Wi-Fi routers aren’t essentially the most engaging units. You may be tempted to stash yours away behind the sofa, below a bookshelf or (gasp) even inside a cupboard.
These hidden positions will hold the clunky-looking gadget out of sight, however they’ll additionally make it quite a bit tougher on your Wi-Fi router to do its job.
“The important issue you need to take into account is that Wi-Fi travels very effectively over open air, and it travels very poorly by onerous materials,” stated Julian, a technician with ThoseTechGuys in Renton, Washington. “The greatest place to place a router is centrally positioned out within the open away from any cupboards, kitchen, plumbing, partitions, issues like that.”
In basic, you need to put your router in a central location in your house the place you’ll be able to see it. The fewer obstructions across the router, the stronger your sign will probably be. Here’s what to not do while you’re establishing your router.
Error 1: On the ground
Putting your router on the ground gained’t fully kill your sign, however you gained’t be maximizing it, both. Think of your router like a lightweight bulb. You need it to gentle up as massive of an space as doable. Putting a lamp on the bottom will nonetheless present some lighting, however not as a lot as placing it on a desk.
Radio waves sometimes ship their strongest indicators downward, so putting your router in an elevated place will maximize your protection. You can discover wall mounts on Amazon, however I wouldn’t advocate them — attaching your router to a wall will block a very good chunk of its sign. Instead, attempt putting it on a desk or shelf, ideally with a foot or so of house from the wall.
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Error 2: Behind the sofa
If you go searching the lounge for the most effective place to place your router, the sofa may soar out as a handy hiding place. But it is a dangerous concept for a similar motive you don’t wish to put it proper in opposition to a wall or flooring.
“You wish to keep away from as many onerous supplies that the Wi-Fi sign has to journey by as doable,” Julian stated.
A sofa or armchair won’t be as outsized of an obstacle as a wall, however it’s going to nonetheless weaken your Wi-Fi sign.
Error 3: In the basement
Some individuals dislike the look of their router a lot that they stash it within the basement. But that violates one of many basic guidelines of house networking: Put your router the place you employ it essentially the most — and that’s most likely not within the basement. Basements additionally are inclined to have a variety of issues that may intervene with a Wi-Fi sign.
“There’s additionally much more noise within the basement,” stated David Maxey, a senior technician at IT help firm NerdsToGo in Bellevue, Washington. “If you could have fluorescent lighting, wiring or copper piping within the floor flooring, that is positively going to have some impact.”
Error 4: Inside cupboards
A cupboard may look like a intelligent answer to an unpleasant router, nevertheless it’s one of many few errors you may make that would truly injury your router. In addition to blocking the sign, maintaining a router in an enclosed house might trigger it to overheat. One lady in Florida not too long ago misplaced her house in a fireplace that she says was began by her Wi-Fi router.
That’s an excessive, worst-case state of affairs. What’s extra probably is that your router would degrade over time with insufficient airflow, with occasional durations of full shutdown.
Error 5: Near one other Wi-Fi router
“Wi-Fi operates by itself spectrum of mainly radio waves, so any machine that broadcasts on the identical spectrum goes to intervene with it. That contains different Wi-Fi units,” Julian instructed me.
Receiving units like your TV or sensible speaker is not going to mess along with your Wi-Fi, however will probably be an issue you probably have different tools like routers or gateways. That doesn’t embody mesh techniques, which use a number of routers in tandem to unfold a Wi-Fi sign all through the house.
Why would somebody have a number of routers in the event that they’re not a part of a mesh system? It’s extra widespread than you may assume, says Julian.
“People simply do not know. You begin with one machine, like a router, after which your web’s not working in addition to you need. So then you definitely go purchase one other machine,” Julian says. “It’s only a lack of information that the units must be in the identical household, in the identical system.”
Where must you put your router?
The greatest place to place your router is someplace you’ll be able to see it, reminiscent of a centrally positioned room. Ideally, it must be raised not less than a number of toes off the bottom, with some open house between it and any partitions or thick items of furnishings.
That may be unwelcome information for these of us with eyesores for routers, however you’ll be able to all the time disguise your router inside a wicker basket or plastic crate. Just make sure the container isn’t steel, which might intervene with a Wi-Fi sign.
