If you have suddenly started experiencing a slower WiFi connection without any apparent reason, the chances that your WiFi channel is overcrowded are high.
This situation has been more common in the past years as more people have WiFi in their homes, resulting in overcrowding of the WiFi channels. From there, the more WiFi channels, the slower the Internet connection for everyone on those channels.
You will need to switch to another WiFi channel to fix this situation and re-establish your fast Internet connection. That’s why, in this article, we will share how to change channel on router to return the utmost WiFi speed and connection and make your internet fast and steady again.
How to Change Channel on Router
As we suppose you already know, there are two WiFi frequencies, 2.4 GHz, which travels further at a lower speed, and 5 GHz, which provides faster speed but at a shorter range.
Few people know that these two frequencies are further divided into channels, which are crucial and responsible for your internet speed and coverage.
When too many channels mix up simultaneously, for instance, in larger apartment buildings where every household has a separate WiFi network, it results in a significantly slower Internet connection. When this happens, we believe you already know the best thing to do; change the channel on your router.
Therefore, to help you successfully do this, we have included step-by-step instructions on how to change the channel on the router so that the next time you feel your WiFi slowing down, you will know what to do.
Step-By-Step Guide
Although it might sound like a complicated thing to do, we assure you with our straightforward instructions, you will change the channel on your router in no time.
To do this, you can utilize any smart device, such as a personal computer, tablet, or even a mobile device. After you decide on the device, you may continue with the actual steps.
Login
The first task you must do is to log in to your router’s website, and we will show you exactly how to do that.
- First, you need to open the web browser on your device and enter your router’s IP address in the search bar.
- Check the label on your router or the router’s manual to find the IP address. The IP address almost always starts with ‘http://‘ and then a particular set of numbers separated by dots. Each router has an individual and unique IP address, so it is important to find and enter your router’s IP address.
- After successfully accessing your router’s admin webpage, you will be requested to enter the router’s username and password.
- These credentials can usually be found on your router’s label or in your router’s documents. If you still can not find them, you can feel free and contact your internet service provider, who will gladly help you and give you the information you need.
- Finally, when you enter your router’s username and password, click ‘Enter’, and you will get redirected to your router’s admin webpage, where you can change and adjust your router’s settings.
Turn off the Auto-Connect option
In this part, we will show how to change the channel on your router once you have successfully logged in to your router’s website.
- Although this varies, you can usually find the ‘Menu’ with the available options and settings on the left side of your screen.
- There, you will need to search for ‘Wireless Settings’.
- This option can sometimes be under ‘Advanced Settings’, so make sure to poke around those settings and options because each router’s website is designed differently.
- The next and most important thing you need to pay attention to is the ‘Auto-Connect’ setting. Once you locate it, under the ‘Wireless’ or ‘Advanced Settings’, you will need to turn it off. This is crucial because the whole point is to manually change the channel on your router.
- Moreover, if your router supports two bands, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, or has the dual-band feature, remember that you can change the channels for each band separately.
Change the channel on your router
- Once you turn off the ‘Auto-Connect’ setting, locate and click on the ‘Channels’ option. Under this option, you can finally change your WiFi channel to one of the less-crowded channels: channel 1, channel 6, or channel 11.
- If your router is already broadcasting to some of these channels, for instance, on channel 6, try changing it to channel 1 or 11.
- Finally, after you are satisfied with the choice of the WiFi channel, ensure to click ‘Apply’ or ‘Save’, depending on the router’s website.
- Once you do this, you will most probably need to reboot or restart your router; the router might even do this automatically. Make sure that your router restarts and then reconnects so that it can start broadcasting the particular WiFi channel you have previously chosen.
How to Find Which WiFi Channel Is the Right for Your Router
Although nowadays, most routers come with an in-built option to automatically find the best WiFi channel, this option might often malfunction because of the overcrowding of the Internet network.
When that happens, the most important thing to do is to find a less crowded and busy WiFi channel, which for non-experienced users, it can be a more difficult task to do.
That’s why, to save time and spare you from unnecessary complications, you just need to download a WiFi analyzer that usually comes with many beneficiary options and settings.
Once your WiFi analyzer finds the best and less crowded WiFi channel, you can use the instructions above and switch to that channel in no time.
Related: How to Fix a Weak WiFi Signal
Conclusion
If you were wondering how to change channel on router, we hope that with the help of this article, you finally got the answer you needed.
We made sure to make our instructions clear, straightforward and detailed so that even if you do not know a single thing about channels and routers, you are still able to change the channel on your router in no time successfully.