10 Tips for Improving Home Wi-Fi Coverage

It’s frustrating streaming videos and having dead zones in your home. Slow Wi-Fi can turn an evening watching Netflix into an evening of rage. You don’t have to be tech-savvy to solve this problem. Here are 10 ways to improve home Wi-Fi.

1. Place Router in Home Center

Stop hiding the router in a closet. Wi-Fi signals spread in every direction. Placing the router in the center of the home gives the best spread.

2. Elevate Router

Signals will spread further if the router is elevated. Place the router on a shelf or mount the router to the wall.

3. Distancing Electronics

Microwaves and even baby monitors can disrupt Wi-Fi signals. Give your router more space and keep it distanced from other electronics.

4. Updating Router Firmware

Don’t forget to log in to the router every few months to check for an update. An update can improve performance and security.

5. Change Channel

If your neighbor’s Wi-Fi is disrupted, changing your channel will help. Most routers will allow you to change this in the admin settings. Use channels 1, 6, and 11 for a 2.4GHz.

6. Use The 5 GHz Band.

If you use a dual-band router, you can connect to the 5 GHz band for faster speeds. Just remember that with this band, the signal won't reach as far.

7. Add A Wi-Fi Extender or Mesh System.

If your house is big or you have a complicated layout, you might want to use a mesh Wi-Fi system (so something like Eero Wi-Fi or Google Nest Wi-Fi). They are great for eliminating dead zones in your house.

8. Reboot Regularly.

Sometimes, as weird as it is, your router needs some sleep. You should unplug it for 30 seconds and then plug it back in. You'd be shocked at how many weird problems this fixes.

9. Secure Your Network.

If your Wi-Fi has no password then your neighbors probably have no issues using your Wi-Fi. Make a strong password with either WPA3 or WPA2 encryption.

10. Upgrade Your Router.

If your current router is 5 or more years old, you seriously might have to consider getting a new one. The newer routers with Wi-Fi 6 ( or 6E) are way faster and better able to handle more connections.

Using a couple of these tips will get rid of those buffering circles and you can use your Wi-Fi to its full potential.

Another Way to Publish a Self-Illustrated Picture Book: A Step-by-Step Method

Self-illustrating a picture book is a great opportunity to combine your love of art and writing and publish a book that you can be proud of. This guide goes through some of the steps that you can take to make your book a reality.

1. Finalize your story

It is always best to have a final draft of your story before starting to draw. Picture books generally have an average of 200-800 words and consist of 32 pages. When drafting your story, make sure to read it out loud and gather feedback from children to get a better idea of your audience. Make sure to leave gaps for illustrations to help with your story.

2. Create a Dummy Book

To help organize your story with text and illustrations, create a dummy book. This book can have your story drawn in thumbnails to show how you want text to be placed in your picture book. This helps to figure out how text placement helps with the flow, rhythm, and suspense of your picture book.

3. Develop your Illustrations

Use the same medium that you used for your dummy book to draft your illustrations for the book. Make sure that all of the illustrations and spreads that you draft stay consistent. Illustrations that are draft should stay at 300 DPI with an almost ½ inch bleed around the edges.

4. Choose your Publishing Path

Traditional Publishing: If you decide you want to go the traditional publishing route for your book, you will have to do some research on the publishers and agents that accept picture book submissions. As the author and illustrator, you have an advantage since publishing houses do not have to create a complete package.

Self-Publishing: Self-publishing through means like IngramSpark, Amazon KDP, or Blurb allows you to have more ownership and more control of your money, but forces you to complete all production and marketing duties yourself.

Step 5. Make Production Files

Publishing through a traditional publisher requires understanding more of the industry and the technical side, while self-publishing helps you self-manage and learn, but still requires some technical knowledge. You will need help setting up your production files. Make sure you include bleed (0.125) and are using CMYK. Editing and proofreading can’t be skipped as it can be costly to have printing errors.

Step 6. Prepare for Production

You will want to have an active author website and social media by the time your book is up for sale. Plan in person readings and send out copies to the right reviewers. You also need to consider how the season can affect people's choice.

Step 7. Develop and Maintain a Marketing Plan

Publishing a picture book requires a lot of work and the product sometimes does not live up to the artist's expectations, but it helps develop vital skills, and seeing it in your target market's hands makes it worth it.