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Wi-Fi & Internet
5 min read

Where to Put Your Router

Router position affects speed more than any setting in its admin page.

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At a glance

  • →Position beats settings
  • →Height and openness matter
  • →Test after each change, one at a time

A router broadcasts roughly outward in all directions, so a router in the corner of a house wastes half its signal on the garden. Moving it toward the centre often doubles usable coverage without spending anything.

Height matters too. Signals travel better outward than through floors, so a router on a shelf reaches further than one on the floor behind a sofa.

Materials decide the rest. Plasterboard barely matters; brick, concrete, mirrors, metal cabinets and water tanks matter enormously. A single mirrored wardrobe can create a dead spot on the far side of it.

Common causes

  • Router in a corner or a cupboard
  • Router on the floor
  • Metal or mirrored surfaces nearby
  • Distance from the rooms you actually use
  • Too many devices on the 2.4 GHz band

Troubleshooting tips

  1. 1Place the router centrally, at waist height or above, in the open.
  2. 2Keep it away from microwaves, cordless phones and large mirrors.
  3. 3Point external aerials upright for single-floor coverage.
  4. 4Use 5 GHz for nearby devices and 2.4 GHz for distant ones.
  5. 5Consider a mesh node rather than an extender for a persistent dead spot.
  6. 6Retest speed in the problem room after every change so you know what helped.

Key takeaways

  • • Position beats settings
  • • Height and openness matter
  • • Test after each change, one at a time

Related problems

Wi-Fi is connected but slowSmart TV or streaming stick has no internet

Related guides

6 min readHow Wi-Fi WorksA plain-language look at bands, channels and why your connection behaves the way it does. 5 min readWhy Wi-Fi Gets SlowSignal strength, congestion and shared bandwidth explain almost every slow Wi-Fi complaint.

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