The PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi is an amazing device that lets you enjoy the Internet without needing a fiber-optic landline connection. However, it’s sometimes prone to slowdowns which can be quite frustrating. Fortunately, you can boost and increase the speed of your PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi device even if you know little about computers or the Internet. We’ll teach you how in this article!
For many Filipinos, the PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi is heaven sent. It’s small, convenient and you can carry it anywhere you want, making it an ideal router for those who can’t or don’t want to subscribe to fixed broadband Internet. Why pay monthly fees on expensive broadband Internet plans when you can just grab this affordable device and subscribe to a prepaid data promo, right?
The only thing holding back the PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi from being the perfect household Internet device are its Internet connection issues. Since this device is wireless and dependent on the Smart cellular network, its Internet speed is affected by certain conditions such as proximity to the cell site, bad weather, physical obstacles (such as trees and buildings), and network traffic.
We know how annoying and frustrating it is to experience a slow Internet connection with your PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi. Sometimes, out of frustration, you’d want to ditch your device and just apply for a broadband plan like PLDT Home Fibr. But don’t give up just yet because there are several ways to boost the speed of your PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi, aside from placing the router near your window.
So without further ado, let’s go through the different ways to increase the Internet speed of your PLDT Home WiFi device. Keep in mind that you must have physical access to your router and/or be able to login to the PLDT admin panel.
Reposition Your Router
The easiest way to improve your Internet speed is to reposition your router in order to get a better signal. Signal reception is affected by physical obstacles like walls and furniture, so you might want to place your router in a location with fewer impediments, such as near a window.
Restart Your Router
Sometimes restarting or rebooting your router will improve the speed of your PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi. Just turn off the router using the power button, wait for a minute or two, and then turn it on again. This will give you a boost in Internet speed, albeit temporarily.
Restarting the router solves Internet connection issues because turning it off clears the memory cache and cools down the processor a little bit. After turning on the router again, it will go faster as it rebuilds the cache, and then slows down again once the cache is full.
So if you are suffering from a slow and inconsistent Internet connection, be sure to restart your router as the first troubleshooting step. If restarting the router still doesn’t solve your Internet speed issues, then you can try other methods such as resetting your router to factory settings.
Reset Your Router to Factory Settings
When restarting the router doesn’t work, then you can try resetting it to its factory settings. Resetting the router will clear any custom configurations and revert its passwords to their defaults. If you have made any custom settings or configurations, be sure to take note of them so that you can easily restore your settings after resetting the router.
You can reset your PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi to its factory settings by logging in to 192.168.1.1 (type 192.168.1.1 into your browser’s address bar). Once logged in, click “Router” on the main menu and go to “Router Management.” Click “Restore” to reset your router to its factory settings.
For PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi Advanced, you can reset the router by going to “Settings” and then “System.” Under “Maintenance,” click the “Factory Reset” button to restore the factory settings.
You can also perform a hard reset by pressing the Reset button at the back of the router until the device restarts.
After resetting your router, you will need to reconnect to your Wi-Fi network using the default WLAN password (usually “pldthome”). You can then change your PLDT Wi-Fi password by logging in again to 192.168.1.1.
Set the Network Mode to 4G or LTE
If restarting and resetting your router still don’t work, there’s an alternative way to improve your Internet speed. What you can do is to login to the admin dashboard and set the network mode to 4G-LTE.
Start by accessing 192.168.1.1 on your browser and signing in using your login credentials (the default password is “pldthome”). After that, click “Internet” on the main menu and in the “Internet Connection” page, change the network mode from “Auto” to “4G-LTE.” Finally, click “Save.”
This ensures that your router only connects to the 4G or LTE network. If your network mode is set to “Auto,” it might occasionally connect to the slower 3G network instead of 4G, even though the latter is the preferred connection. To ensure optimum speed, you must give your router no other choice but to connect to 4G.
Change the Channel Bandwidth to HT40
The channel bandwidth of a wireless signal determines the data rate or how much data passes through. Basically, the higher the channel bandwidth, the faster the connection will be.
The default channel bandwidth for PLDT Home Prepaid Wi-Fi is HT20 or 20MHz. This is the recommended bandwidth in congested areas with plenty of frequency noise and interference. However, you can change the channel bandwidth to HT40 or 40MHz to increase the data transfer rate.
If you are in a crowded area with three or more wireless access points (WAP), usually indicated by their service set identifier (SSID), then it’s highly recommended to use 20MHz to avoid network interference caused by overlapping channels.
However, if you are in an area with fewer than three WAPs, you can try using a higher channel bandwidth such as 40MHz to enjoy faster speed. Ideally, you should only use 40MHz if you are the only WAP in your vicinity.
To change the channel bandwidth in PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi, login to 192.168.1.1 and click “Wireless” on the main menu. On the “Wireless Settings” page, set the “Channel Bandwidth” to “HT40.” Click “Save” to apply your changes.
Take note that 40MHz doesn’t work well with the 2.4GHz frequency as there’s a higher chance of causing network interference. You should only switch to HT40 or 40MHz if your wireless network is the only one in your area.
Conclusion
Everyone experiences slow or intermittent connections from time to time, especially with a portable Internet device like PLDT Home Prepaid WiFi. But you shouldn’t give up if you experience those annoying slowdowns, because there are a few simple ways to troubleshoot common Internet connection issues.
