It’s comprehensible if you happen to’d need to stash your Wi-Fi router away behind the sofa, below a bookshelf or (gasp) even inside a cupboard. They aren’t all the time the prettiest units to have a look at.
While these hidden positions will hold the clunky-looking gadget out of sight, they’ll additionally make it lots more durable on your Wi-Fi router to do its job.
“The principal issue it’s important to take into account is that Wi-Fi travels very properly over open air, and it travels very poorly by means of laborious 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 common, it’s best to put your router in a central location in your house the place you possibly can see it. The fewer obstructions across the router, the stronger your sign will likely be. Here’s what to not do while you’re establishing your router.
Read extra: Here’s How Much Money I’ve Burned by Renting a Router for Six Years
Error 1: On the ground
Putting your router on the ground received’t fully kill your sign, however you received’t be maximizing it, both. Think of your router like a lightweight bulb. You need it to mild up as giant 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 usually ship their strongest alerts downward, so inserting 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 inserting it on a desk or shelf, ideally with a foot or so of house from the wall.
Watch this: Should you change your router? Maybe!
Error 2: Behind the sofa
If you go searching the lounge for one of the best place to place your router, the sofa would possibly leap out as a handy hiding place. But this can be a unhealthy thought for a similar cause you don’t need to put it proper in opposition to a wall or flooring.
“You need to keep away from as many laborious supplies that the Wi-Fi sign has to journey by means of as doable,” Julian stated.
A sofa or armchair may not be as outsized of an obstacle as a wall, however it is going to nonetheless weaken your Wi-Fi sign.
Error 3: In the basement
Some folks dislike the look of their router a lot that they stash it within the basement. But that violates one of many elementary guidelines of residence networking: Put your router the place you utilize it essentially the most — and that’s in all probability not within the basement. Basements additionally are inclined to have numerous 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 assist firm NerdsToGo in Bellevue, Washington. “If you’ve gotten fluorescent lighting, wiring or copper piping within the floor flooring, that is undoubtedly going to have some impact.”
Error 4: Inside cupboards
A cupboard would possibly look like a intelligent resolution to an ugly router, however it’s one of many few errors you may make that might truly harm your router. In addition to blocking the sign, conserving a router in an enclosed house may trigger it to overheat. One lady in Florida not too long ago misplaced her residence in a hearth that she says was began by her Wi-Fi router.
That’s an excessive, worst-case state of affairs. What’s extra doubtless 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 gadget 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 when you have different gear like routers or gateways. That doesn’t embrace 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 would possibly assume, says Julian.
“People simply do not know. You begin with one gadget, like a router, after which your web’s not working in addition to you need. So then you definately go purchase one other gadget,” Julian says. “It’s only a lack of awareness that the units needs to be in the identical household, in the identical system.”
Where do you have to put your router?
The greatest place to place your router is someplace you possibly can see it, corresponding to a centrally positioned room. Ideally, it needs to be raised a minimum of a couple 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 possibly can all the time cover your router inside a wicker basket or plastic crate. Just make certain the container isn’t steel, which might intervene with a Wi-Fi sign.
