No doubt you’ve connected to Wi-Fi access points at a local café or got a home wireless network installed, and it is possible to get the most out of Wi-Fi technology. Whether you want to bridge, strengthen, extend, secure, detect, sniff, or hide your signal, the following are nine best Wi-Fi methods and apps for power Wi-Fi users.

9. Improve Connection Quality With Better Positioning
While you can find several hardware and software hacks for boosting the Wi-Fi signal, first, it is better to do a few easy physical adjustments to fully optimize your connection quality
Put the transmitter on the middle of a floor, or above furniture, because radio emissions spread best down and laterally
Reception will be improved if the signal doesn’t have to propagate at a steep angle and if it does not have to penetrate thick walls, mirrors, aquariums or metal objects
Place Wi-Fi repeater and receivers far from signal-emitting devices such as cordless phones, halogen lamps, baby monitors, or microwave ovens.
Adjust the default signal frequency to avoid interference with neighbor’s wireless network

8. Use Repeater to Strengthen the Signal
Still not getting enough signal bars in the basement? Perhaps you need to perch yourself on the roof to get a useful signal reception from your neighbor’s network? Get yourself a Wi-Fi signal repeater to improve your network coverage even further.
If your non-wireless devices need some connection love, an Ethernet converter or a wireless bridge can be used to convert the Wi-Fi signal and give your wired devices with usable connection

7. Use Wireshark
Do you want to take a peek on those digital breezes passing through your room? Wireshark is a practical packet sniffer, if you are interested in picking up your own or others’ wireless signals.

6. Use WPA Encryption
Wi-Fi security is not very secure at all, and if your hotspot is safer than others, evil-doing hackers may choose to move on. Many wireless hotspots are using WEP encryption to protect their connections; however WPA (supported on most advanced computers and routers) is less easy to hack than WEP. If possible change your security level and set the WPA password to something complex and difficult to break.

5. Use MAC address limitation
You should limit exactly what devices are allowed to connect to your home/office wireless network by using a list of allowable MAC (Media Access Control) addresses. Go to the access point’s configuration menu to set what MAC addresses are allowable (like, say, certain computers in the Human Resources Department).

4. Restrict network’s name broadcasting
Don’t want to publicize your network to the strangers? Disable SSID broadcasting, which can keep all unlisted devices from detecting your network. To do this, in your access point’s configuration menu, uncheck “Enable SSID Broadcast.”
Just like the other security practices mentioned above, just because you disable SSID broadcasting, it will not prevent strangers with the right tool from discovering your access point.

3. Use NetStumbler
This powerful free NetStumbler tool for Windows will discover all the wireless networks nearby, even if SSID is disabled and the signal strength is weak whether or not they’re passworded. Perfect for wireless hunters, Mac users can use MacStumbler.

2. Use directional antenna
If the highest placement possible isn’t getting your wireless signal as far as you would like, use adjustable directional Wi-Fi antenna to direct the signal where it is needed most.

1. Use DD-WRT Firmware
You can turn an old router into a powerful signal repeater, boost your signal, limit bandwidth for certain apps, and more by using the Linux-based DD-WRT firmware which may unlock tons of configuration settings on your wireless router.