At Christmas there are more opportunities than normal to take photographs and use social media. In fact, if you think about it, the one day you really want to rely on and depend upon your Wifi is Christmas Day.

Think of the horrors of a no-filters turkey, a Queen’s Speech that isn’t live-tweeted or an Eastenders Christmas Day special when you didn’t look up from Angry Birds or Farmville.

It sounds unbelievable in 2015, but a combination of the extra people (friends and family) and electrics (fairy lights) can quickly render your normally reliable and strong wifi signal to virtually nothing.

However, rather than panic, there are measures you can take to ensure that when you want to instagram your cracker or talk online about Downton you’ve got the capacity to do so.

Testing the flow

Before you can take any steps to right the problem, you need to know exactly what’s going on with your signal. If it’s not as fast as usual or is failing to connect at all, there could be a number of culprits from a full house and electrics as already discussed to time of day and the number of obstacles standing between you and the wifi connector.

However, if you’ve got a smartphone, OFCOM now have an app you can use purely for checking your connection. Simply go to the app store and search for “OFCOM Wifi checker” and you can download a clever and fast little app which will soon highlight any glitches or potential issues you may be having.

Once you know what’s going on, you can take the necessary steps to fix the problem.

Top Tips

OFCOM also have a number of tips which could help you get the most from your signal this Christmas:

Moving your router away from electrical devices such as lamps, switches, lights, TV’s and monitors means there are fewer things to interfere with the signal it attempts to throw out.  Baby monitors and other devices which emit wireless signals are famed for interrupting Wifi signals so it’s also worth ensuring your router is nowhere near these.

When finding a new home for your router, consider the amount of open space. Putting a router in the corner of a small room means it has to find its way through the walls or around furniture.

In an ideal world, your router should be in an open space in a central location with access to other areas of the home. It should also be on a table or a shelf rather than on the floor.

Finally, it’s such a tech cliché that it shouldn’t really be included but turning the wireless router off and on again gives it the opportunity to recharge completely rather than trying to catch up with itself. This should enable it to find the fastest and best signal for you and your electronics.

If you need anymore help or advice, give Diamond Solutions a call on 01204 689676.