Moving into a new house can be exciting, at least until you have to set up your Wi-Fi. If the thought of improper Wi-FI coverage, connection drops, and low speeds makes you frown, here are five things you can do to find the perfect spot for your Wi-Fi router in your home.
1 Start in the Center
The best spot for a Wi-Fi router is always in the center of the area you want it to cover. Wi-Fi signals travel equally in all directions from your router’s antennae, meaning if you place the router in the middle of your house, you should get the best coverage possible everywhere.
However, that’s not going to happen in reality. Walls, electrical appliances, furniture, and other obstacles will prevent Wi-Fi reception from being the same everywhere in the house.
Regardless, starting in the middle lets you work your way around a central space in your house to ensure you set your router in a place with the least disturbance and the best signal strength in all four corners of your house. Even if you end up using a repeater to patch a Wi-Fi dead spot or add a mesh Wi-Fi node, the new access point will be getting better signals compared to if you had just chucked your router in a closet in some corner of the house.
2 Place Your Router as High as Possible
There’s a reason all those signal towers you see are so tall, and you should do the same with your Wi-Fi router. Placing or mounting your router in a high spot, such as the ceiling, ensures that there’s the least amount of obstruction between the access point (your router) and the device you’re trying to connect to Wi-Fi.
This is one of the basics of Wi-Fi router placement that you must remember. While many Wi-Fi routers are still designed to be put on desks or mounted on walls, you can just as well mount them on the ceiling (make sure to double-check the mounting) or on top of a high bookshelf or closet.
3 Be Mindful of the ISP WAN Line
Depending on several factors, like your ISP and the region you live in, your service provider might have to run a cable straight to your Wi-Fi router. If your router is placed in the middle of the drawing-room, this could mean an ugly cable that you’ll have to hide or otherwise run around corners and walls.
I recommend looking to windows for help—the architectural feature, not OS. Having a window near your router means that you can run as much of that WAN cable from your ISP outside your house as possible and only deal with whatever length you absolutely have to keeping in mind the other points on this list.
This applies to any other openings in your house where you could run a WAN cable without risking damage in the long term. It’s best to talk to your ISP and plan ahead, as this gives you the chance of running the WAN cable with the rest of your house’s wiring.
4 Watch Out for Interference
Chances are there are going to be several household appliances in your house, including a microwave. If you’re placing your router in or around the kitchen, you might not have a great time watching cooking videos when using said microwave.
Anything in your house, including microwaves, baby monitors, wireless security cameras, Bluetooth devices, and even cordless phones, can interfere with your Wi-Fi signals. The interruption can cause anything from a small speed bump to making your network utterly usable. Older Wi-Fi routers are more susceptible to external interference, so it might also be a sign to upgrade your router.
Mounting your Wi-Fi router high up helps mitigate this, but you should be aware of the placement of your household appliances and router. It took me months to figure out why my internet would become spotty for 30 seconds out of nowhere in my new apartment, only to realize my flatmates were heating up dinner at the time and the microwave lies between my room and the Wi-Fi router, causing the interference.
5 Use Wi-Fi Analyzer to Ensure Signal Strength Before Mounting
If you think you’ve found the perfect spot for your Wi-Fi router, get your phone out, install Wi-Fi Analyzer if you use Android or nOversight WiFi Analyzer if you use iOS, and just take a walk around the house. These apps can report Wi-Fi signal strength in real time much more accurately than what your phone or PC usually shows you.
Doing a signal check before mounting makes sure you’ve covered every corner of the house before you mount the router for good. This can save you from unnecessary drilling or, worse, having to move an already-mounted router.
Finding your house’s optimal Wi-Fi router spot isn’t as difficult as it sounds. With a few careful considerations and planning, you’ll find it in no time.
