There comes a time when considering lowering the power on the wifi router makes sense. Maybe you are electro sensitive and you would like the router hardwired, but there is another person in the household who insists on wifi. Maybe you want to hard wire your whole house, but there are a lot of devices that only work on wifi, and wiring all those devices is going to take some time, so in the meantime you need internet access.
Here are some fun facts:
1) Power, when it comes to a wifi router, doesn't mean more connectivity. I've listened to three internet network techs who say the same thing. Connectivity is more of an issue of bandwidth and equipment. So, if there is a fear of getting no wifi when the power is lowered, that fear should be alleviated. I know a tech who lowered the power by 90 percent to a school and there were no connectivity issues. In fact I was told by another tech that too much power can actually interfere with connectivity by creating interference.
2) Lowered power means lowered range, so if your router is broadcasting out into the street, that becomes a hackability issue. Lowering the power equals a more secure network.
3) The manufacturer's default setting on all routers is high. That may or may not be an appropriate setting depending on the situation in any case.
So, How do you lower the transmit power? The answer is easy and complex at the same time. There is a very easy procedure, but all the details vary depending on what brand of wifi router you have. You must also remember to lower both radios inside the router, the 2.4 gig and the 5.3 gig radios. Not a big deal, but just remember there are two of them.
Here is my favorite YouTube video on how to do that at, Scotties Tech Info
Now that you have a general overview of how to do it. I'm going to list the general steps, and then I'm going to list some links on where you can find the details for some popular wifi routers.
1) First you need to find the address to the gateway. The gateway address is usually a number like 192.168.0.1 or a variant of that chain of numbers. You type this into the address bar in any internet browser, so you can get access to your router. How do you find out what that address is? One way is by going online and downloading the owner's manual. It can be found there. You can also go online and search for "accessing gateway on Your Brand of Router."
2) Once you have the address to your gateway, you will need a user name and password. Many times the user name is "admin" and the password is "password" but that is not always the case. You need to find out online or the owner's manual. Some require the model number as the password.
3) Once you log into the interface with your user name and password, you have access to your router. Where the transmit power option is, again, varies with each brand of router, so you will have to hunt around or search either in the router or online for a guide, which they all have.
4) You will also have the opportunity now to change your password, but first find out in the owners manual how to set the router to the factory default in case you forget said password. There is no password recovery, but usually pressing the reset button will put it back to "admin" and "password or whatever it was to begin with.
Here are some detailed procedures and info for the various brands of wifi routers
ATT With ATT, I have experienced the settings on the gateway not reflecting what the router was doing. So if you lower the transmit power, check with a meter to see if it actually did anything, and recheck periodically as updates tend to change things.
Arris Surfboard Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and you will find the owners manuals for several models.
So you get the idea that you need the gateway address, the password and user name. Those three things are the biggest hassle. Once you have those, you can figure it out from there.
Another way to find the gateway address is on the computer, though it may not always work. On a PC you go to "control panel" to "network" to "internet" to "details." On a Mac you go to the apple in the left corner to "system preferences" to "network" to the window that shows the address. The address is where it says "router." This may or may not be the correct address, but it's worth checking. On an iphone it's "settings" to "wifi" to "DHCP."
Why is power such an important thing to get right? Well, damage to cells is in proportion to power. Research has shown that the power of microwave radiation from devices like wifi is a significant factor in the amount of symptoms a person experiences, and the amount of damage being done to cells. I can't speak for 5g as that signaling is much different, but 4g is not about frequency as much as it is about power. A home with under 10 microwatts per meter squared is much safer than a home with 22,000 microwatts per meter squared.
As with all things EMF, you become techy in ways most people aren't techy, but it can be fun and give you access to things you had no access before. I wish you good luck and success with your efforts to make your home safer, cleaner and electrically more peaceful.
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