How To Increase Wi-Fi Speed On A Laptop? – Quick Tips!

If you are experiencing slow Wi-Fi speed, it can be because of a number of reasons. Your router might not have been placed in the ideal spot or you might not be using the best settings.

Regardless of the reason, a slow Wi-Fi cannot be left unresolved. Whether you are facing interruptions while streaming a movie or have to wait a lot before a webpage loads, the slow internet speed will be frustrating and annoying.

In this article, we will be sharing how to boost the Wi-Fi speed on a laptop. There are several ways you can improve your internet speed. It might involve moving your router, adjusting its antennas, or taking other measures.

Once you go through all the steps, you will be able to experience a significant increase in your internet speed. Let’s get right to it:

Also Read: How To Connect A Laptop To A Wi-Fi?

Most Efficient Methods To Increase Wi-Fi Speed – Here’s What To Do:

If you are experiencing slow internet suddenly but it was working fine before, then you can try some of the fixes below to get your internet speed back.

Method 1: Restart Your Router

First of all, the ideal solution for any problem a tech-savvy face is to restart. Whenever you are facing a problem with your laptop, you are told to restart it because laptops come with magical self-healing abilities that only work when you restart it.

Your Wi-Fi router also comes with some similar abilities. So, if you are experiencing that the internet has slowed down, you can restart the router.

To do this, turn off the router using the button on its back, wait 30 seconds, and then turn it on again. It will automatically resolve issues most of the time.

Do not pull the plug directly. You must turn the router off using its dedicated button. After your router restarts, turn off the Wi-Fi on your laptop and then turn it on again to connect.

This will complete a power cycle that will allow the system to clear out any glitches that were present in the network.

Method 2: Move Your Router

If you often face the issue of slow internet in your home, then the problem might not be with the router itself but with its location.

Ideally, the Wi-Fi router must be placed in an open spot, like your living room, where it is away from walls and obstacles.

If the router is placed too close to the floor or too close to a wall on the sides, then it might interfere with its ability to provide clean Wi-Fi signals which affects the internet speed.

Hence, you must place the router in a high spot in the main space of your house, which is not only away from physical obstructions but also away from electronic ones.

If you haven’t done it already, then now might be the time to do so. Other than physical obstructions, make sure that the router is not near any other electronic devices as they can interfere with the signals.

Adding to this, you will also have to adjust the antennas a bit. According to Intel, the ideal placement for your router’s antennas is perpendicular to each other.

Adjusting one antenna vertically and the other horizontally will allow the router to cover maximum space and provide uninterrupted connectivity.

Also Read: Best Laptops for Excel & Word

Method 3: Switch to 5 GHz Wi-Fi Frequency Band

If you are not using an old laptop, then it must support dual-band connectivity. One is the 2.4 GHz band that is present in most of the older devices and the other is 5.0 GHz frequency which is more advanced and faster.

Hence, if you want to improve the internet speed, you should switch your connection to a higher frequency. However, that’s only possible if you are using a dual-band Wi-Fi router.

So, both your router and your laptop need to support dual-band connectivity to enable faster internet.

Most devices in your home including smartphones, TVs, security cameras, and smart home devices come with only single-band connectivity, which creates a lot of traffic on the lower band.

So, if you are experiencing slow internet while being connected to that, it is understandable. However, if you switch to the higher frequency band, there will be fewer devices and ideally your internet speed should increase significantly.

Method 4: Optimize Settings For Your Router

If you are using one of the advanced routers, then there are several things you can do to optimize its settings and improve internet speed.

First of all, if your router comes with Quality of Service (QoS) settings, it will allow you to alter the priority access for specific applications. Hence, you can decide which applications will have higher priority when accessing the internet.

Adding to this, you also need to optimize the channel selection and continuously update your router firmware. You can log in to the cloud portal of your router to check the settings and adjust them.

Also Read: Why Does My Laptop Keep Disconnecting From Wi-Fi?

Method 5: Remove Unnecessary Connections

One of the reasons your laptop might be running slow internet is because there are too many devices connected to the Wi-Fi router.

Your neighbours might have gotten a hang of your Wi-Fi password and might be using it for free.

If you need faster speeds, you can prune all the unnecessary connections. Doing so will help you get significantly faster internet speed, but it might upset your neighbours a lot. Well, they are not paying for your internet either.

A good practice is to change your Wi-Fi password regularly. You can also hide your Wi-Fi so that only people with Network SSID and Password will be able to discover it and connect to it.

Method 6: Upgrading Your Internet Plan or Router

If you think the problem is not with the Wi-Fi but the internet itself, it might be because your router is outdated or you have a low-bandwidth internet plan.

You can upgrade your plan by calling your network provider and asking to be upgraded to a plan with better speed and volume.

As for the router, if you are using an old or outdated router, it might be too rusty to deliver good internet speed and that is why you must be facing a drop in connectivity. You can upgrade to a better router for faster speeds.

Method 7: Using Wi-Fi Extenders & Boosters

If there are dead zones in your house where you don’t get good Wi-Fi signals, or if you sit in a spot where the Wi-Fi signal can’t reach you, you can use several devices to boost the Wi-Fi signal.

Wi-Fi boosters are devices that are placed between your Wi-Fi router and the dead zone. They will amplify the Wi-Fi signal so that you can have better speed.

Wi-Fi extenders are similar devices but they are not completely wireless. They are like a secondary router. You will connect the device through the wire with your main router and maybe place it in your room.

Method 8: Connect Using An Ethernet Cable

Last but not least, you can connect to the internet using an ethernet cable. Your Wi-Fi router comes with multiple LAN connectivity ports.

You can buy a high-speed internet cable and use it to access the fastest internet. It will be significantly faster than Wi-Fi and there will be no room for connectivity errors.

As long as your internet is working, you will get the fastest internet with high-priority access.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I boost my laptop’s Wi-Fi?

There are multiple methods to increase Wi-Fi speed. We have discussed most of these methods in detail in the above article. Give it a thorough read to understand how you can boost the internet speed on your laptop.

Why is my Wi-Fi speed so slow on my laptop?

There can be a number of reasons. Your router might be having some problems, or you might not be ideally placed in the right spot. Read the above guide to find out more details about issues with the internet.

How can I get the fastest internet speed on my laptop?

To get the fastest internet speed and high-priority access, I would recommend connecting to a higher frequency band or using an ethernet cable. Ethernet cables are a great solution to get the fastest access.

Wrapping Up!

Summing it all up, there are a number of ways to improve the speed of your Wi-Fi on your laptop. The problem might be with the router itself, router placement, or settings.

We have discussed some of the most efficient methods in the above guide. If you follow these methods, you will significantly increase the speed of Wi-Fi on your laptop.

Sometimes, you will have to use more than one method mentioned above to get the desired results.

Good Luck!