Anyone who has tried to implement a wireless router has run into the problem of wondering if the network will actually work in all the places it is intended for. Wireless networks are significantly more complicated to set up than a wired Ethernet network for the following four reasons:

• Obviously, the wireless network does not have cables, which makes it difficult to determine where devices, such as laptops, are connected.
• Neighboring networks don’t stop at the boundary of the wall between your properties
• There is a plethora of configuration options for WiFi that most people don’t understand.
• The WiFi design of end devices (laptops, iPhones, etc.) has a huge impact on overall performance

Setting up a wireless network has basically been a matter of trial and error. He sets up the network, walks around with his laptop, looks at the number of bars on the screen, and tries to download some web pages to see if the network works. The problem with this approach is that you never really know if the network worked “well enough” or if it actually achieved the best performance and robustness possible.

Recently, a new totally free product called WaveDeploy has become available that will let you know you are getting the most out of your network. WaveDeploy allows you to truly see your network performance on a map of your home. It also helps you see where your neighbors’ networks are leaking in your home so you can plan accordingly. So how do you use WaveDeploy to figure out how to set up the network? A simple but effective 5-step plan is to do the following:

1. Before you even turn on your wireless router, do a “passive” assessment to determine what other networks are visible in your home and what channels they’re using.
2. Configure your wireless router to use the best channel based on the previously measured data
3. Run an “active” assessment using your laptop to see how well the network is delivering data to each location in your home
4. Experiment with your wireless router settings and retest to improve performance
5. Experiment and retest with client settings and retest to maximize performance

Get started by downloading and installing WaveDeploy Basic on your wireless laptop. You’ll need to sign up to use the app the first time you run it, but it’s completely free and VeriWave, the company that makes WaveDeploy, doesn’t share your information with third parties.

The next step is to draw a map of your house floor plan (or download an image from Google Maps if you’re lucky enough to have a big enough house) using a tool like Microsoft Paint. Do your best to draw the map as scaled as possible, but keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be 100% accurate. Take 15 minutes to make the best drawing you can and save it as an image file (bmp, png or jpeg formats are fine).

Follow the instructions in the help file to run a passive evaluation with WaveDeploy Basic. In short, you’ll launch the app, upload your home floor plan image, and then take a series of measurements at different locations around your home. To take a measurement, click on the location corresponding to where you are and WaveDeploy will scan the air and measure which networks are visible, what channel they are on, and measure the signal strength of each network. It takes about seven seconds to take a measurement. Then walk to the next location and repeat. In about 10 minutes, you will have the measurements of your entire house.

Stop the evaluation and view the results. You will see a list of all the networks your laptop has detected in your home drawn on your map. Green means the network was well received; red means weakly detected. Pay special attention to the channels that were used for signals that were received strongly in most of your home. You should avoid using these channels for your wireless network.

Now set the channel for your wireless router. Start by checking your router manufacturer’s information or router settings to determine if you’re using the 2.4 GHz band or the 5 GHz band. You’ll most likely be on the 2.4 GHz band, where you really only you should use channels 1, 6 and 11. Yes, there are other channels on this band, but don’t use them as tempting as it may be. It turns out that these other channels overlap, so channel 2 will also interfere with channel 1 and channel 6, resulting in lower performance. On the 2.4 GHz band, you’re better off sticking to channels 1, 6, and 11 and setting your wireless router to broadcast on the channel with the least amount of competition.

While we’re at it, we’d be delivered if we didn’t bring up the security issue. Professional-grade security has been available for wireless devices and networks for a couple of years now. If all your devices support it, your best option is to use WPA2, also known as AES encryption, with PSK or password authentication. The terms are complicated, but it’s quite easy to choose WPA2 and enter a password. Then configure the client devices to access the network using the same password and security settings. If WPA2 is not available, use WPA or TKIP with PSK. This security setting is still very good, but not as strong as WPA2. If that doesn’t work, you can use no authentication, also known as “open”. You may see WEP available, but its use is not recommended. WEP was once thought to be secure, but it was cracked years ago and there are several tools that will now automatically crack these messages. WEP is dangerous because it gives users a very false sense of security. They will think they are protected when the reality is that a basic hacker could easily access their data. Please note that you should choose a security mechanism that is compatible with your laptops and smartphones as well as the wireless router.

You can run another passive test at this point, and it will show you the areas where your wireless router’s signal can be clearly seen. However, if a second computer is available, it is much better to use it with WaveDeploy for active assessment. In an active test, data is transferred between the two computers to measure the maximum download speed your network supports at each location, as well as signal coverage and interference. Again, please refer to the application’s help files for instructions on setting up an active assessment.

It takes a little longer to conduct an active assessment, but when you’re done, your efforts will be rewarded with a map called “Heat Wave” of how fast your wireless network could send traffic to your laptop at every location in your home. You might be surprised to learn that the fancy 802.11n router you just bought can only deliver a fraction of the promised 300Mbps throughput! Part of this is due to marketing technique; WaveDeploy Basic measures the amount of application traffic, such as web pages, that a network can transfer. Marketing figures for network devices refer to the raw physical speed of the network technology without taking into account all the overhead of wireless protocols or normal network overhead. In practice, only about half of the advertised best-case performance can usually be achieved once this overhead is taken into account. On a poorly designed or poorly placed wireless router, performance can be much worse.

To that end, start changing the settings on the router to see which settings produce a substantial improvement in performance. For example, one of the biggest gains is often the result of turning off 802.11b support. If all your laptops are a, gon turn off 802.11b support and test again. Work your way through each of the options and retake the data to determine which ones help your performance and which ones don’t. Once you have finished setting up your network, repeat the exercise by changing the settings on your laptop or smartphone driver and testing again.

The entire process may take a couple of hours, but the effort is well worth it. Using the above techniques gives you a means to see how far your network reaches, determine how fast your network is running by location, see interference from neighboring networks, and optimize your laptops and smartphones for the best possible performance. Applied correctly, these five easy steps will make your wireless network fly!