Practice: Can changing the “region” really enhance wireless signals?

Around mid-July, we published an article about the Netgear R6220 Experience Report. How should we put it? The wireless performance of the router is average, mainly reflected in the obvious signal attenuation when encountering obstacles.

Of course, some netizens also gave us some advice, saying that in the router settings, changing the region to 'Australia' will improve the wireless signal. For this reason, we also specially adjusted and tested the Netgear R6220 again. As for the results, we will know after trying it.

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I heard that changing the 'region' can really enhance the wireless signal?

In fact, we have heard about the rumor that Netgear can make Wi-Fi signals stronger by changing the regional signal. Since netizens mentioned this, we might as well verify it for you. First, we can see whether changing the "region" option is effective in enhancing the signal. Secondly, we can see how much help modifying this item can be in signal enhancement, so that "hearing" will stop at practice.

According to the suggestions of netizens, we changed the 'region' of Netgear R6220 to Australia and clicked Apply to update the settings. So, what is the effect?

Change region to Australia

In order to verify the results, we will conduct a real-life test in the same home environment as the "Netgear R6220 Experience Report". It should be noted that this time we focus on verifying its signal enhancement effect, so we chose point C, which has the worst signal among the four test points, for testing and data comparison.

Test environment description

Point A: The distance from the route to the bathroom (less than 5 meters), separated by a solid wood door and a wooden frame glass door. Point B: The distance from the route to the kitchen (less than 8 meters), with a corridor in the middle, separated by a solid wood door and a wooden frame glass door. Point C: The distance from the route to the second bedroom (about 8-10 meters), with a corridor in the middle, and a solid wood door. Point D: The distance from the route to the master bedroom (about 10-15 meters), a load-bearing wall

Test environment diagram

Other notes

Test software: WirelessMon Professional Edition, WIFI Analyzer Terminal platform (PC): ASUS UX390UAK Terminal platform (mobile): HUAWEI EMUI4.1 SSID: NETGEAR04, NETGEAR04-5G Networking devices: 2 mobile phones, 1 TV, 1 laptop Network environment: Broadband 100M

PC end C point test

Region China (top), Region Australia (bottom) 2.4GHz frequency band

Region China (top), Region Australia (bottom) 5GHz frequency band

After changing the region to Australia, let's take a look at the test results on the PC: on the 2.4GHz band, the signal strength before the change was -69dBm (26%) and the speed was 39Mbits;

After the change, the signal strength was -68dBm (27%) and the speed was 78Mbits. The increase was not obvious and could even be said to be negligible.

Looking at the test results of the 5GHz frequency band, the signal strength before the change was -86dBm (5%) and the speed was 58Mbits; after the change, the signal strength was -78dBm (15%) and the speed was 117Mbits, which is an improvement.

Mobile phone C point test

Region China, Region Australia (2.4GHz band)

Let's take a look at the test results on the mobile phone. On the 2.4GHz band, before the change, the signal strength was -67dBm, the stability was -70dBm and below, and the signal was not stable, with large fluctuations in the curve; after the change, the signal strength was enhanced to -66dBm, the stability fluctuated between -60dBm and -70dBm, and the curve was also smoother than before.

Region China, Region Australia (5GHz band)

On the 5GHz band, the signal strength was -79dBm before the change, and there was a dropout at point C in terms of stability; the signal strength was -78dBm after the change, and the stability fluctuated between -65dBm and -75dBm. Compared with before, there are some improvements in signal strength and signal stability.

Region China, Region Australia (2.4GHz band)

Region China, Region Australia (5GHz band)

***We used SPEEDTEST software to test the speed again and found that although the signal strength and stability have improved, the PING value of point C on the 2.4G and 5G dual bands has increased, and the download and upload speeds have increased and decreased. However, the speed of opening web pages is still very slow, and the pictures in the article failed to load.

Summary: Through actual testing, we can see that after changing the 'region' of the NETGEAR R6220 from China to Australia, although the strength of the wireless signal received at point C is slightly enhanced compared to before, the effect is minimal, and the PING value increases and the delay becomes larger.

However, the stability of the wireless signal has been improved, but the overall Internet experience has not been greatly improved. We say that this method can improve the quality of the wireless signal to a certain extent, but the effect is not obvious.

Therefore, it is recommended to purchase other models at the same price.