Unpacking is unfortunately not the end of le déménagement (moving). When all the boxes are gone there can still be issues with les appareils (appliances) and sometimes even l’électricité (electricity). In our modern age, a new important thing to check après le déménagement (after moving) is la connexion Wi-Fi (the Wi-Fi connection) from votre chambre (your room).

Image by Sunil Soundarapandian on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

When I moved into mon nouveau appartement (my new apartment) I quickly noticed a problem with la connexion internet sans fils (the wireless internet connection) better known as le Wi-Fi*. I had un colocataire (a roommate) so the internet was already set up when I moved in, but the signal was incredibly weak in ma chambre.

*En français Wi-Fi is commonly pronounced as “weefee” (\wi.fi\ in IPA) and not “waifai” (\waj.faj\ in IPA).

Once I bought mon nouveau lit (my new bed) and needed to rearrange ma chambre, the slight change made le signal Wi-Fi trop faible (the Wi-Fi signal too weak). Moving mon bureau (my desk) was enough to make it impossible for me to connect to le réseau Wi-Fi (the Wi-Fi network)!

Comment puis-je résoudre ce problème ?
How can I solve this problem? 

There’s an unfortunate manque de prises (lack of outlets) between the le salon (the living room) where la box Wi-Fi (the Wi-Fi router) is and ma chambre, and mon colocataire would be against running new wires through l’apartement.

I knew that there was un appareil (a device) that could booster le signal (boost the signal), mais (but) I wasn’t sure what it was called.

Une fois au magasin (once I was at the store), I started looking at the electronics section and hoped I could find what I needed, mais after a few minutes without finding l’appareil, I decided to ask for some help:

Excusez-moi, je cherche quelque chose qui peut booster un signal Wi-Fi.
Vous cherchez une box Wi-Fi?
Non, j’en ai une déjà, mais le signal Wi-Fi est trop faible dans ma chambre. Je crois qu’il y a un truc qui peut amplifier* le signal dans ma chambre.
Ah oui, vous cherchez un répéteur alors. Suivez moi, s’il vous plaît. 

Excuse me, I’m looking for something to boost a Wi-Fi signal.
You’re looking for a Wi-Fi router?
Non, I already have one, but the Wi-Fi signal is too weak in my room. I believe there’s a thing that can amplify* the signal in my room.
Ah yes, you’re looking for a repeater then. Please follow me. 

*I wasn’t sure if booster was a real French word so I decided to use a different one in order to make sure l’employé (the employee) understood what I said.

I made sure to thank l’employé and took some time to look at all the options before buying un répéteur. Luckily it was pretty easy to set up and once le répéteur was installed I had no more issues with l’internet dans ma chambre!

Voici un vocabulaire du wifi : 

La connexion internet sans fils – Wireless Internet Connection
La connexion sans fils – Wireless Connection
Le Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi
Le réseau Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi Network
Le signal – Signal
Le signal faible – Weak/poor signal
La box – Router (literally “The Box”, marketing term that became popular in France)
Le routeur – Router
Le répéteur – Repeater
L’appareil – Device
L’internet – Internet
L’ordinateur – Computer
Le bureau – Desk