(Last Updated On: December 20, 2017)
Placing your wireless router in a suitable place is a very important task that most of us just ignore. Any person that is not a big fan of technicalities will just make do with a spot where the aesthetic appeal of the surroundings doesn’t get ruined and they probably hide it behind any object. Well the signal strength depends a lot upon the wireless router and if you don’t place it ideally in your home you will not get the desired results due to interference and obstruction.
If you place your wireless router away from your usual spot in the house where you use Wi-Fi and that spot happened to be on the edge of the wireless router range you will get very slow speeds along with consistent connection drop. So in this publication we will discuss some tips and some precautions that you can take note of to get the most out of your wireless router. Here we go.
Tips for Placing Your Wireless Router
Never Settle
The thing is when you buy a new wireless router you tend to place it where you find enough space for it to just settle and if you have kids at home you’ll probably find a spot that is out of their reach so they won’t knock it down or damage it in any way. And from performance’s point of view this is not the best thing, you have to find the spot where you get the most coverage throughout your house and the best performance. Keep changing the position of your wireless router till you find the sweet spot.
Multiple Devices
If you have multiple devices that are spread throughout your home, placing the wireless router in a corner will not help since it will only work with few devices getting strong signals and others won’t be getting any signal at all. The solution to this problem is to find a central location which has equal distance to cover to every device you need connectivity for and if you do find that central location place your wireless router at an elevation to avoid any obstructions or interference.
Physical Obstructions
Always choose a place which has less and less obstructions around it for wireless router signals to transmit easily and the strength doesn’t get affected while reaching your device. Furniture, cabinets and brick/plaster walls, all affect the wireless router’s performance in a negative way and you will notice most of the obstructions apart from the walls, are on the floor level which can be easily avoided if you install your wireless router at a height.
Reflective Surfaces
Reflective surfaces won’t help either because the signal doesn’t pass through these surfaces very effectively and bounces off. Avoid placing wireless router near stainless steel, metal or mirror surfaces or the signal’s line of path.
Same Frequency Appliances
If you have bought a wireless router which works on a single frequency band then avoid placing your wireless router near those appliances which use microwave or signal technology since those waves or signals will interfere with the signals transmitted by wireless router and in the end you will have a weak network connection in your home. Avoid placing wireless router near home automation devices, microwave ovens, cordless phones and baby monitors. Mostly these devices use 2.4GHz frequency band and the single band wireless router also use 2.4GHz frequency band. To counter this problem you can also go for dual frequency band wireless router which switches over to 5GHz frequency if the 2.4GHz frequency is crowded.
Adjust Antennas
If you have followed all of the above tips and still aren’t getting 100% performance from your wireless router you can try to adjust the antennas of your wireless router. Most wireless routers have antennas which can be rotated to a certain angle. You can follow the instructions of the manual that came along with the wireless router to tune the antennas for the strongest signal strength.
If you are not getting the coverage and performance your house requires out of your wireless router, than you probably need to get a wireless router which will fulfil your requirements and you can select that wireless router by knowing what to look for in a wireless router. The other alternative can be that you can use a Wi-Fi extender/repeater which will extend the coverage of wireless connectivity in your home at the cost of latency issue.
Be sure to check out our collection of reviewed wireless routers 2018.