As the UK continues to bake in the heatwave, a homeworker may have stumbled upon one of the most effective hacks to speed up their Wi-Fi while keeping their house cool. The extreme heat can negatively affect internet speeds, with routers struggling as temperatures cross 36C.
Tin Foil Hack Doubles Broadband Speed
Heather from Leamington Spa, a worker at Broadband Genie, lined her semi-detached home's windows with kitchen tin foil to block out the sun and suddenly discovered she had inadvertently more than doubled her broadband download speed. Average download speed before tin foil was 219Mb, and after tin foil it jumped to 546Mb.
Heather said: “The heat was just getting a bit much for us, and it was only going to continue to build up. It’s nice we have plenty of windows, but our home has felt like a greenhouse in the last couple of days. This was a fairly quick and cheap solution. I had a 30-meter roll of tin foil and some Sellotape in my drawers, and there's still some left after covering windows on three sides of the house. The night before, I felt the internet was running slow, but I didn’t think much of it. Once I put the foil up, I sent a picture to my friend. They jokingly asked if it had increased my broadband speed. I ran a speed test, and it had! I was really surprised by how much of an impact it made.”
How to Keep Your Wi-Fi Going in the Heat
Keep it in the shade: Avoid placing your router next to windows or on windowsills where it will be in direct sunlight. Choose an open space, away from large pieces of furniture and thick walls, raise it about a foot from the floor, and if possible place it in a central spot. You’ll get a much wider and stronger radius around the home.
Restart your router: It’s a cliché for a reason. Restarting your router can fix various issues. Do it the right way by unplugging it for at least 30 seconds.
Cut out bandwidth hogs: If you need to focus on a task, close other apps or switch off devices that are using the network. Log in to your router; the details will be printed on the casing. From here, you can see what devices are connected to your router. If there is anything you don’t recognise, you can remove it. After this, it’s best practice to change your password in case it was an unwanted visitor.
Switch to 5GHz frequency: Many routers are dual-band and have a 2.4GHz and a 5GHz frequency. 2.4GHz has a longer range but is slower. 5GHz supports faster speeds, but at a shorter distance. You can choose between the two when connecting to the Wi-Fi from any device. Or you can disable a frequency from your router’s settings when logged in.
Update devices and software: Some devices may, and many routers will, do this automatically. But prompt a check to make sure you’re on the latest operating systems. This will help devices run faster and is best practice for security.
