
The D-Link router was used purely as an interfering network and not connected to the Internet.Ī Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 was used for all the testing, positioned far enough away to prefer the 2.4GHz network from the Orbi, and to the point where performance dropped to around half the available speed. The Orbi was connected to an Openserve 200/100 Mbps link, and we verified that we could reach our fibre’s maximum advertised speeds with a PC connected via Ethernet. The two routers were placed next to one another for a worst-case scenario.

Wifi signal test pro#
Routers usually try to select an optimal channel during the initial setup automatically, but if there are multiple networks nearby, channels can overlap, which can degrade performance.įor testing purposes, we used two routers: a Netgear Orbi Pro Mini without the usual mesh satellite (pictured above), and a D-Link DIR-825. Switching the channel on which a router communicates with Wi-Fi devices is one of the more commonly available settings. For connections from further away, the 2.4GHz band is used, which offers better object penetration and range.Įach of these bands is subdivided into channels. The 5 GHz band provides better bandwidth but usually has a shorter range. Modern routers generally support at least Wi-Fi 5, which uses two frequency bands - 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. While some of these settings are only manually adjustable on high-end routers, a few are available on even the most basic Wi-Fi routers. Wi-Fi routers offer several settings to change how networks are broadcast and how different devices can connect. We also tested the impact of changing a Wi-Fi network’s channel without having a second router present to interfere with it. Using two home Wi-Fi routers placed right next to one another, we tested the impact on network performance with different channel configurations. It doesn’t take much interference to degrade the performance of a Wi-Fi network severely, a MyBroadband test has shown.
