Basically, I’m stumped. The Wi-Fi is blazing fast in the bedroom, but in the kitchen, it’s a disaster. We live in the same apartment, the distance is ridiculous, but everything is fine in one room, while in the other, it’s a “Bermuda Triangle”.
Pages freeze, videos are constantly paused, and sometimes the signal just drops out of the blue for no apparent reason. How does this happen?
Usually layout + materials. People think “same house = same Wi-Fi”, but kitchens are kind of notorious for this. Appliances, plumbing, tile, weird wall placement — all of that can mess with signal way more than a bedroom.
@ShadowBoxer_88 Well, that certainly makes sense. In the kitchen, there’s tiles everywhere, appliances… that’s what I thought. So this can still be a weak signal problem even if the kitchen isn’t the farthest room from the router?
Absolutely. “Closer” doesn’t always mean “better” if the path is worse. This is Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi hitmaps can help with this. You can argue forever about whether the router, the layout, or interference is to blame, but visualization will put everything in its place. Try running a survey in NetSpot — it’s quick and clear. The program will show the real picture: if the kitchen is blue on the map, it means the signal simply isn’t physically reaching it. You’ll see clear coverage zone boundaries and understand where exactly walls or furniture are “consuming” decibels. You’ll get a ready-made diagram that will tell you where to move the router or where to install a repeater.
@Major_Peter I’ve seen people post heatmaps before but never used one myself. Is it actually useful for a normal home setup or more of a pro thing?
You don’t have to be a network engineer to understand heatmaps. If you’re interested, you can read about them here: https://www.netspotapp.com/wifi-heat-map/what-is-a-wi-fi-heatmap.html
@Major_Peter Appreciate it — I’ll give NetSpot a try today and see what the map looks like.