Life Pro Tip Michigan: Put Aluminum Foil Behind Your Wi-Fi Router

It seems the average Michigan home is reliant on the Internet. It needs to be fast and reliable, but your provider is only going to give you so much.

Home internet prices aren't too bad despite how expensive things are these days, but that's really under the best of circumstances. Many rural homes in Michigan are cursed with unreliable internet that isn't very fast and isn't available for unlimited use.

But a problem that can haunt any home Wi-Fi connection is connectivity. Wanna stream some music during your shower your internet has to make the stretch to the other room. Want to stream your comfort television show in the bedroom while your significant other games with his buddies in the living room, your internet has to have the bandwidth and the strength to carry both signals reliably.

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Your Wi-Fi router projects signals like a radio to your devices. Like a radio, it covers a particular area based on its strength. But that means it can send the Wi-Fi to your cat tree where no one needs it while leaving a dead zone in the downstairs bathroom where you can't scroll TikTok in peace.

There are Wi-Fi signal boosters on the market that are fairly reasonably priced, and for some larger homes, they are a near necessity these days to reach every corner of the house. However, there's bound to be a roll of aluminum foil in our kitchen that might help you solve the problem without burning your wallet at all.

For those who have used aluminum foil for television antennas, hold off before you wrap your whole router up.

The process is rather simple, as Reader's Digest explains.

"Bend the foil to create a “C” shape, with the shiny side of the foil facing inside the curve. For routers with outer antennas, you might need to fold the top so that it covers the antennas too... Place the foil behind the router, with the curved portion facing toward the router and the target area where you want to boost the signal. You might need to fold the bottom part so that the aluminum foil can stand upright."

Not only will this direct your router's signal to places in the house you actually want it to go, but it can also give your Wi-Fi a speed boost since your router isn't wasting power and signal by pushing internet connection to useless areas.