As someone that works for an isp and works with wifi devices daily I can verify that the information provided here is accurate. However I would just like to mention that you should probably upgrade your router firmware since pre 2018-2019 firmware of routers have a wpa2-wps vulnerability that can be exploited. If your router isn't supported anymore and the manufacturer didn't release a firmware update you probably want to get a new router. Just make sure the router that you buy is still supported by the manufacturer and that the firmware of the router is up to date.
@@nerychristian 1.1.1.1 and as a secondary 1.0.0.1, linus did a video about it at some point. Or if you want to use Google's it's 8.8.8.8, can't remember what the secondary one is
On 2.4GHz, you can unlock channels 12, 13, and 14; you can only legally buy/sell routers in the USA that use channels 1-11. Download new firmware for your router, but set your region on the website to Asia/Japan prior to downloading. Once you flash the router with Asian firmware, channels 12-14 should be unlocked. Technically, it's only illegal if you interfere with emergency services as they alone use these channels. Worked on my router, clean channels while 1-11 were congested by 20+ neighbors within range.
Gabriel Ferreira Its 2.4GHz though, it's got a range of several hundred feet in free air and is very much blocked by the walls of your dwelling. I doubt a passing airplane or police car will notice any interference.
Not worth the risk unless you have no other choice. Could probably get you into big trouble if any incident happened and they found you were using those channels which interfered. Whether or not it was your direct fault or deliberate.
When I bought my house and renovated it I ran Cat6 cables throughout the house. I don't like relying on wireless, but it is set up for things like my phone.
@RectalDiscourse conversely, I just spent the correct amount of money on a router for my needs. Maybe an AX11000 is a little overkill for a thousand square feet (it's not, there's no such thing as Overkill when it comes to networking), but now I don't have to worry about wires 😗👌📶
I would suggest using Auto channel selection unless you're having specific congestion issues. Networks around you can change and you're not always going to monitor them around you to keep the desired channel up to date with those changes.
Wow you guys here sure are tech savvy. I'll soon be adding more string to my soup cans, I'm gonna get you to help me. I'm concerned that if I tie the wrong knot I'll get a bad connection to the outhouse can from the kitchen can.
1. Hide SSID for both (2.4 & 5) home networks. 2. Bandwidth limit on guest network. 3. Whitelist MAC addresses for home networks and block other. 4. Change routers webgui credentials. 5. Make a excel sheet and use static IP for home devices. 6. Make sure WPS is off.
1. Your router's SSID will still be leaked when you connect your device connects to it. 2. Yeah. 3. You know that you can change your MAC address and you can see devices that are connected (and whitelisted)? It just won't work if you know what are you doing. 4. Yeah. 5. May be useful, may be not. 6. Yeah.
@@rattslayer it's sad in my country. I pay 26.6 US$ for a 2mbps internet. While you play 90 US$ for 950mbps. We dont even have that service. I think the "best" service we have is a 300mbps peak (they say 50mbps min to youll get around that most of the time) for 160 US$ and a 1000gb cap.
They slowly are, but they're still common place, somehow. I just ran out of data on my phone today, I went from having 60% of my data used up to all of it in one day, because I was downloading some crap from Ninite.com through a personal hotspot
MrCatFace 8885 I'm not sure if you are in the US, or not, but on Cricket you can get unlimited data on your phone for $55 a month after auto pay, and for an extra $10 a month you can use your phone as a hotspot, but the only catches are they limit your speed to 8Mbits/8Mbits and if you are in a heavy traffic area for AT&T since they own Cricket after a 22GB softcap they can deprioritize you, but I've not experienced it other then a common signal dropout on a bad weather day, or an area of my town which is almost a dead zone for any and all cell carriers, AM/FM signal, or OTA Digital TV unless you have a crazy TV Antenna on your roof with an amp.
2:25 You forgot to mention that 5GHZ also has very poor wall penetration, if you put just one wall between you and the AP the signal strength can drop as low as half which of course reduces its speed even further.
This reminds me of when I was in high school, my family going through a really rough time economically and our internet would often get cut off from non payment. It was the time when everyone still mostly used WPE. I learned how to "hack" into the neighbor's wifi by booting some version of Linux whose name I can't remember from a CD in my laptop. I was my family's hero, although I'm guessing the neighbor wasn't very happy lol
For most people, internet connection is important. High speed connection is less essential. I used random people's internet back when open wifi was common, around 15-18 yrs ago. I suspect most cases of borrowed/stolen internet access is harmless and no one notices.
@@peppigue - when I was in high school in the mid-2000's, my neighbor got arrested for kiddie porn. It was determined during the case that it was someone in the neighborhood that hacked into their home wifi. Ever since then, I've taken my wireless security extremely seriously. First step is to hide the SSID, which eliminates the low hanging fruit for lazy bad guys.
Video suggestion: Linus, could you do a quick video on Port Forwarding, I've seen it multiple time in my router settings but never took the time to dig into it.
I always leave my wifi open for my neighbors to use. I am pushing for a completely free wifi neighborhood. Oh, and it is a lot of fun to plug the router into a hub; and a laptop on the other port. The things I see using the packet sniffer are quite interesting sometimes :)
Linus and team, you missed the MTU setting (Max Transmit Unit). You should first check with your ISP what the MTU size is for the medium you are using, for example, cable and DSL use 1492 bytes, which represents the size of packets. Your LAN by default will use 1500 bytes per packet, meaning that each packet sent from LAN to WAN has to be split in 2 packets. The second packet is then "padded" with useless bytes that increase the load for your router and slows down your overall speed. Having LAN MTUs of 1492 will reduce router heat and operations thus focusing on transfer of information rather than packet shaping. Keep up the good work, I love your tech videos!
My WiFi names are also tech tips. The Slow One (2.4 GHz), and The Fast One (5 GHz). If you can see The Fast One you obviously pick that one. If you can only see The Slow One, it's time to upgrade your shit!
What I've seen commonly is people leaving both networks with the same name. However, devices may not switch between the two for better performance - I had an older smartphone that did this. Separate names are helpful to force using a different band when necessary.
