Improving your wireless network

Over time, the number of devices connected has grown in our houses and all of them are consuming our network bandwidth – most of the time challenging our router's capabilities and pushing it out of its limits.

If you do not want to wire all your connected devices (including Devialet products) with an Ethernet cable, you may need to improve your home wireless network (Wi-Fi network).

The more Wi-Fi devices that you use in your home, the stronger your Wi-Fi installation must be.

This article will give you some tips and tricks on how to solidify your Wi-Fi strength to support this new home standard and limit the number of issues connected devices may face (drops, discovery, micro-cuts, chopped sound, etc...)

BASIC WIRELESS INSTALLATION

A basic Wi-Fi installation is created by a router. Internet providers deliver an internet box which is a bridge between the Wi-Fi signal (home connector) to the internet. All devices connected to the Wi-Fi will then be able to navigate on the internet.

The range, loading capacity and speed of this signal is standard and will at some point not be sufficient when multiple devices are connected. Our wifi usage changed over time and we largely increased the number of domestic connected devices (phone, laptop, tv, tv dongle…)

Example:

Screenshot_2022-01-10_at_11.32.47.png

An insufficient Wi-Fi network may create the following issues:

Chopped sound or micro cuts from connected speakers
Disappearing Devialet Product into the APP (discovery phase)
Short black screens while streaming video
Slow internet on phone and computers using Wi-Fi

You then need to upgrade and improve your home Wi-Fi installation.

TOP

IMPROVED WIRELESS INSTALLATION

The box your internet provider gives you is made of two components : a modem, allowing you to connect to the internet, and a router, which creates your local network.

You can not completely replace the box provided by your internet provider, because you still need to tap into the cloud via optical fiber, ADSL or 4G/5G. However, you can replace the router with a more robust one or at least optimize your current setup to avoid certain issues while using your Devialet products.

OPTIMIZE YOUR EXISTING WI-FI SIGNAL

Current Wi-Fi technologies are offering 2 specific bands:

2.4 GHz
5 GHz

Both of these bands have their own specificities and capability. 2.4 GHz is the generic/standard band offered by any internet box, and in most situations can be enough to do regular things (web browsing, checking emails etc...), but considering the number of connected devices, their internal consumption of bandwidth, and the band saturation, we highly recommend installing Devialet products into the 5GHz band.

Also, most of the time, both bands are using the same Wi-Fi name. Therefore, you might believe you are using the best band to stream but your devices (mobile or even your Devialet Phantom) is switching from one band to another (from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz most of the time and rarely the inverse).

Some quick advice that may help in this situation:

Change the name of the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz, this way your connected device won't move from a band to another.
Change the password of the 2.4 GHz and the 5 GHz networks to differentiate the two.

In case you don't know how to do this, we suggest you contact your internet service provider.

After that, please reset the installation and redo your product setup on the 5 GHz.

TOP

CREATE A BETTER WI-FI SIGNAL / NETWORK

You can purchase a device dedicated to creating your own Wi-Fi signal without depending on the internet provider's router (meaning you will be the only one able to control its settings).

Connect this new Wi-Fi router with an Ethernet cable to your internet provider's router so that you can tap in the internet cloud. You can then set it up to create a 5GHz network in your home. This signal will be faster and stronger than a normal one, so you will then be able to use more connected devices.

If your home is large and you need to stretch this Wi-Fi signal between several floors, you may also need to extend it throughout your home, especially in troublesome locations.

TOP

EXTEND YOUR WI-FI SIGNAL

When you purchase an external Wi-Fi router to create a private Wi-Fi network, the manufacturer will often also propose a small antenna /relay to extend the signal all around the house.

Once you have created the improved Wi-Fi signal, simply plug these antennas in some of your rooms to make sure you have the same quality of Wi-Fi reception everywhere.

These devices send the signal at the same speed that they receive it. That means that although the connection with the antenna will be of very good quality, the speed will be lower as you go further from the main router. Some models can bypass this issue by being wired via Ethernet directly.

Note that these extenders will also need to be configured thoroughly for your installation to work in the best possible way.

DEVIALET & MESH WiFi

Mesh WiFi is the latest technology to solve the issue of weak spots in your house. A mesh WiFi system is a group of routers that are placed strategically in your house to provide a better WiFi coverage.

Our recommendation regarding the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz remains with that technology : make sure all the access points are provided with different names and passwords for each frequency.

Top