By changing the channel on your Wi-Fi extender, you can try your best to reduce interference and improve your Wi-Fi extender’s signal. The steps and controls of changing the channel on a Wi-Fi extender device may change according to different manufacturers. But still, you might be able to follow these steps mentioned below to go through the process of changing the channel.
Before learning how to change the channel on a Wi-Fi extender, you should know why you should be thinking about changing the channel, and why it can’t be on the same channel. One easy example through which you can understand the reason is; that if you and your neighbor, both have a Wi-Fi network that is running on the same channel, then that might bring a little hindrance to the performance and range while you are using the Wi-Fi network extender. As the two signals coming from your side and your neighbor’s side collide, it takes multiple tries to create traffic, getting it hard to reach from the extender to your using device, which may be a phone or a PC.
To avoid it, you may switch your extender to an Access Point mode, changing the channel of your Wi-Fi extender which will avoid the collision of these signals, creating a better throughput. Sometimes you may have to go for a wired network to find a way to connect your extender up with the network. If ever you experience poor network connectivity, you may try changing the wireless channel on your Wi-Fi extenders to try to alleviate the problem.
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Generally, Wi-Fi extenders integrate with the host network, wirelessly. Whenever you point your device to the network, it gets auto-configured in order to use the host network’s channel. Here the extender works by picking up the signals which are out of range of the main primary router and passing them along for the devices to utilize.
In order to change the channel on your Wi-Fi extender, log in first to your device using a web interface or a dedicated app. The process is quite similar to how you login into a router being an admin. If you have an actual dedicated Wi-Fi extender, it would have an operating mode setting, which you might have set to the extender. Change it and set it to access point. After giving it a restart, your device will start operating as a standalone access point instead of an extender. Now, find a way to connect to that LAN, as now your device is a mini-network for time being. If your device happens to have an ethernet port, then find your way around it to get the cable to put it in the right spot. Afterward, log into your device and look for the admin settings which are related to Local Area Network >Wireless or Wireless. If your extender is a dual-band device, then there might be two of them available; 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Each one of these would be a channel setting. Even though it is normally put on Auto, you can still choose the specific settings that you want on the device. Trying it each at a time, you can identify the one which improves the overall wireless performance. Following these steps, you can easily change the channel of your Wi-Fi extender, for better performance.