2.4GHz is faster for certain things while 5GHz is faster for others. However your going to run into obstacle issues at 5GHz. For example streaming video over 5GHz tends to support much higher throughput while downloading things on 2.4GHz tends to go faster due to less repeated packets (due to in-transit data corruption caused by the mentioned issue with it). In reality you will not notice any difference at all in your home unless your transferring files between two computers in-home and both have clear line of sight to your router. Sad to say but internet speeds rarely ever outpace home network speeds.
Lol that's how my house runs but I haven't named them that. I made the change when all my devices were 5GHz and I kicked everyone off 2.4GHz but I left a 802.11g 2.4GHz 54Mbps router for the printer that doesnt work with the other router for whatever reason. Family was NOT happy but when they started using 5GHz they understood the speed differences.
The other thing you need to make sure you do is update the router firmware. If the router manufacturer doesn't support it anymore, you'll need to get a new router or install 3rd party firmware on it. WPA2 was broken by krack. There are fixes available but updating your wireless device isn't enough. You also have to ensure the router/access point is updated as well since both router and client need to be able to use the 'fixed' standard. I say 'fixed' since you're talking about sending data over the air. It's only a matter of time before it gets broken again (if it's not broken already). Running Ethernet/Powerline/MoCA is preferred, BUT since wired isn't not an option for everyone you can also look into throttling clients down and QoS. You can do things like prioritizing your PCs and throttling down anything else for example, depending on your needs and leave what ever is left for any new devices so you can keep the more bandwidth heavy devices in check. QoS will also let you prioritize things like video streaming so you can make sure Netflix/Hulu/TH-cam get priority while things like e-mail that can wait a few more seconds will not interfere with them.
You also didn't mention that on the 2.4 GHZ band, you should only be using channels 1, 6, or 11 as they are the only 3 non-overlapping channels in the band. If you're in a congested area, use the lesser-used of channels 1 or 11 and set bandwidth to 20. Also a tip on bridges - limit re-broadcasting to ONLY a channel in a different spectrum than what it is receiving on - for example, if you are connecting it to your main router's 2.4 GHZ signal, re-broadcast only on the 5GHZ band, or visa-versa. Much of the 50 percent loss of speed is caused by receiving and rebroadcasting with the same radio.
I've been playing with these settings recently. I found that 5G, although giving far higher peak speeds would repeatedly drop to lower speeds even worse than 2G. This is the case even though the 5G band was totally uncongested and 2G was quite busy. Tested over LAN transfer, not internet speed. 2G just gave more reliable transfer rates.
Working at an ISP ive noticed that if you router has DFS enabled by default on the 5G band most of the time you can disable it and you will see alot less conjestion within the 5G band
Nice to hop in the time machine and observe try-hard Linus from time to time haha. For every random household tech issue, there is an LTT smackdown on the topic you skim for needed nuggets on the spot. All hail the quickie.
There aren't useful ones for Apple as their radios are protected from apps in ways necessary for getting information. At least this was the case in the past. My favorite Android app is Wi-Fi Overview 360.
Great little tutorial. As far as DNS goes - set your DNS to the address of your PiHole device, and then use unbound on your pfSense device for any addresses not yet cached in the PiHole. Works like a champ!
@Techquickie We have a lot of devices at my house. i alone have a total of 12 devices. My solution was to have a router for each party. I have a router and switch in my room for all of my wired and wireless stuff, then we have a 5ghz router for all the streaming and phone access that isnt my own. and we have a comcast router for all of my mom's work stuff. I read that having too many devices could overload a router and though it would be a good idea to spread the load over 3. So far it is working. but maintenance is kinda tricky being that only one can use the 192.168.x.x address. Is this something you could address in a future video for those who have many devices and should get another router to ease the load?
Def research different routing methods. I.e. static vs dynamic. If your routers support it, configure something like static routers or some dynamic routing protocol. This way, you can have 1 subnet per router, (192.168.0.x - 192.168.254.x /24), each with their own default gateway's for endpoint access to devices on other routed subnets.
This is a older post but it really depends on your router. Cheaper routers will cap out around 5 devies, anything after that and you could have issues like no data or devices disconnecting. This is because the hard ware can't handle it. A router is a computer. If you want to connect more device you would need to buy a more power full router. There are router that go for 60-500 dollars and commercial routers for 5k.
Nicholas Harris I did but what's better the lower the number or the higher also I can't get into my router settings from my PC it tells me to change password but.theres no.other instruction
@@j.m4a1 I can't really tell you if the lower the number or higher the number of the channel is better it just all depends on how many wifis are on that channel & do you still have the sticker on the side of the router or modem that has the password on it?
Take a CompTIA A+ or Network+ course. I didn't know anything about networking until I started learning, now all of this makes complete sense. I still have yet to take Network+. When you're just getting started, like me, networking seems so complicated
Linus, I CAN'T BELIEVE you forgot THE MOST IMPORTANT setting to configure... DISABLE WPS PIN... Ok guys, here it goes: WPS pin is an 8-digit number that is broadcasted when you press that "pin broadcast" button. Any devices that is listening and stores the pin can log-on to the network. Sounds like a good idea, but the problem is that most routers check the pin not as a set of 8 characters, but as 2 sets of 4, which means that after 20,000 attempts an intruder can guess it. And 20K attempts does not take as long as the originally intended 100,000,000 pin pool size.
I love living just outside the city on an acreage where I can still get the best speeds w/o any wifi overlap. Literally if I search the networks then nothing shows up except ours.
God info thanks! Do you have a video or guide on how to choose a wireless router and which ones are best? Also what about alternative router software and stuff like DDWRT?
Thanks! A lot of routers support being set up as an Access Point nowadays as well. Has been a good option for me in the past, and Powerline adapters are great too
Hello Linus!! Do you advise that people disable UPnP on home routers? It was once considered a major security flaw but I'm not sure if that's still considered to be the case. Does the benefit to leaving it enabled outweigh any potential risk? Keep up the great work!
So a little more security is to disable SSID broadcasting and connect through hidden Network in WiFi selection this helps keep your neighbor from piggybacking your WiFi. Also some routers allow you to disable eth ports on them this is useful for those friends that know directly connecting to the router will bypass any security measures other than Mac and IP filters.
