One of the main perks of living in the digital age is smart systems. We have everything we need at the click of a button. We don’t even have to do most of the thinking.

We are definitely at the epitome of convenience.

Especially, when it comes to smart homes, if you set up the system right, you can literally forget about the connectivity and issues related to networking because your system’s got you covered.

However, on the flip side, if you make one mistake in setting up your home networking system, then all you’ll have time for is fixing issues with your network. So yeah, there’s a significant amount of pressure on that home WiFi router of yours, but as long as you take care of it, it will all be worth it.

In fact, Wilbur William of Datahighwaygateways(http://DataHighwayGateways.com)stresses on the importance of setting up home networking too.

So to help you manage your home networking effectively, here are 5 major and common home networking mistakes and how to fix them.

  1. Placing the router wrong –Most people place their routers in a room that is either in the corner of the house, or in the living room, cluttered in the middle of a lot of furniture.  Your router needs its space and your router needs to sit in the middle of the area where you want service.
    Fix: Place it in the middle of your home or outside in the open or wherever it is that you need reception.

placing the router

  1. Wrongly setting device sharing options – Whenever you add a new device to your network most people make the mistake of setting the sharing option to “public”. This can disallow sharing features on that particular device.
    Fix: On adding a new device, set the Windows connection setting to “Home” instead of public and make sure that all your devices like printers and scanners can communicate with each other.
  2. Continuing in default mode – Your WiFi has a lot of security options that you need to configure yourself. Most people don’t do this and continue in the default mode that it is set in. A lot of people don’t even change the default password key to the WiFi router.
    Fix: Change your password, your SSID name and password, and manually pick a channel for coverage. Turn off remote management.
  3. Wrongly plugging in the Ethernet cable – This is a common rookie mistake. Your Ethernet cable from the modem to the router is supposed to be plugged in to the WAN/Internet port on the router and not the LAN port. Most people tend to plug it in to LAN which actually hinders the connection.
    Fix: Plug it in to WAN/Internet

wrongly plugging the ethernet cable

  1. Not checking for firmware updates – Not everyone pays attention to software updates on modems and routers. Even though modems update automatically, the process is still manual for routers. You shouldn’t ignore them though.
    Fix: Go to the manufacturer’s website, download the latest firmware and then update. This can improve performance by a large margin.

checking for firmware update