Can bad weather impact your Internet?

AS BRITAIN is battered by Storm Eustice today, your Friday night plans are not the only thing taking a turn for the worse.

Alongside other and admittedly more important things, poor weather can mess with your home WiFi signal – here’s how.

LNPPoor weather can affect the performance of both your umbrella and your WiFi[/caption]

1) Can bad weather affect your Internet?

According to experts, the weather can affect the performance of your internet connection.

Writing in The Conversation last year, James Jin Kang and Paul Haskell-Dowland, computing experts at Edith Cowan University, explained that there are a variety of ways that this can happen.

“This can include issues such as physical damage to the network, water getting into electrical connections, and wireless signal interference,” they said.

“Some types of connection are more vulnerable to weather than others.”

For the most part, the impact will be slight and even major storms are unlikely to tank the WiFi of most homes.

More often than not, if your WiFi is struggling during bad weather, then something other than the conditions outside are to blame.

For instance, during storms, people often hunker down inside, leading to a strain on broadband networks as everyone uses their WiFi at once.

2) What to do if bad weather affects your Internet

There are a number of common techniques that can boost your connection at home.

Firstly, try to minimise the number of devices you have connected to the internet.

If you’re not using your smart TV, for instance, then unplug it from the wall to ensure it’s not using up any bandwidth.

It’s also advisable to move closer to your WiFi to ensure you have the strongest signal possible.

If you suspect that your WiFi network is down due to physical damage caused by a storm, get in contact with your broadband provider.

In other news, a British woman has told of her horror after scammers used photos of a “silver fox” politician to trick her out of £80,000.

Norfolk County Council is suing Apple over what it says was misleading information about iPhone sales.

The creators of a chilling new horror game say that the title is so disturbing they’ve been forced to censor it on PlayStation.

And, Apple has announced updates to AirTags following claims that the coin-sized tracking devices are being used to stalk people.

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