Routers compatible with dd-wrt can easily be configured as an access point rather than a router. Stock firmware might work too on some models. On router A (connected to the modem), hand out a static IP to router B. Give router B that IP and disable DHCP on router B (so clients will get their IP from router A). Connect router A to router B's LAN port (NOT the one market "Internet") so devices on router B aren't firewalled from those on A. Optional: give router B the same network name and password as A, so most smartphones and laptops will connect to the one with the strongest signal if both are in range. If you mostly have devices that stay near one router, give B a different SSID than A and a different password, so you can explicitly tell your device which AP to use. In both cases you want A and B on different channels for obvious reasons. Unlike repeaters, this setup has no speed penalty because data sent to router B is sent to A via an Ethernet cable and does not use up Wi-Fi bandwidth. If you move around between rooms frequently, your devices might be "stuck" to the far router and not switch to the closer one until all open TCP connections terminate (it doesn't know A and B are on the same NAT until after it connects to B), in that case you want to buy an AP that is meant to be an AP and has smart "steering" capabilities to handle dumb devices. Those cost extra but are usually white, look nice and are powered from the Ethernet cable, so you mount it on the ceiling almost as a decoration.
not as safe as a faraday cage, which i have thanks to a stucco exterior. i can connect to the wifi, have 5 bars on my phone. walk out the exterior steel door, still 5 bars , close the door, 1 bar. walk 10 feet,it disconnects and goes to 4g. note my fence is at least that far around my house, and though not locked, the dogs will let me know if someone is out there. my phone reception also sucks in the house so theres that.
Meh, Ubiquiti Unifi patched the leak on their acces points the day the news was released and many others followed soon after. But everything is vulnerable, always.
The most important detail though is that WPA2 is still by FAR the most secure of the lot. WEP in fact is so bad, it should be removed as an option from all devices at this point. As mentioned though: Absolutely everything out there has security problems. You should never ever assume you are totally safe.
I live in a nice little flat, with 20 other flats with WiF networks within range of my network. And I have noticed that most of the networks use one of 4 channels, causing certain problems "in the waves". So now I ask why this is? And the answer is quite simple; something like 9 of 10 ISPs servicing homes supply their customers with a box that contain a modem, a (primitive) router and WiFi and the average home users changes only a few, if any, settings in the box; basically "connect the cables for LAN, power is usually the instructions they get from their ISP. So of course that's what they do.
Hi Linus. You mentioned 50% loss if using two routers. Would it work well if one used the 2.4 as a back-channel and the five as the regular networking?
UPnP is a technology that lets devices in your network ask for arbitrary ports to be opened. It's usually enabled by default. If you disable it, be prepared for games, P2P software, and various other things to break. IMO it doesn't enhance security to disable it.
I knew this would have little relevance to the average user. A good setting is to name 2 wifi SSIDs the same and get seamless handover. Another one is changing from a/b/g/n/ac or whatever to not include a/b/g. Turning off DHCP on a second router is a good one, so you can keep them both on the same subnet and make your LAN more routable. Setting your ISP gateway to bridge mode can be beneficial if you know about firewalls or simply have another router to take care of that. There are more but practically all of those are more useful than the ones in the video, which are either obvious or best left alone.
Thanks for the tips, we just bought a brand new Philips air purifier (AC3259/60) but didn't know it could only work with 2.4G wifi... and our Virgin Media home wifi despite being dual 2.4G/5G wouldn't link to the device ... I now know more about these router settings thanks to you! Cheers!
I use MAC addressing checking meaning I manually enter my devices MAC address and only my devices work on my router regardless who knows my password, and I also change my routers device password from default.
Keegan Andersen ..... had to do this and planning for more.... somebody got into my apartment and took a picture of my routers sticker info and got a bunch of devices into my router, making it slow. Currently learning more about routers.
I would say get a different Wireless router, and hide the Network name from being seen when you scan for wireless networks, plus putting your router in a more secure place if possible.
Ed ...... thanks for the info, I guess there isn't much that can be done. In a way I'm glad you can change your MAC address easily in case theres a problem. But if the police comes knocking at my door, I can at least show that I took precautions....
Commodorefan64 ...... sounds like a good idea, but even if I took the router sticker off, the new router they can take a picture of the router and compare it to the right model and slowly start piecing the info together..... I mean if they really want to get my internet connection... they probably could.
Fantastic video. Well done. Would have liked it more detail in some parts to enhance security. Will look through your channel to see if I can find more.
I turned off UPnP for security purposes. Enabled MU-MIMO, Enabled Fast Roaming, Enabled Implicit Beamforming, Enabled WMM, Enabled 20Mhz/40Mhz coexistence.
Has Techquickie or Linus Tech Tips ever done a video about how to use an equalizer? My specific use was learning how to balance out the audio in movie,tv shows and other videos that have uneven audio levels? Such as voices are extremely quiet, are easily drowned out and at times completely indistinguishably when explosions or other loud noises are going off? Additionally I would find a brief explainer/tutorial that explains the ideal uses for the more common nobs available on equalizers?
1:54 My neighbors are connect in my wifi and thats the exactly config what I put to they and they called and send messages to my mom saying the wifi was so slow * laughs in unlimited data *
nice video, and here is something you probably NEVER hear, i like the synergy ad at the end, if i had more computers,that would be a great option and the price doesnt seem bad.
We have Verizon Fios and use their Quantum gateway router. We have a two story house. We have the router upstairs. The downstairs wasn't getting a good wifi signal, so we bought the dedicated extender unit for downstairs, which did increase our signal. Is there a downside to using an extender unit? Using Verizon Fios, what do you think about replacing the Quantum gateway router with a MoCA adapter in conjunction with a high end router, like a Linksys AC4000? Thank you in advance for your advice.
You have forgotten ONE important feature most routers have today: "Hide SSID", or "Enable SSID broadcast"! Well, what is that!? Answer: You're scanning your environment with your mobile device and a list of available wireless network pops up. You then choose one, enter the password ( given ), and here we go. In fact, your device pings all channels and the routers receiving the signal respond with their Wi-Fi name ( SSID ). This makes your home WLAN less secure. Solution: Disable SSID visibility so that your router doesn't respond with its Wi-Fi name. This hides your network, but you have to enter the SSID manually alongside with the password and encryption mode ( Preferrably WPA2 Personal with AES ). If the name is written correctly, then you're signed in the hidden wireless network.
