Free-space path loss

Free-space path loss is a situation where a signal traveling through the air without any obstacles, such as walls or buildings, loses strength as it moves further away from its source.

Imagine you have a toy car with a remote control, and you want to send it from one end of a big room to the other. When the car is close to you, you can move it in any direction you want without any difficulty. However, as the car gets farther away from you, you have to strain to reach it, and sometimes the signal from the remote may not even reach the car at all.

In the same way, when you have a Wi-Fi router, it sends out signals that your device picks up to get connected to the internet. The further away you are from the router, the weaker the signal becomes, and this is called free-space path loss. The signal can get weaker due to factors such as interference from other devices or objects, but mostly it happens because of the natural properties of the air itself.

So, if you want to make sure you have a strong signal, try to stay closer to the router or move it closer to you. You can also try to reduce any interference from other devices or objects that may be blocking the signal.