This Is the Best Room in the House to Place Your Router for Optimal Wi-Fi
This Is the Best Room in the House to Place Your Router for Optimal Wi-Fi
Here's what to say—and, more important, what not to say—when having difficult conversations about their behavior during the pandemic.
Nothing is worse than being in the middle of an important Zoom call when the Wi-Fi signal drops. These days, many of us are working from home, which means that strong Wi-Fi makes a huge difference in our day-to-day interactions and ability to do our jobs well. But did you know that where you place your Wi-Fi router can have an impact on the strength and stability of your internet signal? Here, we asked a technology expert on how to set up your router and the key factors that help you decide on the ideal room to place it in.
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Where You Should Set It Up
In general, "the best location to place a router for the best signal would be high and central in the home," explains Laura Maiuri, an information technology specialist and certified IPv6 network engineer. "For example, if the home has two floors, and you tend to use your Wi-Fi throughout the entire house, the router should be on the second floor and closest to the center so the signal can be transmitted throughout the entire home." That said, by her recommendation, you should set up the router on the first floor if you only use your Wi-Fi there.
Location plays an important role in your Wi-Fi strength, explains Maiuri. Your router spreads a signal in all directions, but the signal weakens the farther away it is from the router. Wi-Fi extenders like the TP-Link AC1750 Wi-Fi Extender ($69.99, amazon.com) can boost your Wi-Fi signal as much as 2,000 square feet. This is a great solution if you have a large house or want to extend the Wi-Fi to your outdoor living space.
Where You Shouldn't Set It Up
As important as it is to know where you should set up your router, it's also important to know where you shouldn't—there are locations in your home that can block the strength of your signal, which means these are spots to avoid. "Basements, closets, attics, and bathrooms are all poor places for routers because obstructions and electronics weaken the signal, and this can create dead zones in a home," Maiuri says. "Being too close to walls or the floor should be avoided because the signal could bounce off or be absorbed by these. Another spot for the router to be avoided is the kitchen because of the many electronics that are in there that can interfere with the signal." Remove clutter and obstructions in the surrounding area of your router. Larger homes could benefit from having more than one router. The setup may depend on your internet provider, but you can generally connect more than one router to your internet.
Where should you never place your router? "Putting a router on an outside wall can overlap with a neighbor's Wi-Fi signal causing interference," explains Maiuri. "This can be fixed by changing the Wi-Fi band channel the router is set on, but it is neighborly to just not put your router on an outer wall to begin with!"
