Why Wi‑Fi drops in one room, and how to fix it
"The internet is fine in the living room but useless in the bedroom." We hear this in half the homes we visit in London, Ontario, and the fix is rarely a faster internet plan. Wi‑Fi is a radio, and radios lose strength through walls, floors and distance. The older brick and plaster houses in Old South, Old North and Wortley Village are especially good at soaking up a signal.
The usual causes, in order
- The router is in the wrong place. Most routers sit wherever the cable or phone line came into the house: a basement corner, a closet, behind the TV. Every wall between the router and you costs signal.
- You are on the wrong band. Modern routers broadcast two networks: 5 GHz is fast but short-range, 2.4 GHz is slower but goes through walls better. Some routers combine them under one name and your device picks badly.
- The router is old. A router from before 2016 was never designed for a house with 15 devices, video calls and a smart TV.
- Interference. Microwave ovens, baby monitors, cordless phones and the neighbour's router all share the 2.4 GHz band.
- The wall is the problem. Plaster over metal lath, a brick chimney or an in-floor heating layer can block Wi‑Fi almost completely.
Things you can try today
- Move the router somewhere central and high, out in the open, not behind the TV. Even a metre can matter.
- Restart it. Unplug it for 30 seconds. Yes, really; it clears memory that fills up over months.
- On your phone, "forget" the network and reconnect. If your router shows two names, use the 2.4 GHz one in far rooms and the 5 GHz one near the router.
- If your internet provider's router is older than your youngest grandchild, ask them for a new one. Rogers, Bell and Start.ca all replace old equipment, sometimes free.
When the answer is mesh
For a two-storey house or a long bungalow, a mesh system (two or three small units that talk to each other) fixes the dead-room problem properly. Decent kits cost about $150 to $250 at Best Buy or Staples in London, and they replace the need to remember which network name to use. Powerline adapters, which send the signal through your electrical wiring, are a cheaper fix for one stubborn room.
How we help
Our Home Wi‑Fi and printer tune-up is $79 as a visit on its own, or $39 added to any other home visit (opening prices until December 31, 2026, plus HST). We measure the signal in every room, move or reconfigure what you already own before suggesting anything new, set up mesh if it is genuinely needed, get the printer and smart TV back on the network, and write the network name and password on a card for the fridge.