If you have several devices hooked up together at home to make your network, you might have what seems like 500 ft ethernet cable swarming your house and you still end up with a slow connection. Here are a few simple ways to optimize your home network.

Make sure your router is in the right place.
If you have a wireless network, then the first thing to do in make sure that the router is in the correct position. Wireless connections get weaker when distance comes between the router and the device. If it has to travel through floors and walls, it can cut out. The best way to position a router is so that there is a direct line of sight to each device that is connected to it. Unfortunately, at home, this doesn’t work unless you have a router in each room which would defeat the purpose. What you can do instead is try to minimize as many of the obstructions as possible by placing the router in the center of your home as high up as you can. Try a few different places and see which one works best for you.

Make sure you are using the right length of cable.
If you have a wired connection then as mentioned before, your 500 ft ethernet cable might be over kill. Cat5 cables typically only run up to less than 330 feet before the signal starts to weaken. Do some research to find out which highspeed hdmi cables would benefit your connection. You might be able to trade in your 500 ft ethernet cable for a 75 ft ethernet cable in order to cut down on the unnecessary cabling.

Minimize interference to the router’s signal.
If your connection is wired then you won’t have to worry as much about interference but a wireless network could be run down by a microwave or a cordless landline phone. Older routers probably run on 2.4GHz frequency and the problem is, so do these other house hold items. Try to put your router as far away from them as possible in order to eliminate interference. You can also mess with the channels to make sure that you are using a channel that no one else is, especially if you live in an apartment or close to other people.

Keep your speed updated as new things come out.
You can upgrade to higher speeds when new routers come out or faster ethernet cables. Who knows, maybe your 500 ft ethernet cable will work effectively at some point. Newer cables and routers are able to support higher speeds so the newer you can afford, the faster your network will be. Your hardware should be able to support standards at both end in order to be able to get speed boosts. This will speed up local file transfers before than Internet connection.

Keep everything up to date as much as possible.
Stay informed as to when things are expiring, changing or advancing. Check for firmware updates and new network cards that become available for your network components. Updating to a new operating system on your computer can also be very helpful in increasing performance.

Don’t allow network throttling.
This is when multimedia applications or given priority. However, this can negatively impact things like transfers of large files. In order to disable network throttling you can go into the registry and find the entry named Network Throttling Index. By changing the value to FFFFFFFF, you will turn off the feature. If you don’t know what you’re doing, have a professional look at it because it can be a risky thing to do.

Try out powerline networking.
It’s pretty common for wireless systems to have dead spots in the house. Powerline networking is when the electrical wiring in the house is used a data network. The ethernet ports are attached to the power sockets in your home. The products used to make this happen are fairly inexpensive and easy to use.

A slow network can be frustrating for everyone. As the parent or owner, it is important that you do what you can to make sure that the network is functioning as it’s maximum speed and ability.