There is a little war that nobody talks about. A silent battle that we all fight at some point in our lives. A fight that is longer than life lasts for centuries and centuries between the four walls of each house, each home, without attracting too much attention. “An injustice with legs,” some will say. We are talking about the eternal battle with the router’s Wi-Fi signal.
Sometimes it works well, other times the speed is very poor, and sometimes the signal stutters as if you were receiving a message in Morse code. Sometimes everything seems to be on your side: you have a good router, you have contracted a connection of several hundred megabytes, and even then, you cannot watch a YouTube video on your smart TV in the living room.
5 everyday objects that create interference and impair the spread of the Wi-Fi signal at home
Wi-Fi is a type of electromagnetic signal that routers use to send and receive data. It serves both to be connected to a local network and to access the Internet. For this reason, like the rest of known electromagnetic signals, Wi-Fi is vulnerable to various types of barriers or obstacles, which can hinder the correct diffusion of the signal.
Unfortunately, many of these objects are present in most conventional homes. This can be a problem if you have devices with a high online dependency that need to be always connected.
Mirrors
It may seem like a joke, but the truth is that mirrors are one of the main sources of electromagnetic interference. The metal backing that the mirrors have on the back reflects the light very well, but it also reflects the Wi-Fi signal.
The good news is that reflection does not impoverish the quality of the signal. The bad news is that the reflected signal creates interference with the signal emitted by the router. This reduces the overall strength of the Wi-Fi.
This negative effect increases depending on the size of the mirror and decreases the more distance there is between the router and the mirror. If the Wi-Fi signal has to pass through several mirrors, this can cause dead spots where the connection is practically null.
Reinforced concrete walls
Cement is a very dense material. It only offers some permeability to electromagnetic signals. Wi-Fi connections made on the 2.4GHz signal can overcome this type of wall with greater or lesser difficulty, although, with 5GHz signals, this is much more complicated.
If the cement wall also has a steel reinforcement, you must bear in mind that the signal will be even more affected. It is usually recommended in homes with reinforced concrete walls to use Wi-Fi extenders to get the signal to all corners of the house.
Home appliances and other electronic devices
Although they are increasingly trying to be more elegant and modern, the truth is that routers are not very pretty devices, nor do they look especially good. That is why many people are tempted to hide it behind the TV, between the speakers, or behind the PC in the corner of the desk next to the monitor. Bad idea.
Placing the router next to one or more electronic devices creates interference and adversely affects the wireless signal. And the worst of all is that if you generate a negative impact on the source that emits the signal (in this case, the router), the general quality of the Wi-Fi will be much more diminished.
Energy-efficient windows
Currently, some windows include a thin transparent metallic layer aimed at reducing energy consumption in the home. This type of low-emission or “low-emissivity” windows prevent heat from escaping onto the street. They also generate an effect very similar to that of a mirror.
That is, in practice and in relation to the worsening of the Wi-Fi signal, it is as if you had the windows lined with mirrors. And that’s not a good thing if you want to be connected in any room with all the “connection lines” to the maximum.
Metal shutters
Have you ever wondered why the signal is so poor when you step out onto the balcony, but then you take two steps back, and the signal is excellent again? The reason is not just that you are more or less far from the router. If you have metal blinds, they can affect the Wi-Fi signal negatively, preventing its passage to other areas of the house, such as the balcony or terrace.
Solutions
At this point, you can start to tear off all the mirrors, windows, and blinds in your house. Create a small altar for the router in the center of the room several meters away from any other device. Sometimes, it is not necessary to be so radical. With a good Wi-Fi extender placed in a strategic place, it can be more than enough.
