De-mystifying your “Why-Fi”
Article II : Location, Location, Location
Through my seven plus years of troubleshooting Wi-Fi in homes I have learned a simple truth: many connectivity issues can be solved with proper router placement. What does this mean exactly? Well, I’m glad you’re asking the right questions!
This article is the second of three in a short series on how to optimize your home Wi-Fi experience.
This second article will cover these topics:
- General router placement within the home
- Environmental considerations
Let it breathe!
For most people the thought of having a router out in the open is a no go. I have seen more than a fair share of homes where the wireless router is tucked away in the far corner of the basement or stashed in the bottom cabinet of a desk in the office simply so it is not visible.
It is important to remember that your router is trying to send and receive signal from all the connected devices within your home. More distance and obstacles between these two points can severely limit this connection causing slower speeds and drop-outs.
I like to think of the router as a speaker. If you purchased a brand new, top of the line, surround sound system for your living room would you hide the speakers in the basement? No! (If you answered yes, this article might not be the help you need…) Your wireless router should be thought of in a similar fashion. Some guidelines follow:
- Central location
In order to keep all devices as close to the router as possible the optimal placement is somewhere in the middle of your home. Generally this means the room closest to the middle of the main floor of your house. Sometimes this room ends up being the kitchen, which is not a good place for your router, but the point is to avoid placing the router in the basement of a two story house or the garage etc.
Think of the Wi-Fi signal as coming out of the router in a spherical pattern. Placing the router in a central location gives it the best chance to send signal out in all directions equally.
*Note: Some routers are setup to project slightly more towards the ‘front’ of the device. This is done because most people face the back of the router towards a wall. I have found that placing these centrally as described here and facing them away from the wall (as you normally would) yields great results.
2. No confined spaces
This is usually the killer. It is popular to shove the router into a cabinet or closet to keep it ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Remember, your router needs to ‘talk’ to your devices. How good of a conversation could we have if you were in the back room of your house and I was in the front hall closet with the door closed? (Like an old married couple where the husband is trying to find his lost *something* and he’s yelling to his wife, hilarity ensues.)
Simply getting your router out of a small, confined space can improve signal quality tremendously. But if I take it out of the cabinet, where should I put it? Great question!
3. Give it a view
Get that router up off the floor. The higher up the router sits the fewer objects are in the signal path (table legs, plants, cabinets, dogs, etc.) All of these things block or absorb your precious internet instead of allowing it to permeate through to your device (my dog absorbed my homework!?)
TV stands, side tables, tops of cabinets, desktops, or similar places are great. Also, you can usually place the router next to or behind something on these platforms to better conceal it from view while still allowing it to function at top speed. I have solved many issues by taking a router out of an armoire cabinet and hiding it on the top!
4. Best effort
The truth is sometimes you can’t incorporate all three of the above considerations when choosing a place for your router. As long as it is fairly central, as out in the open as possible, and not shoved inside a cabinet or under something your router should be able to spread it’s signal with little obstruction.
There are a few environmental issues to be aware of when choosing placement. Please read on to learn about these.
A product of the environment.
As we learned in the first article in this series, there are other devices out there pumping out signal similar to our wireless routers. With this in mind we must be careful to give enough space between our router and other devices that emit any type of wireless signal. This is usually referred to as ‘the four foot rule’.
Four foot rule
As its name implies, about four feet between wireless devices is sufficient in most cases. Why do we need this separation at all? Well, remember that your router is trying to send and receive signal. If there is another device close by that is pushing out signal it makes it difficult for your router to ‘hear’ what your devices are saying to it.
Other wireless devices could include a transmitter for wireless set top boxes (U-Verse, DirecTV, other TV providers), wireless stereo equipment (Sonos), or possibly a transmitter connecting alarm devices wirelessly (ADT). Spacing out these devices can greatly improve performance, so no more stacking all your electronic boxes in one basket hidden in a cabinet under the TV stand.
Other factors
There are other environmental factors that could come into play. Baby monitors, Wi-Fi treadmills, and even solar power have been found to cause issues on occasion. If you find your wifi cutting out around a certain time of day it’s always a good start to ask, “what kicks on/off around this time?” Sometimes even ‘dirty’ power can be the root of poor Wi-Fi performance.
Putting it all together
Hopefully this article has shed some light on how proper router placement could significantly improve your home Wi-Fi experience. Just remember: central, out in the open, and up off the ground.
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to checkout the rest of the series:
Article I : A Brief Introduction To Wi-Fi
Article III : One Router To Rule Them All
Thoughts? Questions? Please start a conversation below!
