If you live in a shared apartment, you probably already know how unfair the Wi-Fi coverage distribution can be. Typically, all flatmates pay for a shared connection, and the wireless signal is distributed from a central point (usually the living room) to all rooms. To solve this, there might be a Wi-Fi repeater, which often just doesn't cut it.
Usually, any network expert would tell you to consider how each person will use the connection. But nowadays, especially with young people, we can assume that the needs and consumption in these cases are the most extreme and demanding: streaming, gaming, podcasting, virtual meetings, live broadcasts… and all of this synchronized. This is typical in places where younger people live together. For all these reasons, it would be ideal to have a backbone network in these apartments, but in reality, we assume that this is not and will not be the case you'll encounter.
In a student apartment, you can't do construction work to install cables and optimize connectivity, so your only option is repeaters (and if there's high demand, it's difficult for them to cover what you need). The ideal way to keep everything stable would be like in offices, with a wired backbone network. But, of course, an apartment isn't set up for that kind of cabling. Therefore, the remaining option to achieve optimal, cleaner, more stable, and integrated connectivity with the property would be with plastic optical fiber. In fact, a single 100 Mbps POF kit can be a very good investment for your student room and guarantee perfect stability while integrating into the house's wiring without needing construction work. Furthermore, once you leave the apartment, it's quite easy to disassemble the kit and set it up in another house. In this tutorial, Toro Tocho explained it.
But here we're going to give tips for the majority of you who can't invest anything to improve connectivity in your room.
Tips to improve shared internet connection
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- Adjust schedules: try to prioritize connection for those who telework during certain office hours or those with virtual classrooms at fixed times, if there's also an agreement to share a computer.
- Contract the appropriate speed: the more people who need to use the internet at home simultaneously, the more capacity is needed. As a large number of devices connect to the same Wi-Fi network, it's also necessary to upgrade from 300 Mbps to 600 Mbps or 1 Gbps.
- Signal amplifier: if the router is far from the study or work area of any of the cohabitants, it would be necessary to use this device to enjoy better quality, although here we recommend wiring as much as possible first. For this, POF is the most practical solution.
- Restrict the use of devices and programs: it's necessary to disconnect all devices that automatically use the Wi-Fi network and are not being consciously used. Likewise, certain programs that occupy a lot of bandwidth must be closed (you can find out which ones here) and refrain from overusing online games while other flatmates need to use the internet for work or study.
As I said, if you want to invest in a "kick-ass," stable internet without added lag, do some research on POF; you might be surprised.
