It’s tempting to tuck your Wi-Fi router behind the sofa, below a shelf and even inside a cupboard to maintain it out of sight. After all, most routers aren’t precisely designed with aesthetics in thoughts.
But hiding your router in these spots can critically intervene with its efficiency. Obstructing the sign with furnishings, partitions or enclosed areas weakens your connection and slows down your web – particularly in rooms farther from the router. If you need quick, dependable Wi-Fi all through your private home, placement issues greater than you assume.
“The primary issue you must think about is that Wi-Fi travels very nicely over open air, and it travels very poorly by arduous materials,” mentioned Julian, a technician with TheseTechGuys in Renton, Washington. “The finest place to place a router is centrally situated out within the open away from any cupboards, kitchen, plumbing, partitions, issues like that.”
In common, you must put your router in a central location in your house the place you may see it. The fewer obstructions across the router, the stronger your sign will probably be. Here’s what to not do once 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 will not fully kill your sign, however you will not be maximizing it, both. Think of your router like a lightweight bulb. You need it to gentle up as massive of an space as potential. 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 indicators downward, so putting your router in an elevated place will maximize your protection. You can discover wall mounts on Amazon, however I would not suggest them — attaching your router to a wall will block chunk of its sign. Instead, attempt putting it on a desk or shelf, ideally with a foot or so of house from the wall.
Watch this: Should you exchange your router? Maybe!
Error 2: Behind the sofa
If you go searching the lounge for the perfect place to place your router, the sofa may soar out as a handy hiding place. But this can be a unhealthy thought for a similar cause you do not need to put it proper in opposition to a wall or flooring.
“You need to keep away from as many arduous supplies that the Wi-Fi sign has to journey by as potential,” Julian mentioned.
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 individuals 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 probably the most — and that is most likely not within the basement. Basements additionally are likely to have a variety of issues that may intervene with a Wi-Fi sign.
“There’s additionally much more noise within the basement,” mentioned David Maxey, a senior technician at IT assist firm NerdsToGo in Bellevue, Washington. “If you have got fluorescent lighting, wiring or copper piping within the floor flooring, that is undoubtedly going to have some impact.”
Error 4: Inside cupboards
A cupboard may seem to be a intelligent answer to an ugly router, however it’s one of many few errors you may make that might really harm your router. In addition to blocking the sign, protecting a router in an enclosed house might trigger it to overheat. One lady in Florida not too long ago misplaced her residence 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 doubtless is that your router would degrade over time with insufficient airflow, with occasional intervals 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 consists of different Wi-Fi units,” Julian advised me.
Receiving units like your TV or sensible speaker won’t mess along with your Wi-Fi, however it is going to be an issue if in case you have different gear like routers or gateways. That does not embody mesh methods, 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 if they don’t seem to be 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 needs to be in the identical household, in the identical system.”
Where must you put your router?
The finest place to place your router is someplace you may see it, comparable to a centrally situated room. Ideally, it needs to be raised no less than just a few toes off the bottom, with some open house between it and any partitions or thick items of furnishings.
That is perhaps unwelcome information for these of us with eyesores for routers, however you may all the time cover your router inside a wicker basket or plastic crate. Just make certain the container is not metallic, which might intervene with a Wi-Fi sign.
