I fixed my home office's spotty Wi-Fi with Samsung's free diagnostic tool - and it took just minutes

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I recently decided to fix a home office problem that I've put for six years: my desktop location, and its never-quite-adequate internet reception.

See, when I first built out my home office at the start of COVID-19, I worried more about the natural benefits of my desk's positioning relative to the window and door -- the "feng shui" of things, as the WFH influencers say.

Also: My home's Wi-Fi dead zones were worse than I thought - here's what fixed them

It was all about getting as much natural light as possible, not turning my back against the door, and most definitely not "in what quadrant of the room would I get the best internet connection?" -- because that's the least important thing when working remotely.

While I settled quite well over the past six years, more recently, my internet for work really took a tumble. My first call to Verizon led to a pitch to upgrade my Fios plan, and at that very moment, I realized it was time for a change.

I've covered Samsung's Connectivity Labs tool -- found in modern Galaxy phones that run OneUI 6.0 or newer -- quite extensively, but this felt like a good time to revisit the hidden feature. (If you use a non-Samsung device, there are alternatives that I'll share later.)

To unlock it on your phone, go to your Wi-Fi settings, tap the three-dot menu (for expanded settings), tap Intelligent Wi-Fi, then tap the version number 7 times, or until you see a notification that says "Connectivity Labs enabled." The previously hidden menu should appear right underneath the version number.

Also: How I use Samsung's secret Wi-Fi menu to seriously improve my connectivity

Connectivity Labs includes a suite of diagnostic utilities that help you better understand your local cellular and Wi-Fi performance. The real-time Wi-Fi strength meter, which spawns a heatmap of signal strength as you walk around an area, is what I used to investigate my home office.

Within -30 dBm (decibel-milliwatts) to -50 dBm represents the best signal strength, -60 dBm to -70 dBm is just good enough for browsing, and anything lower is poor. So I ran an internet speed test to measure the existing download/upload speeds and started mapping out my office for any weak or dead spots.

As I walked around my office (roughly 100 sq ft.), pausing in high-usage spots for five seconds for the most accurate measuring, I noticed a couple of things:

So I swapped the positions of my desk and cabinet, ran the same internet speed test, and found the numbers were much higher (and consistent with my Verizon Fios plan). I'm talking roughly 100 Mbps and 50 Mbps more for download and upload speeds, respectively. What a relief -- and a reminder to always consider your free internet remedies before biting whatever upgrade plan your ISP offers you.