I also used MAC address filtering to only let our own devices and some trusted friends' devices connect to our home router and DHCP reservation for the home NAS and printer server PC. Those can turn out useful in some other homes with multiple machines too.
As someone that works for an isp and works with wifi devices daily I can verify that the information provided here is accurate. However I would just like to mention that you should probably upgrade your router firmware since pre 2018-2019 firmware of routers have a wpa2-wps vulnerability that can be exploited. If your router isn't supported anymore and the manufacturer didn't release a firmware update you probably want to get a new router. Just make sure the router that you buy is still supported by the manufacturer and that the firmware of the router is up to date.
What's the best DNS settings to use for a fast wifi?
@@nerychristian use cloudflare dns
@@nerychristian 1.1.1.1 and as a secondary 1.0.0.1, linus did a video about it at some point. Or if you want to use Google's it's 8.8.8.8, can't remember what the secondary one is
@@kane480 secondary dns for google is 8.8.4.4
@@sylvain_guitar9178 that's right, thank you. I was too lazy to look it up haha
I'm still laughing at "it hurts when IP"
Mine is: It Hertz WAN IP
I made it my ssid and nobody thought it was funny ;-;
It's "8Hz WAN IP" but yeah it's funny as hell 😂
LOL that's my phone's hotspot name
Its a famous username. Obviously copied
On 2.4GHz, you can unlock channels 12, 13, and 14; you can only legally buy/sell routers in the USA that use channels 1-11. Download new firmware for your router, but set your region on the website to Asia/Japan prior to downloading. Once you flash the router with Asian firmware, channels 12-14 should be unlocked. Technically, it's only illegal if you interfere with emergency services as they alone use these channels.
Worked on my router, clean channels while 1-11 were congested by 20+ neighbors within range.
Special EDy nice!
Sprint owns these frequencies. Their network is so f up that no one Will notice
Gabriel Ferreira Its 2.4GHz though, it's got a range of several hundred feet in free air and is very much blocked by the walls of your dwelling. I doubt a passing airplane or police car will notice any interference.
Κέννυ Αντονέσκου I don't think so he stated 2.4 Hertz and as for your Canadian question I have no idea.
Not worth the risk unless you have no other choice. Could probably get you into big trouble if any incident happened and they found you were using those channels which interfered. Whether or not it was your direct fault or deliberate.
My WiFi name is 'Obtaining IP address...' people just stare at it waiting to get connected and later realising the gimmick
that is a smart move bigups buddy
Set your password to "itdoesnthaveapassword" for more confusion if they ask you for the password.
or make it "from1to8"
Love it! Kinda like a screen shot of your desktop used as your screen saver, always good for a laugh.
@Lucas Zhu Mine is called 404 - Network not Found
The last router I had couldn't support so many characters, so it was only "404 Network Not Found"
When I bought my house and renovated it I ran Cat6 cables throughout the house. I don't like relying on wireless, but it is set up for things like my phone.
good idea
@RectalDiscourse conversely, I just spent the correct amount of money on a router for my needs. Maybe an AX11000 is a little overkill for a thousand square feet (it's not, there's no such thing as Overkill when it comes to networking), but now I don't have to worry about wires 😗👌📶
We get it. You have a house.
@RectalDiscourse oh my XD
@RectalDiscourse pah! I see your Cat8 with Cat8eee. Even my wires are gold plated!
I would suggest using Auto channel selection unless you're having specific congestion issues. Networks around you can change and you're not always going to monitor
them around you to keep the desired channel up to date with those
changes.
Can I download more ram for my router?
Yes.
c0pyimitati0n no
hmmmmmmmmmmmm
yes of course
i belive it is downloadmoreram.com
totally works
100% WORKING!
"ThioJoe"
Sure, you just have to take a few megahurts and ram them in the router's upgrade slot. Be sure to use MAXIMUM FORCE when you ram in those megahurts.
Wow you guys here sure are tech savvy. I'll soon be adding more string to my soup cans, I'm gonna get you to help me. I'm concerned that if I tie the wrong knot I'll get a bad connection to the outhouse can from the kitchen can.
1. Hide SSID for both (2.4 & 5) home networks.
2. Bandwidth limit on guest network.
3. Whitelist MAC addresses for home networks and block other.
4. Change routers webgui credentials.
5. Make a excel sheet and use static IP for home devices.
6. Make sure WPS is off.
1. Your router's SSID will still be leaked when you connect your device connects to it.
2. Yeah.
3. You know that you can change your MAC address and you can see devices that are connected (and whitelisted)? It just won't work if you know what are you doing.
4. Yeah.
5. May be useful, may be not.
6. Yeah.
Everyone: how to reach 100mbs?
Me: how to reach 1mbs?
small town in kentucky?
@CTAC Praetorian yep HAHAHAHAHA
@@willtaps7671 lmao same. I have a 2mbps service but never actualy reach 2mbps.feelsbadman
@@ThePhilosopherLB and here in Canada, I'm rocking gigabit (peaks at 950mbps) for $80 cad...
@@rattslayer it's sad in my country. I pay 26.6 US$ for a 2mbps internet. While you play 90 US$ for 950mbps. We dont even have that service. I think the "best" service we have is a 300mbps peak (they say 50mbps min to youll get around that most of the time) for 160 US$ and a 1000gb cap.
"...If you can't trust your friends to stay under you data cap" *laughs in unlimited data*
Laughs in the UK where most people have no broadband data caps
America are way behind lol
Hoi Kay Li I don’t understand we don’t have much broadband data caps here in the USA as well
@@iambatman786 What? I've never experienced a data cap other than on a cell phone.
Lmao some routers have caps?
"If you don't trust your friends to stay under your data cap"
I hate data caps, they need to be vanquished.
Sporkinator they wanted to implement data caps in germany and they (vodafone I think) got a huge shitstorm and then it got scraped
100%.
I could say the same about friends.
They slowly are, but they're still common place, somehow.
