With the onset of a second wave of the COVID 19 pandemic, many people are confined to lockdowns across various regions in India. And work from home will remain the norm, so users will need to be prepared. One good way to make sure you don’t run into connectivity hiccups during work hours from home is to make sure your connection is working at peak speeds. Here are 4 ways to speed up your Wi-Fi connection speeds on Windows 10.
Disable background apps
A good way to make sure your bandwidth is not being wasted in tools you’re not going to be using is to disable the Windows 10 apps that you will not be using regularly. To do this, head over to Settings> Privacy and in the section on the left, scroll all the way down to Background Apps and turn the service off for the apps you don’t plan on using often.
Deactivate Windows update
Windows 10 has the ability to automatically download and install updates in the background. While the feature may be useful for some, it also means Windows is constantly monitoring its servers looking for new updates. These updates will even start downloading when you may be working, thereby affecting your download speed.
To disable Windows Automatic Update, users can go to Settings/ Update and Security and choose Advanced Options. Here you can ‘pause’ updates until a particular date. Also, go back to the Windows Update page and on the panel on the left, choose Delivery Optimisation.
Turn off the main toggle and you’ll also prevent local downloading of updates within your LAN network, saving more precious bandwidth.
Flushing your DNS
Flushing your DNS is a lot like clearing cache memory, except it is for your DNS server. To flush your DNS, simply open the command prompt first by right-clicking on the Start button and choosing Command Prompt. In the Command Prompt screen, type “ipconfig/flushDNS” and press Enter. This should flush your DNS.
Change Wi-Fi channel
Your Wi-Fi router may be fast as is your broadband connection. However, if you’re living in crowded spaces like flats, chances are you and someone else’s Wi-Fi router are sending and receiving data over the same frequency, eventually affecting peak speeds. In such a scenario, it is a good idea to change your Wi-Fi channel.
To do this, you will first need to use a tool like Wifi Analyzer to determine what connections are using what Wi-Fi channels near you. You can even use Wifi Analyzer apps on your phone in the same area and while on the same connection.
Once you have figured out what would be the most-apt channel for you to switch to, open up your Wi-Fi router’s configuration settings and navigate to where you can change your channel. Change it to the desired Wi-Fi frequency. Note that the Wi-Fi settings will be different for routers of every brand and you will first have to figure out how to open up and navigate through your Wi-Fi’s configuration and settings pages.
