Tis' the Season! The holidays are the time of the year when you open your home to friends and family from near and far. People are ready to get out and get together to enjoy food, drink, warm cookies, and the most essential of modern necessities – Wi-Fi.

Both physical and online retailers will soon ramp up their holiday sales. With smartphones and smart home devices being some of the most popular purchases, having strong, reliable Wi-Fi is essential for a happy holiday season. Here are three tips to get your Wi-Fi ready for the holidays.

What’s the Wi-Fi password?

Probably the first words you hear from your teenage guest’s mouth (before they say hi!). As families and friends gather, enabling easy and quick guest access to your Wi-Fi is necessary. But don’t forget to ensure the security of your network.

Using an intuitive app like HomePass from Adtran and Plume, you can set up guest access in a few seconds. Sharing the password is also simple – via text or email. Additionally, you can set up guest zones so guests can only access certain home devices, like printers or gaming consoles, while restricting access to your critical remote work environment.

Is it true that holiday lights mess with Wi-Fi?

Unfortunately, this urban legend is true. Wi-Fi is highly prone to interference, and holiday lights and tinsel can mess with the performance of your Wi-Fi signal. Holiday lights transmit electromagnetic radiation that can interfere with your Wi-Fi signal. The more lights, the more interference. Christmas tinsel is made of scraps of foil that reflect Wi-Fi signals, again impacting speeds and reach. Wrapping that Wi-Fi gateway in tinsel is a definite no-no.

So, what’s the solution? A simple option – move the Wi-Fi gateway away from the Christmas tree, blinky lights, and tinsel into a more centralized location. Alternatively, we’d recommend utilizing Adtran and Plume’s adaptive Wi-Fi mesh technology. The AI-driven, adaptive mesh system constantly scans for changes in your home environment and décor and provides real-time Wi-Fi optimization. You can stay connected with loved ones while enjoying the holiday lights.

Dad, the Wi-Fi is laggy in the rec room!

It’s Thanksgiving and the family has gathered around the 4K TVs; kids are gaming in the rec room, and some of you are out in the yard Facetiming friends. This year you were smart and upgraded to a Gigabit connection so you wouldn’t have to hear that whiney cry from the rec room. Your problem – Wi-Fi coverage is poor everywhere except when you’re near the gateway.

The simple option is to add a plug-in extender or mesh access points (APs), so you can get extended Wi-Fi coverage. The problem with plug-in extenders is that they only effectively offer 50% of the throughput of your main gateway. In addition, since they are lower to the floor and sometimes hidden behind large furniture, coverage ends up being spotty. A similar problem happens if you use a dual-band AP. You see, dual-band APs are doing dual duty - providing access to the gaming devices and having to turn around and backhaul that traffic to the main gateway. In doing so, dual-band gateways deliver lower capacity and higher lag making for a poor gaming experience in the rec room.

The solution – get a Tri-Band satellite, like the Adtran 841-t6. Having a third band that’s dedicated to backhaul eliminates the dual-duty overhead, delivering Gigabit speeds to all corners of the house with 4X lower lag. Finally, those whiney cries can get silenced.