I just ran out of data on my phone today, I went from having 60% of my data used up to all of it in one day, because I was downloading some crap from Ninite.com through a personal hotspot
MrCatFace 8885 I'm not sure if you are in the US, or not, but on Cricket you can get unlimited data on your phone for $55 a month after auto pay, and for an extra $10 a month you can use your phone as a hotspot, but the only catches are they limit your speed to 8Mbits/8Mbits and if you are in a heavy traffic area for AT&T since they own Cricket after a 22GB softcap they can deprioritize you, but I've not experienced it other then a common signal dropout on a bad weather day, or an area of my town which is almost a dead zone for any and all cell carriers, AM/FM signal, or OTA Digital TV unless you have a crazy TV Antenna on your roof with an amp.
2:25 You forgot to mention that 5GHZ also has very poor wall penetration, if you put just one wall between you and the AP the signal strength can drop as low as half which of course reduces its speed even further.
I mean that's an issue here too but in North America most houses aren't concrete that why most people forgot to mention it
my place has concrete walls and I use 5GHz AC no problem..
pretty sure he said that lol
Cement does not equal cinder-block. Also, just think about the size of the bands emitted from each speed module & ur done.
I'm 3 walls away and I only get like 5% of the bandwidth
No TUNNELBEAR ad ???
...AND speaking of VPNs
"it hurts when IP"
THAT... is my new router name.
mine: Martin Router King
Bradford Technology Super Fast Internet Speed & Savings
💣📧📮📊🗂️🔖📇🗃️📔🖋️✒️⚙️🗑️🧰📡🛰️🎒💼🧳💺🌐🥊🥊🎬📱☎️📱☎️📞💾📠🖲️🖥️💻💻⌨️🖨️🖱️🖥️
www.bradfordtechnology.tech
Nah more like It HZ WAN IP
This reminds me of when I was in high school, my family going through a really rough time economically and our internet would often get cut off from non payment. It was the time when everyone still mostly used WPE. I learned how to "hack" into the neighbor's wifi by booting some version of Linux whose name I can't remember from a CD in my laptop. I was my family's hero, although I'm guessing the neighbor wasn't very happy lol
For most people, internet connection is important. High speed connection is less essential. I used random people's internet back when open wifi was common, around 15-18 yrs ago. I suspect most cases of borrowed/stolen internet access is harmless and no one notices.
@@peppigue - when I was in high school in the mid-2000's, my neighbor got arrested for kiddie porn. It was determined during the case that it was someone in the neighborhood that hacked into their home wifi. Ever since then, I've taken my wireless security extremely seriously. First step is to hide the SSID, which eliminates the low hanging fruit for lazy bad guys.
@@smileychess how do we do that?? Like how do we hide SSID ?
@@Legend-dh3pj - Depends on the model of your router. A simple Google or TH-cam search will help.
Video suggestion: Linus, could you do a quick video on Port Forwarding, I've seen it multiple time in my router settings but never took the time to dig into it.
It allows you to connect to devices behind your routers firewall from the outside
Whoever thought up Wu-Tang LAN is a f*cking genius. 0:23 Give that dude a raise.
@A MAC omg genius
@@daktarastulzys8903 not really.
@A MAC ive only seen that like one hundred times
I found this one entertaining : It_hurts_when_IP
HideYoKidsHideYoWIFI
I always leave my wifi open for my neighbors to use. I am pushing for a completely free wifi neighborhood. Oh, and it is a lot of fun to plug the router into a hub; and a laptop on the other port. The things I see using the packet sniffer are quite interesting sometimes :)
#honeypot
Smoking Crop I hope that is the name
Think of all the nudes of our hot-ass neighbors we could sniff out *drools*
David Powell 300-600 connection Warez downloads here I come!
David Powell interesting, so what do you do when your arrested for kiddie porn on your computer?
Let's be honest, who didn't name their Wi-Fi something like "FBI Surveillance Van" or something similar to have fun with neighbors and visitors?
I did not
I called mine “Pretty Fly for a WiFi”
Mine was exactly that for years, then one day they came for other reasons and hacked my router, so I changed the name to just a joke sorry
My ssid is mistaPooPoo-5g and mistaPooPoo-2g because.
..idk... I couldn't think of anything.
Mine is "Get Your Own Wifi"
" I can hear you poop" Wifi name. Thanks for the idea.
my y5 name is.. getoffmyfinglang
I used to have a router network as "Hot Wet Sweaty Nipples". I just now noticed I could disable it (did) and only using modem WiFi for non-wired.
Linus and team, you missed the MTU setting (Max Transmit Unit). You should first check with your ISP what the MTU size is for the medium you are using, for example, cable and DSL use 1492 bytes, which represents the size of packets. Your LAN by default will use 1500 bytes per packet, meaning that each packet sent from LAN to WAN has to be split in 2 packets. The second packet is then "padded" with useless bytes that increase the load for your router and slows down your overall speed. Having LAN MTUs of 1492 will reduce router heat and operations thus focusing on transfer of information rather than packet shaping. Keep up the good work, I love your tech videos!
I love it how Linus always makes you feel like an idiot, whilst simultaneously making you feel like he's the best thing that ever happened to you.
My WiFi names are also tech tips. The Slow One (2.4 GHz), and The Fast One (5 GHz). If you can see The Fast One you obviously pick that one. If you can only see The Slow One, it's time to upgrade your shit!
You should note that although the 2.4 GHz frequency is not as quick as 5 GHz, it will give you greater range.
What I've seen commonly is people leaving both networks with the same name. However, devices may not switch between the two for better performance - I had an older smartphone that did this. Separate names are helpful to force using a different band when necessary.
Um 2.4Ghz has greater range and wall penetration. Both bands serve their purpose. At my apartment we use 2.4 ghz and 5ghz all the time
2.4GHz is faster for certain things while 5GHz is faster for others. However your going to run into obstacle issues at 5GHz. For example streaming video over 5GHz tends to support much higher throughput while downloading things on 2.4GHz tends to go faster due to less repeated packets (due to in-transit data corruption caused by the mentioned issue with it). In reality you will not notice any difference at all in your home unless your transferring files between two computers in-home and both have clear line of sight to your router. Sad to say but internet speeds rarely ever outpace home network speeds.
