How to Improve Your Gym WiFi

1. Assessing Your Current WiFi Infrastructure

• Conduct a WiFi audit: Use a WiFi analyser app to measure signal strength, speed, and coverage throughout your gym. Certain types of walls and building materials affect the signal more than others, meaning a survey is the only way to get a clear picture of exactly how WiFi signal is reaching around your specific premises.

• Identify problem areas: Pinpoint locations where the signal is weak or unreliable, such as crowded areas or areas with physical obstructions.

• Evaluate existing equipment: Determine the age, capacity, and performance of your current routers and access points. Technology progresses quickly, and it is easy to purchase equipment which isn't built with the future in mind, meaning you may start to have problems sooner than you expected.

2. Choose the Right Equipment

• Consider your gym's size and layout: Select routers and access points with sufficient range and power to cover your entire facility.

• Opt for high-performance equipment: Invest in reliable, high-quality hardware to ensure you get a long-term solution that meets your needs, and gives you the flexibility to expand the network as you require.

• Explore advanced features: Consider features like beam-forming, MU-MIMO, and mesh networking to improve signal efficiency and capacity. Also look out for new technologies like WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 compatibility, as these don't just provide faster speeds, but also cater for greater volumes of data that modern devices use.

3. Optimise Network Settings

• Configure the correct channel: Choose less congested channels to minimise interference from other networks. You will need to perform a survey to find what channels are least congested in your particular area.

• Adjust power settings: Fine-tune the power output of your routers and access points to ensure adequate coverage without excessive interference. It's not as straightforward as setting everything to 'Max'!

• Implement security measures: Protect your network from unauthorised access with network segmentation and regular updates. For example, having a separate network for members and staff to ensure there is no way that gym members can access or snoop on sensitive business data from staff devices.

4. Handle Network Congestion

• Manage traffic: Implement quality of service (QoS) settings to prioritise bandwidth-intensive applications like video streaming, or prevent any individual users from hogging bandwidth from other gym members or staff.

• Consider additional access points: For large gyms or areas with high traffic, deploy additional access points to distribute the load.

• Limit guest WiFi access: Restrict guest network access to prevent excessive usage that can impact member experience. You don't want people in neighbouring buildings making use of your superior WiFi, for example.

5. Ensure Security and Privacy

• Use strong encryption: Protect your network data with robust encryption protocols like WPA3. Most equipment will default to the older WPA2 protocol, or even have an open network for all devices - don't do this!

• Regularly update firmware: Keep your routers and access points up-to-date with the latest security patches. When was the last time you checked this?

• Monitor network activity: Use security tools to detect and address potential threats. UniFi has these tools built-in to the dashboard, including a honeypot function which alerts for devices trying to scan the network.