If you use the Wifi connection at home to connect multiple devices, including computers, mobile phones and smart TVs, it may happen that the internet connection slows down or that the viewing of a streaming video from sites like Netflix has low quality or takes a long time to to load. Any LAN and Wifi connection can suffer from slowdowns if there are computers, consoles, smartphones, TVs and other connected devices which, switched on simultaneously, download data and occupy the bandwidth of the network.
To solve this problem and therefore optimize the wifi connection in a general way, not only for a single device, but for everyone, we must necessarily go through the router settings and use some integrated tools. Being standard tools for all routers, this guide is good for those who have modem-routers of all brands: TPLink, D-Link or Lynsys and also, partially, for the proprietary modems of Fastweb, TIM or Vodafone Station, which unfortunately are times blocked by the telephone company. Where possible, it will therefore be possible to manage and control the use of the Internet in the home and, above all, limit the wifi band on the router depending on the computer, device or application .
NOTE: In another article I had explained how to limit the internet traffic of the processes and the network bandwidth for the programs on a single Windows PC ; here instead we talk about doing the same thing on the router, therefore for the whole home WiFi LAN . In fact, you can choose to block traffic at certain times and days, give higher priority to specific more important devices (for example, TV for movies or PC when working) and find out which devices occupy the most bandwidth and they consume most of the data. Network monitoring done at the router level is not as invasive as that of a control program on the PC, but it is still very effective for keeping the line free and the network fast when needed and for the main purposes.
READ ALSO: How to access the Router
The location of the QoS menu varies by router, as do the menu options. The option that must be activated in the QoS menu, speaks of Priority or Priority which is used to assign connection priorities to a specific device and therefore limit the network bandwidth for the others. Typically, you assign " medium priority " to devices so that even when it requires a lot of bandwidth, the bandwidth is not taken away from other connected network devices. However, if it often happens that Netflix freezes on the TV because other people use the internet from a PC or smartphone, then it may be appropriate to set a High priority setting on the Smart TV.
In some routers, the devices are identified by their name, while in others the IP address will have to be written, to be detected in the network settings of each device or using the panel of the devices connected in the router itself.
Finally, keep in mind that not all routers and modems can activate QoS, especially if they are modems borrowed for use or managed by the network provider. Without QoS there is no way to limit the wifi bandwidth from the router and you can only try to control it on a PC using programs like NetLimiter as explained in the Note above.
Checking the log of the connections of the router you can see a history of the websites visited by each smartphone, PC or other device, even if not complete and often not really easy to read (connections can only show IP addresses)
In some routers this level of planning is not available, there may be a Parental Control tool that usually only serves to block browsing on specific websites, or the possibility of activating the Firewall, which, however, it would be better not to touch.
READ ALSO: How to improve the quality of the internet connection
To solve this problem and therefore optimize the wifi connection in a general way, not only for a single device, but for everyone, we must necessarily go through the router settings and use some integrated tools. Being standard tools for all routers, this guide is good for those who have modem-routers of all brands: TPLink, D-Link or Lynsys and also, partially, for the proprietary modems of Fastweb, TIM or Vodafone Station, which unfortunately are times blocked by the telephone company. Where possible, it will therefore be possible to manage and control the use of the Internet in the home and, above all, limit the wifi band on the router depending on the computer, device or application .
NOTE: In another article I had explained how to limit the internet traffic of the processes and the network bandwidth for the programs on a single Windows PC ; here instead we talk about doing the same thing on the router, therefore for the whole home WiFi LAN . In fact, you can choose to block traffic at certain times and days, give higher priority to specific more important devices (for example, TV for movies or PC when working) and find out which devices occupy the most bandwidth and they consume most of the data. Network monitoring done at the router level is not as invasive as that of a control program on the PC, but it is still very effective for keeping the line free and the network fast when needed and for the main purposes.
READ ALSO: How to access the Router
1) Router traffic: QoS "quality of service" settings
One of the first things to do is to prioritize watching movies from Netflix or other online video services for the bandwidth available from and to the Internet. To do this you must, as already explained in another post, activate QoS (Quality of Service) on the router which is used to adjust the bandwidth for individual applications and specific devices on the LAN.The location of the QoS menu varies by router, as do the menu options. The option that must be activated in the QoS menu, speaks of Priority or Priority which is used to assign connection priorities to a specific device and therefore limit the network bandwidth for the others. Typically, you assign " medium priority " to devices so that even when it requires a lot of bandwidth, the bandwidth is not taken away from other connected network devices. However, if it often happens that Netflix freezes on the TV because other people use the internet from a PC or smartphone, then it may be appropriate to set a High priority setting on the Smart TV.
In some routers, the devices are identified by their name, while in others the IP address will have to be written, to be detected in the network settings of each device or using the panel of the devices connected in the router itself.
Finally, keep in mind that not all routers and modems can activate QoS, especially if they are modems borrowed for use or managed by the network provider. Without QoS there is no way to limit the wifi bandwidth from the router and you can only try to control it on a PC using programs like NetLimiter as explained in the Note above.
2) Traffic control on the router
If QoS is not available or before activating this option, you can find out which online activities are consuming the bandwidth in the wifi network. Most routers offer the ability to record Internet usage in incoming and outgoing traffic. The option to log router traffic is often found in the general administration section or in the toolbox.Checking the log of the connections of the router you can see a history of the websites visited by each smartphone, PC or other device, even if not complete and often not really easy to read (connections can only show IP addresses)
3) Block the use of the Internet in certain hours or days
If you want to limit the use of wifi in certain hours, maybe at night, you can do it in the router settings (this option is present in many routers, but not in all). To configure the internet block on a device in the router settings it is necessary to identify its Mac Address, the unique identifier of a wifi network card. On most routers, you can find the MAC addresses of the connected devices in the general overview of the LAN. Once you find the MAC address for the devices to be limited, you need to find the menu to limit internet access, which can have a different name depending on the router used. You will therefore have to configure a time after which the internet is not available and a time to reactivate the connection on that device.In some routers this level of planning is not available, there may be a Parental Control tool that usually only serves to block browsing on specific websites, or the possibility of activating the Firewall, which, however, it would be better not to touch.
READ ALSO: How to improve the quality of the internet connection