Lol that's how my house runs but I haven't named them that. I made the change when all my devices were 5GHz and I kicked everyone off 2.4GHz but I left a 802.11g 2.4GHz 54Mbps router for the printer that doesnt work with the other router for whatever reason. Family was NOT happy but when they started using 5GHz they understood the speed differences.
The other thing you need to make sure you do is update the router firmware. If the router manufacturer doesn't support it anymore, you'll need to get a new router or install 3rd party firmware on it. WPA2 was broken by krack. There are fixes available but updating your wireless device isn't enough. You also have to ensure the router/access point is updated as well since both router and client need to be able to use the 'fixed' standard.
I say 'fixed' since you're talking about sending data over the air. It's only a matter of time before it gets broken again (if it's not broken already).
Running Ethernet/Powerline/MoCA is preferred, BUT since wired isn't not an option for everyone you can also look into throttling clients down and QoS. You can do things like prioritizing your PCs and throttling down anything else for example, depending on your needs and leave what ever is left for any new devices so you can keep the more bandwidth heavy devices in check. QoS will also let you prioritize things like video streaming so you can make sure Netflix/Hulu/TH-cam get priority while things like e-mail that can wait a few more seconds will not interfere with them.
Router: I want a raise
We: ok I'll get a new one to replace you
I'd love to see linus tech tips do an off shoot channel on enterprise hardware, servers, routers etc.
I believe port forwarding is the setting that gave me the most pain when I had to do it first to open my NAT type.
Man i love this
I have learnt so much from him and his channels, both of’em
You also didn't mention that on the 2.4 GHZ band, you should only be using channels 1, 6, or 11 as they are the only 3 non-overlapping channels in the band. If you're in a congested area, use the lesser-used of channels 1 or 11 and set bandwidth to 20. Also a tip on bridges - limit re-broadcasting to ONLY a channel in a different spectrum than what it is receiving on - for example, if you are connecting it to your main router's 2.4 GHZ signal, re-broadcast only on the 5GHZ band, or visa-versa. Much of the 50 percent loss of speed is caused by receiving and rebroadcasting with the same radio.
I would love to see an update to this. I really think it could be expanded a little.
There are different signal power regulations in some countries so changing the location in your router might effect your over all signal strength.
I've been playing with these settings recently. I found that 5G, although giving far higher peak speeds would repeatedly drop to lower speeds even worse than 2G. This is the case even though the 5G band was totally uncongested and 2G was quite busy. Tested over LAN transfer, not internet speed. 2G just gave more reliable transfer rates.
Your comment is 5 years old but this is the same situation I am facing. 2.4 is more reliable than 5
What WiFi analysis app do you use?
Why can’t anybody answer this question? Does it exist?
Look at 3:00 in the video. Upper left side shows the name www.wifianalyzer.info/
Working at an ISP ive noticed that if you router has DFS enabled by default on the 5G band most of the time you can disable it and you will see alot less conjestion within the 5G band
Mine works at 2.4 GHz so probably not required. Where do you work btw?
your videos are really helpful,thanks!
My Wifi name is "Dora the Internet Explorer" xD
Wow.
XD
cringe
bruh its as slow as her
The gamer On steam Lmaoooo dora's ping is like 1000
Request : Video on how to set up a RADIUS Server!
Linus, thanks for all the informative videos. Can you explain the difference between DNS and NetBIOS?
3:29 160 MHz only exists on Wi-Fi 6 AX routers I never see 160Mhz on ac mode routers especially Xfinity ones
Nice to hop in the time machine and observe try-hard Linus from time to time haha. For every random household tech issue, there is an LTT smackdown on the topic you skim for needed nuggets on the spot. All hail the quickie.
So I can make my speed 1kb per second so my friends never want to use my internet
1bit ps!
Yes
What wifi analyzer app is used in this video? Is it available in the Apple App store?
There are loads of different ones on Android, probably quite a few on Apple too :-)
There aren't useful ones for Apple as their radios are protected from apps in ways necessary for getting information. At least this was the case in the past. My favorite Android app is Wi-Fi Overview 360.
Ethernet running in the walls is the best.
Do you also run Ethernet into your phone?
ThatMetalHead72 heard of Ethernet adapters for tablets?
Yeah. And WiFi running into thick walls is worse.
Power line Ethernet?
Mine go through the basement and attic with a small hole in the corner of the rooms they go to.
Great little tutorial. As far as DNS goes - set your DNS to the address of your PiHole device, and then use unbound on your pfSense device for any addresses not yet cached in the PiHole. Works like a champ!
The DNS setting really helped me, thanks Linus.
Did u used the 8.8.8.8?
Thank you so much! I really appreciate when ppl take the time to teach me about things I don't know ♥
@Techquickie We have a lot of devices at my house. i alone have a total of 12 devices. My solution was to have a router for each party. I have a router and switch in my room for all of my wired and wireless stuff, then we have a 5ghz router for all the streaming and phone access that isnt my own. and we have a comcast router for all of my mom's work stuff.
I read that having too many devices could overload a router and though it would be a good idea to spread the load over 3. So far it is working. but maintenance is kinda tricky being that only one can use the 192.168.x.x address.
Is this something you could address in a future video for those who have many devices and should get another router to ease the load?
Try the >>> TP-LINK WiFi WLAN Router AC/N/A/G/B Dual Band (2167 + 1000MBPS) Archer C3150
Def research different routing methods. I.e. static vs dynamic. If your routers support it, configure something like static routers or some dynamic routing protocol. This way, you can have 1 subnet per router, (192.168.0.x - 192.168.254.x /24), each with their own default gateway's for endpoint access to devices on other routed subnets.
This is a older post but it really depends on your router. Cheaper routers will cap out around 5 devies, anything after that and you could have issues like no data or devices disconnecting. This is because the hard ware can't handle it. A router is a computer. If you want to connect more device you would need to buy a more power full router. There are router that go for 60-500 dollars and commercial routers for 5k.
