Wi-Fi is so important to so many of us. It is our means to entertainment, to information, and work. We all fear those moments when the connection is slow or lost, making work less efficient and watching movies an annoyance. So, purchasing or renting a good router is important. But essential to getting the most of your Wi-Fi connection is router placement. Phoenix Internet provides you with five tips to help make sure you find the best place to put a router for optimal use and enjoyment.
1. Do not hide the Wi-Fi router in a corner.
So many of us want to keep the router in a hidden location so no one sees it — for aesthetic reasons of course, but this is a bad idea. Routers emit electromagnetic fields in all directions. If in a corner of a room, part of the wireless connection is sent outside your home while the remaining radio waves are emitted to space in your home. But, these radio waves coming from a corner must also travel farther to get to you, making the connection weaker. If located in a corner, you also risk dead zones in the farthest places of your home.
2. Place high up in a central location.
This tip follows the logic behind tip number 1: you want the router to be in a central location. This router placement allows the radio waves to be transmitted in all directions inside the home (not outside the home), making the distance to devices shorter and reducing or eliminating dead zones. But not only do these electromagnetic fields emit outwards, they emit downwards, too. Mounting the router as high as you can on the wall or placing it on a high shelf — in addition to a central location — will help you maximize your coverage.
3. Do not locate a router in the kitchen.
The kitchen is full of metal things: pots, pans, silverware. Metal can dissipate radio waves pretty well. Likewise, a microwave in use can interrupt the internet connection, too. Microwaves use the same wireless band, so any radiation from a microwave can negatively impact your internet signal. All in all, a router near a kitchen is at risk of being disrupted throughout the day.
4. Avoid insulating the router by internal walls.
Walls can disrupt your connection just by being an obstruction, but brick and concrete walls are especially problematic. Brick, stone, and concrete absorb radio waves, weakening the signal. For instance, if there is a brick wall separating your office space to the router but no other brick walls in the home, devices not behind the brick wall are likely to receive a better connection than the device behind the brick wall — even if the latter is closest to the router.
5. Position the router’s antenna strategically.
Most routers have antennas — some have up to eight antennas. Antennas help direct the signal. If there are two or more antennas, do not point them in the same direction but in various directions toward key devices, including making at least one perpendicular and another antenna vertical for maximum coverage.
Key Router Position Takeaways
The best location for a router will vary according to your specific living conditions and design of your home or office. But here are five key takeaways to finding the optimal location for your router.
- Do not hide or place a Wi-Fi router in a corner.
- Do locate the router in a high, central place.
- Keep the router away from the kitchen.
- Keep the router away from brick, stone, or concrete walls as much as possible.
- Use your router’s antenna(s) for maximum performance.
If you want to learn more about routers or how to hook up a modem and router, contact Phoenix Internet. We offer a range of packages to accommodate the different needs of our clients.