then

usethislisttocompleteyournetworkmap

byconnectingeachdevicetothe

appropriatenode.

WEAKSPOTS

Thismapcanhelpyoutraceproblems

toseeif theycanbelinkedtoa

specificpartofthenetwork

(suchasthe2.4GHz

wirelessband)orappear

tobedirectlyrelatedto

thedeviceinquestion.

Manyissueswillbe

wireless-related,linkedto

thestrengthoftheWi-Fi

signalreachingtheaffected

devices.Thingstoconsider

hereare‘deadzones’inyour

home;areaswherea combinationof

distance,multiplesolidobjects(walls,

furnitureandsoon)andinterferencefrom

otherdevicescombinetopreventa stable

signalfromreachingtheparticulararea

inquestion.

Onewaytodiagnosethisis tomovethe

afflicteddeviceclosertotherouter.If its

signalstabilises,you’veconfirmedthe

problem.If theproblemappearstobe

network-wide,there’sthepossibilitythat

interferencefromneighbouring2.4GHz

Wi-Finetworksis swampingyour

ownsignal.2.4GHznetworksoperate

across 11 channels,which

overlap.Tominimisetherisk

ofinterference,yourbest

choiceofchannelis

usually1, 6 or 11

dependingonwhat

othernearbynetworks

areusingtobroadcast

(seethestep-by-step

guideoverthepage).

Otherequipmentinthe

homealsooperatesat 2.4GHz,

whichcancausesomelocal

interference– looktokeepyourrouteraway

frommicrowaves,cordlessphones,andeven

onrareoccasionswirelessmice.If necessary,

experimentwithdifferentchannelsettingsto

seeif it canfixtheproblem.

Jargonbuster

TESTYOURNET

CONNECTION

Fora betterpictureof

performance,testuploadand

downloadspeedsatdifferenttimes

ofthedayatspeedtest.netto

verif ythatyou’regettingwhat

you’repayingfor.

DHCP

ThisstandsforDynamicHost

ConfigurationProtocolandis a

networkmanagementtoolusedby

routerstosimplifynetworksetup.

It automaticallyassignsa uniqueIP

addressandotherkeysettingsto

eachdeviceonyournetwork.

WI-FICHANNEL

Thesearefrequencybandswithin

the2.4GHzand5GHzspectrums.

Thereare 11 inthe2.4GHzband,

whichis just100MHzwideintotal.

Each2.4GHzchannelis 20MHz

wide,andallbutthree(1,6 and11)

overlap,increasingtheriskof

interference.

DNS

ThisstandsforDomainName

Systemandis theinternet’s

addressbook.It’susedtotranslate

domainnameslikeapple.comto

machine-readableIPaddresslike

17.172.224.47).Third-partyDNS

providersincludeGoogle

andCloudflare.

POWERLINE

SometimesalsocalledHomePlug,

thistechnologyallowsnetwork

datatobetransferredthrougha

home’selectricalwiringcircuits.

It’stypicallyusedtoextenda wired

networkfromoneroomtoanother,

butmanymodelscanbeusedasa

Wi-Fiextender.

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SUPERGUIDE

IMPROVE YOUR HOME NETWORK