Tool Kit: Improving Your Home Network

That surprising fact about Netgear should tell you all you need to know about the state of home networking. Unstable connections force users to start their routers every few weeks. Thick walls dull Wi-Fi signals. Poorly located routers mean a Wi-Fi signal can’t reach an entire house. And slow connection speeds can make any sort of downloading or streaming a drag.

In short, setting up the ideal home network is often easier said than done. There are ways, however, to make it less aggravating and more reliable. You just need to be willing to experiment.

To start, consider where your router is. Hiding it under the kitchen sink may be good for aesthetics, but it won’t make for the best possible wireless connection.

To maximize coverage, your router must be out in the open. Router manufacturers say that, ideally, it should be in the center of the house.

That may not be easy, if the coaxial or telephone cable that carries the Internet signal into your house is in a corner or — most likely — the side of the house closest to the street. Like it or not, that’s where you’ll have to connect your router.

Most modern routers operate in two bands, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, and you can choose the band you want. The 2.4Ghz signal travels farther but is susceptible to interference from common household appliances, like microwave ovens, wireless landline phones and vacuum cleaners. (That’s another reason not to keep your router in your kitchen.)

You should also consider upgrading your router, which typically costs $100 or less. The most popular Wi-Fi standard is called 802.11n. If you are using an older router, with an 802.11b or g technology, get an 802.11n router.

To experience improved range and speed, your devices must be able to receive the same standard used by the router. Otherwise, it will drop back to the slower standard. But unless you are still using an early iPhone or a pretty old computer, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Even if you have an 802.11n router, you might consider getting a new one if your signal is disappointing.

The industry is now introducing 802.11ac, a new standard that promises greater range and faster connection speeds. But only a handful of devices, including Apple’s latest iMacs and MacBook Air, actually support it. You can also buy an 802.11ac adapter for about $90. If you choose not to, buying an 802.11ac router now may not be much help.

The newest routers do, however, often include updated technologies that can improve coverage and speed, no matter what standard you use.

Some carriers, like AT&T, will provide consumers with a combination modem and router. And if you don’t like that router, you can still use your own and plug it into the combination unit. Your devices will show both routers but use the one you prefer. You can also go to the router’s Web site setup page and disable the combination router’s signal.

Many dropped wireless connections can be solved by ensuring that your router is using the latest software, or firmware. Most manufacturers’ Web site setup screens will automatically check to confirm that the latest version is installed and prompt you to download it.

Unfortunately, the download process can be clunky. First, you need to know how to get to the setup screen, which few people do. (To get to Belkin’s setup Web page, for example, type in 192.168.2.1. For a Netgear router, type “routerlogin.net.” If you’ve misplaced your router’s manual, to find the proper I.P. sign-in address, do a Web search for the router and its sign-in. Once there, you often have to download the software and manually install it, which can also be a challenge.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 3, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the bands that most modern routers operate in. They are 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, not 2.4Mhz and 5Mhz.

Off the Charts: Traffic Backups as a Gauge of an Improving U.S. Economy

And while that is not good news for those facing delays, it is for the economy.

“Traffic is a great indicator of confidence on the ground,” said Bryan Mistele, the chief executive of Inrix, which compiles what it calls the Inrix Gridlock Index. “People hit the road as they return to work, and businesses ship more freight as their orders increase.” The rise in the index, he said on Friday, “shows the pulse of the economy is starting to beat faster.”

Drivers in most European countries, however, do not face the same traffic problem. With some of those economies in recession, travel times are declining.

Inrix, based in Kirkland, Wash., says it has data since 2010 on how long it takes vehicles to travel on roads in 100 metropolitan areas in the United States, as well as abroad. The data is collected from companies that monitor their fleet vehicles through GPS systems, and from cellphones and GPS devices in cars that use some mobile navigation programs.

It says it then calculates the figures for 15-minute intervals throughout the week, and is able to separate out vehicles that stop for other reasons — like a taxi picking up or discharging a passenger.

It then determines how long trips take versus how long they would take if there were no traffic to contend with, and calculates the average increase in trip length for each area, expressed as a percentage of the minimum time.

The accompanying charts show how much those delays increased, or decreased, in each month compared with the same month a year earlier. A figure above zero indicates that traffic delays are getting worse; one below zero indicates that traffic is speeding up.

For the United States as a whole, said Jim Bak, an Inrix official, “the data shows a double-dip,” plateauing in 2011 and then falling again last autumn. “We saw things improve again after the election,” he said. By improving, he means that delays are increasing.

For the United States as a whole, December was the first month since the data became available to show that delays were getting longer on a year-over-year basis. That continued in January and grew in February.

