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Radios, Furniture Can Slow Down Your Wi-Fi Connection, Study Says

by Amar Toor on March 11, 2011 at 11:05 AM

computer and furniture
If it takes hours to download files on your Wi-Fi network, you might want to try clearing out some of your furniture and turning off your radios. According to a new study from Bristol University in the U.K., wireless connections can be "significantly slowed" by interference from electronic devices, or by physical barriers, like walls, doors, and other household items.

The study, led by Prof. Andrew Nix, found that the average household encounters a 30-percent slower Wi-Fi connection than what the network is capable of facilitating, simply because of common interferences. Not surprisingly, downloading large files like mp3s or videos can hamper the connection even more severely, and using services like Skype can accentuate the slowdown. "If you have a poor quality router and you are using Wi-Fi at some distance away from it, you could struggle to have a decent Skype conversation," Nix told the Telegraph.

The good news, though, is that you probably don't realize how slow your Wi-Fi really is. Jon Curley, chief technology officer at Epitiro, a network measurement firm that commissioned the study, admitted most users don't even notice the effect on their connection speeds. And even if they did, it's unclear whether most people would sacrifice the ability to surf the Web from anywhere in your house in exchange for a marginally faster connection.

Tags: connection, download, furniture, Internet, radio, skype, slow wifi, SlowWifi, speed, study, top, Web, wifi, wireless

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