Everytime I change my wifi channel other wifis go on the same channel🤦♂️
Nicholas Harris what channel is the best a higher number or a lower number
@@j.m4a1 download a wifi analyzer app from the app store and it will show which channel you should chose based on other peoples wifi in your area
Nicholas Harris I did but what's better the lower the number or the higher also I can't get into my router settings from my PC it tells me to change password but.theres no.other instruction
@@j.m4a1 I can't really tell you if the lower the number or higher the number of the channel is better it just all depends on how many wifis are on that channel & do you still have the sticker on the side of the router or modem that has the password on it?
@@j.m4a1 try using admin as user name and password as password ;)
what is the website or thingie you used
This is hard to keep up with. Some of us are trying to learn, linus lol
Take a CompTIA A+ or Network+ course. I didn't know anything about networking until I started learning, now all of this makes complete sense. I still have yet to take Network+. When you're just getting started, like me, networking seems so complicated
Linus, I CAN'T BELIEVE you forgot THE MOST IMPORTANT setting to configure... DISABLE WPS PIN... Ok guys, here it goes: WPS pin is an 8-digit number that is broadcasted when you press that "pin broadcast" button. Any devices that is listening and stores the pin can log-on to the network. Sounds like a good idea, but the problem is that most routers check the pin not as a set of 8 characters, but as 2 sets of 4, which means that after 20,000 attempts an intruder can guess it. And 20K attempts does not take as long as the originally intended 100,000,000 pin pool size.
What? A router will accept 20,000 failed attempts to access it?
depends on the router. if you don't blast it with 100 attempts per second it will work.
I love living just outside the city on an acreage where I can still get the best speeds w/o any wifi overlap. Literally if I search the networks then nothing shows up except ours.
God info thanks! Do you have a video or guide on how to choose a wireless router and which ones are best? Also what about alternative router software and stuff like DDWRT?
Blakehx I don't know if he does but there are lots of articles that you can read on that topic outside of TH-cam.
Tp-Link Make a lot of performance networking gear to a competitive price. im soon going for Tp-link Archer C2600 Router
Just bought this one on Amazon...>>> TP-LINK WiFi WLAN Router AC/N/A/G/B Dual Band (2167 + 1000MBPS) Archer C3150
Thanks! A lot of routers support being set up as an Access Point nowadays as well. Has been a good option for me in the past, and Powerline adapters are great too
I would like to see a video about configuring NAT, port-forwarding and most specifically - double NAT from ISP.
Use instead of Synergy Microsoft's garage software, MouseWithoutBorders - it is free and works.
But synergy is open source
Would love Port Forwarding for Dummies video (especially for Cox Panoramic)
Hello Linus!! Do you advise that people disable UPnP on home routers? It was once considered a major security flaw but I'm not sure if that's still considered to be the case. Does the benefit to leaving it enabled outweigh any potential risk? Keep up the great work!
What's so bad on upnp
So a little more security is to disable SSID broadcasting and connect through hidden Network in WiFi selection this helps keep your neighbor from piggybacking your WiFi. Also some routers allow you to disable eth ports on them this is useful for those friends that know directly connecting to the router will bypass any security measures other than Mac and IP filters.
Routers compatible with dd-wrt can easily be configured as an access point rather than a router. Stock firmware might work too on some models. On router A (connected to the modem), hand out a static IP to router B. Give router B that IP and disable DHCP on router B (so clients will get their IP from router A). Connect router A to router B's LAN port (NOT the one market "Internet") so devices on router B aren't firewalled from those on A.
Optional: give router B the same network name and password as A, so most smartphones and laptops will connect to the one with the strongest signal if both are in range. If you mostly have devices that stay near one router, give B a different SSID than A and a different password, so you can explicitly tell your device which AP to use. In both cases you want A and B on different channels for obvious reasons. Unlike repeaters, this setup has no speed penalty because data sent to router B is sent to A via an Ethernet cable and does not use up Wi-Fi bandwidth.
If you move around between rooms frequently, your devices might be "stuck" to the far router and not switch to the closer one until all open TCP connections terminate (it doesn't know A and B are on the same NAT until after it connects to B), in that case you want to buy an AP that is meant to be an AP and has smart "steering" capabilities to handle dumb devices. Those cost extra but are usually white, look nice and are powered from the Ethernet cable, so you mount it on the ceiling almost as a decoration.
well now we know that WPA2 isn't that safe :/
not as safe as a faraday cage, which i have thanks to a stucco exterior. i can connect to the wifi, have 5 bars on my phone. walk out the exterior steel door, still 5 bars , close the door, 1 bar. walk 10 feet,it disconnects and goes to 4g. note my fence is at least that far around my house, and though not locked, the dogs will let me know if someone is out there.
my phone reception also sucks in the house so theres that.
Meh, Ubiquiti Unifi patched the leak on their acces points the day the news was released and many others followed soon after.
But everything is vulnerable, always.
The most important detail though is that WPA2 is still by FAR the most secure of the lot. WEP in fact is so bad, it should be removed as an option from all devices at this point.
As mentioned though: Absolutely everything out there has security problems. You should never ever assume you are totally safe.
wpa2 enterpise 802.1x is where it's at
At least we have Ethernet
Please enable auto subtitles, thanks.
english subtitles will be better !
I literally thank Linus every day for recommending Synergy xD
Used it on and off for almost 10 years now. Really worth it.
I live in a nice little flat, with 20 other flats with WiF networks within range of my network. And I have noticed that most of the networks use one of 4 channels, causing certain problems "in the waves".
So now I ask why this is? And the answer is quite simple; something like 9 of 10 ISPs servicing homes supply their customers with a box that contain a modem, a (primitive) router and WiFi and the average home users changes only a few, if any, settings in the box; basically "connect the cables for LAN, power is usually the instructions they get from their ISP. So of course that's what they do.
Hi Linus. You mentioned 50% loss if using two routers. Would it work well if one used the 2.4 as a back-channel and the five as the regular networking?
Solid advice. I would also disable UPNP, especially on the WAN side.
Can you add more details?
UPnP is a technology that lets devices in your network ask for arbitrary ports to be opened.
It's usually enabled by default. If you disable it, be prepared for games, P2P software, and various other things to break. IMO it doesn't enhance security to disable it.
