Here’s how to choose the best wifi channel

There are two wifi networks visible here on channels 2 and 6

If you have many close neighbours, such as in an apartment or terraced street, you are likely to find many SSIDs when you search for your wifi network on your laptop, tablet or mobile. If you do see a list of wifi networks that means you are ‘in range’ of that person’s wifi router. You’ll be able to see the signal strength that your device is receiving from each of those routers. Obviously, the closer you are to your neighbour’s router the stronger will be the signal you receive from it. Hopefully, your neighbour will have secured their wifi signal so you shouldn’t be able to log onto their network but their signal will disrupt yours if both routers are using the same frequency (see here to read more).

Therefore, you need to ensure that your router sends its wifi signal on a different channel to those of your neighbours’. It would be very time consuming if you were to test out every channel to see if it gave you a more reliable connection. Fortunately, there is a very easy, and free, way to check out what wifi networks are around you – use an app on your mobile phone. There are quite a few apps that do this and I use the excellent ‘wifi analyser‘ by farproc available on the Google Play store for Android.

This signal strength meter shows a very strong wifi signal.

This app will show you, in graphical format, all of the wifi networks it can pick up around you. More importantly, it will show you what channel they are using and, therefore, what are the best channel options for you to use. It can also be used to position your router in the best place in order for you to receive the strongest signal in a given place. This is done using the signal strength meter as shown here. You can also set it to emit a bleep to tell you the signal strength as you walk around.

Some routers will automatically choose the best channel if its set to auto mode but apps like this one will help you do it manually if you prefer more control.

Unfortunately, these apps will only tell you about wifi routers that are transmitting on the wifi frequency bands. They will not tell you about microwave ovens, DECT home phones or baby monitors that might be interfering with your wifi. To detect that type of interference and really choose the best wifi channel you’ll need some expensive, dedicated equipment.

Have you tried any other wifi apps? Tell us about them.