If you bought a brand-new Wi-Fi router, then here are the settings that I recommend for your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Enable or Disable A Few Wi-Fi Settings to Get the Best-Possible Wireless Experience on Your iPhone, iPad, and Mac
By default, a new Wi-Fi router has a lot of features enabled or disabled. When you dive deep into it, you start to realize that you’re not even using the features you paid for.
For example, if you bought a Wi-Fi 6 or higher router, then its most crucial feature, which happens to be OFDMA, is almost always turned off by default. Not only that, your router is usually set to use a completely deprecated Wi-Fi security standard as well, just for the sake of broader compatibility.
I’m going to walk you through all the settings you should change on your Wi-Fi router immediately for the best possible performance on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Note: Since all Wi-Fi routers are different, therefore I’m going to talk in general terms where you can enable or disable certain features.
Enable OFDMA
If you have a Wi-Fi 6, 6E, or 7 router, then make sure you enable OFDMA. You’ll find OFDMA under your basic wireless settings. This feature is usually turned on by default on mesh Wi-Fi systems.
OFDMA allows your router to send multiple packets of data to several devices at the same time which improves overall network efficiency, and it is the flagship feature of Wi-Fi 6 and above.
This feature truly shines when you have multiple iPhones, iPads, and Macs transmitting data at the same time, which means features like background iCloud sync will benefit from it, and you won’t feel any slowdown even if there are too many devices talking to the router for data.
Disable Airtime Fairness
Airtime Fairness is usually enabled by default, and this is your sign to disable it right away. You’ll find this feature under advanced wireless settings in your Wi-Fi router’s setting page.
Since technologies like OFDMA exist, therefore Airtime Fairness loses its charm completely in modern times. You’ll experience random disconnects or extreme slowdowns for devices that are slow, or located far away from your router.
Disable Target Wake Time (TWT)
A feature designed to save battery life, it’s best you keep TWT disabled because it relies heavily on devices negotiating standby and wake times with the Wi-Fi router. It can be a hit or a miss, so rather than add a layer of complication, just disable the feature.
Use WPA2/WPA3 Security Only
Wi-Fi routers ship with WPA/WPA2 mixed mode Wi-Fi security. The culprit here is WPA and TKIP which is deprecated, slow, and meant for old Wi-Fi standards only. In fact, if your device connects to WPA TKIP even by accident, your speed will fall down to just 54Mbps.
You can either set your Wi-Fi router to use WPA2-PSK (AES) only, or set it to use WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode. I will suggest WPA2-PSK (AES) since it offers better compatibility with a broad range of devices.
The important thing here is getting rid of WPA and TKIP completely, therefore setting your router to use WPA2-PSK (AES) is the way to go.
MLO (Wi-Fi 7 Only)
If you have a Wi-Fi 7 router, you get the option to enable a feature called MLO, or Multi-Link Operation. When enabled, Wi-Fi 7 devices can connect to multiple bands at the same time for low latency, and higher throughput.
Enable this feature from your wireless settings and connect your compatible iPhone and iPad devices to it. Make sure you use a separate SSID (network name) for MLO.
If you do not have a single Wi-Fi 7 device at home, make sure you keep the feature disabled.
Enable Smart Connect
Make sure your 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz use the same network name. For example, if your 2.4GHz network name is ‘Awesome_Home’ then set your 5GHz and 6GHz network name to ‘Awesome_Home’ as well.
Your iPhone, iPad, and Mac will automatically connect to the fastest-possible band on their own, thanks to ‘smart connect.’
Channel Width (The Most Important One)
When it comes to channel width, automatic settings are more than enough. But if you prefer a more stable network, then make a couple of adjustments.
Set your 2.4GHz band to 20MHz channel width, 5GHz band to 80MHz channel width, and 6GHz band to 80MHz channel width as well.
Higher channel widths like 160 MHz are fantastic for better throughput, but if there’s interference around you, you’ll instantly see latency spikes and packet losses. 80 MHz is the sweet spot for range and overall stability.
And yes, in case you’re wondering, channel width does affect range as well. If you set the channel width to 20 MHz, you’ll get better range but sacrifice throughput. 160 MHz or higher offers better throughput but comes at a cost of less range and is more prone to interference.
Conclusion
So, if you didn’t bother reading through all of the above, here’s what you have to do:
- Enable OFDMA
- Disable Airtime Fairness
- Disable Target Wake Time
- Use WPA2 AES or WPA2/WPA3 mixed mode
- Enable MLO if you have Wi-Fi 7 devices
- Enable Smart Connect
- Adjust channel width for stability