Jason Hatton LAN-side yes. But WAN side there is no need to have it enabled. Even the FBI recommends disabling UPnP. goo.gl/P3FrRc
I really miss the days when my WiFi base station was the only one in the entire apartment complex. Absolutely no interference back then.
I had an add and the main character looks just like you it was something about pulse wave app?
3:02 which WiFi Analysis App? I’ve already found numerous rubbish ones.
@Techquickie i subbed. Great channel. Great info. Keep up the good work!
What WiFi Analyzer do you recommend
I recommend WiFi analyzer. Lol
Any with decent reviews work realy.
Will synergy work on my commodore 64?
No
only if you have the DAT tape drive LOL
Electrical Engineering Channel no
DAT? I had the cassette tape drive which was sloooooooooooow ; )
What you got commodore 64? and it works, My grandad got one them!
I got an ad starring Linus when I clicked on this video. Damn you cookies
did it star with "speaking of.."
Nom nom nom
I knew this would have little relevance to the average user. A good setting is to name 2 wifi SSIDs the same and get seamless handover. Another one is changing from a/b/g/n/ac or whatever to not include a/b/g. Turning off DHCP on a second router is a good one, so you can keep them both on the same subnet and make your LAN more routable. Setting your ISP gateway to bridge mode can be beneficial if you know about firewalls or simply have another router to take care of that. There are more but practically all of those are more useful than the ones in the video, which are either obvious or best left alone.
Thanks for the tips, we just bought a brand new Philips air purifier (AC3259/60) but didn't know it could only work with 2.4G wifi... and our Virgin Media home wifi despite being dual 2.4G/5G wouldn't link to the device ... I now know more about these router settings thanks to you! Cheers!
"data cap" damn im so thankful I live in Slovenia, w/o datacaps and 150/150 speeds
I live in slovenia too, its so rare to find people from there randomly on the internet. But my internet is potato lol
I use MAC addressing checking meaning I manually enter my devices MAC address and only my devices work on my router regardless who knows my password, and I also change my routers device password from default.
Frost green Would you call your measures extreme? I almost did this then changed my own mind.
Keegan Andersen ..... had to do this and planning for more.... somebody got into my apartment and took a picture of my routers sticker info and got a bunch of devices into my router, making it slow. Currently learning more about routers.
I would say get a different Wireless router, and hide the Network name from being seen when you scan for wireless networks, plus putting your router in a more secure place if possible.
Ed ...... thanks for the info, I guess there isn't much that can be done. In a way I'm glad you can change your MAC address easily in case theres a problem. But if the police comes knocking at my door, I can at least show that I took precautions....
Commodorefan64 ...... sounds like a good idea, but even if I took the router sticker off, the new router they can take a picture of the router and compare it to the right model and slowly start piecing the info together..... I mean if they really want to get my internet connection... they probably could.
Do a video on NAT types!
I would love a longer video on the other settings we should be aware about.
Fantastic video. Well done. Would have liked it more detail in some parts to enhance security. Will look through your channel to see if I can find more.
0:12
It's an Ethernet uprising!!!
I turned off UPnP for security purposes. Enabled MU-MIMO, Enabled Fast Roaming, Enabled Implicit Beamforming, Enabled WMM, Enabled 20Mhz/40Mhz coexistence.
It's "barrier". A free alias of synergy. Thank me later.
Has Techquickie or Linus Tech Tips ever done a video about how to use an equalizer? My specific use was learning how to balance out the audio in movie,tv shows and other videos that have uneven audio levels? Such as voices are extremely quiet, are easily drowned out and at times completely indistinguishably when explosions or other loud noises are going off? Additionally I would find a brief explainer/tutorial that explains the ideal uses for the more common nobs available on equalizers?
You explain things very very well
1:54 My neighbors are connect in my wifi and thats the exactly config what I put to they and they called and send messages to my mom saying the wifi was so slow * laughs in unlimited data *
How do you know which neighbors are on the same channel.?
3:01
Hahahahahaha, this is exactly where my wifi on my phone decided to disconnect on me... I live in a built up urban area too.
* Disable WPS, its easily hacked by a small app on an android phone
Which app how? xD
@@nekilik9214 (WPS connect)
nice video, and here is something you probably NEVER hear, i like the synergy ad at the end, if i had more computers,that would be a great option and the price doesnt seem bad.
Im dealing with my problem in my routers latency😅, and thank to this video it was thoughtful 👍
Linus is right, my network name is "The LAN Before Time"
set the timerserver to report 31 december 1969
LUKE WAS WRONG
Battlefield 1 www.lukewaswrong.com👍👍
Was, he, evaaaaaaaa!
Battlefield 1 yes.
Do you really need a 160 MHz wide channel just to browse the Dank Memes for Angsty Teens Facebook page?
*of course yes as long it is about memes*
We have Verizon Fios and use their Quantum gateway router. We have a two story house. We have the router upstairs. The downstairs wasn't getting a good wifi signal, so we bought the dedicated extender unit for downstairs, which did increase our signal. Is there a downside to using an extender unit? Using Verizon Fios, what do you think about replacing the Quantum gateway router with a MoCA adapter in conjunction with a high end router, like a Linksys AC4000? Thank you in advance for your advice.
I really like Linus' webinars.
The thumbnail had me 😂😂
How does the popcorn setting on a microwave work?
cool
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You have forgotten ONE important feature most routers have today: "Hide SSID", or "Enable SSID broadcast"! Well, what is that!?
Answer: You're scanning your environment with your mobile device and a list of available wireless network pops up. You then choose one, enter the password ( given ), and here we go. In fact, your device pings all channels and the routers receiving the signal respond with their Wi-Fi name ( SSID ). This makes your home WLAN less secure.
Solution: Disable SSID visibility so that your router doesn't respond with its Wi-Fi name. This hides your network, but you have to enter the SSID manually alongside with the password and encryption mode ( Preferrably WPA2 Personal with AES ). If the name is written correctly, then you're signed in the hidden wireless network.
I also used MAC address filtering to only let our own devices and some trusted friends' devices connect to our home router and DHCP reservation for the home NAS and printer server PC. Those can turn out useful in some other homes with multiple machines too.