There are, of course, other reasons than the health of the economy for traffic moving faster or slower. Weather is an obvious one, but by reporting the data as monthly averages that are compared with the same month of the previous year, that is at least partly adjusted for.

In Europe, delays have recently been declining at only a slow rate in France and Britain, perhaps indicating that economic downturns in those countries are stabilizing. But the delays are all but vanishing in Italy and Spain, and have also been falling in Germany.

Honolulu, which has some of the worst traffic delays in the United States, has seen them getting worse in recent months, as have Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. But delays seem to be getting shorter in both Seattle and Washington.

Floyd Norris comments on finance and the economy on nytimes.com/economix.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 29, 2013

An earlier version of this column misspelled the surname of an Inrix official. He is Jim Bak, not Bax.

On the Road: Improving Security Checks to Help the Disabled - On the Road

The encounter at the St. Louis airport on Feb. 9 — propelled into wide media coverage by the five-and-a-half-minute video taken by the girl’s mother — is exactly the sort of public embarrassment that the security agency says it hopes to avoid in the future. As such, the agency says it will begin aggressively promoting a new program of using specially trained officers to head off unnecessary difficulties involving security screening of travelers with disabilities.

The program has 3,000 so-called passenger support specialists who volunteer from among the agency’s work force of about 45,000 screeners. Their job is to help ensure that disabled passengers receive “the level of screening needed to make us comfortable that there is no threat or risk to aviation, but allows us to do it in a way where we can explain our processes to customers and use whatever discretions that are in our authority to make the screening experience as easy as possible for them,” said Chris McLaughlin, the agency’s assistant administrator for security operations.

The specialists receive three hours of training based on the need to step in when appropriate to “communicate effectively and respectfully with passengers with disabilities,” said Kimberly Walton, the agency’s assistant administrator for civil rights, liberties and travel engagement. Specialists at checkpoints “identify potential difficulties that passengers with disabilities and medical conditions may experience throughout screening” and “either proactively help, or resolve concerns,” she added.

The agency has been developing the program for more than a year. It was introduced quietly this year and, after the initial evaluation process, was successful. The agency says it now wants more travelers to know that it is in place. Among passengers with disabilities, “the groups that tend to get us the most mention,” Mr. McLaughlin said, are children and the aged.

“We recognize that there is a group of passengers that represents lower risk, and at the same time tends to have greater needs of us,” he added.

Under the program, specialists are called on to assist in resolving problems encountered at security checkpoints by passengers in wheelchairs, by those using medical devices like insulin pumps, and those who otherwise present physical or mental challenges. Specialists are trained to “know when the need arises” and identify passengers with special needs, or respond to calls for assistance from regular screeners, Mr. McLaughlin said.

The new initiative is tied to an existing program called TSA Cares. That is a toll-free help-line — 855-787-2227 — where assistants will provide information about security issues for those with disabilities, or will, when requested, “notify an airport in advance, so our work force is prepared when they arrive,” Ms. Walton said.

She gave an example of parents who called the help line before traveling with an autistic child who “can’t wait in a line, can’t be touched, is not good at following instructions and gets upset if there are too many lights or many sounds — all of which could trigger a really bad experience,” she said. With notice, the agency’s staff was able to anticipate that child’s needs and provide “a good experience” at security, she said.

Groups advocating for the disabled are working with the agency on the new initiative, including the Open Doors Organization and the National Disability Rights Network and organizations for the blind and those who require service animals for travel, Ms. Walton said.

The video of the child, Lucy Forck, crying in her wheelchair at a security checkpoint while her parents tried to reason with security officers demonstrated how delicate such situations can be and how quickly they can go wrong.

The incident in St. Louis involved “a relatively new officer being faced for the first time in her career with a situation of a child in a wheelchair,” Mr. McLaughlin said. The agency acknowledged that the screener had incorrectly told the parents that the child needed to be patted down and incorrectly told the mother that it was illegal for her to record the encounter.

“While she did make some advisements to the customer that were incorrect, before she actually physically did any screening she had the presence of mind to request assistance from her supervisor, and that supervisor in turn got a passenger support specialist involved, and as a result of that this child was not screened inappropriately, and the situation was explained to the parents,” Mr. McLaughlin said.

After about 20 minutes, the girl, who has spina bifida, was comforted and carried through security by her mother, while the wheelchair was routinely swabbed for explosives. The parents, Nathan Forck and Annie Schulte, later said they accepted the agency’s apology but hoped that the agency would provide better training in dealing more appropriately and respectfully with disabled passengers.

That is the goal of the passenger support program, and a reason that the agency is now promoting its availability, Mr. McLaughlin said. “Our knowing when the need arises is somewhat dependent on customers knowing that the program exists,” he said.