Placing your wireless router in the best possible location

          This article is intended to get you familiar with the good practices, when settling and positioning your wireless router inside your home. Many people do not pay much attention to this subject, but in fact, most domestic wireless network issues are caused exactly due to improper positioning of the wireless router inside the house. Problems that might occur are – poor wireless signal, unstable connection, significant reduction of speed, etc.

          Setting up a Wi-Fi network should be an easy prospect, shouldn’t it? A house is a closed-in box, and you’d think when you place a device that transmits wireless signals in all directions that achieving a perfect signal everywhere in the house would be insanely easy. Well, that’s not exactly the case. There are a lot of things that can cause problems with a Wi-Fi signal, and a house is full of them. There are walls made of all different materials, blocks of masonry, electronic devices creating both inductive noise and emitting frequencies of all sorts. If you don’t carefully plan the placement of your router, taking into account all of those factors, you may not get the pristine wireless internet signal that you deserve. When you look at a typical house, the number of obstacles and points of interference is amazing. To avoid problems, the temptation is to situate your wireless router somewhere in the very center of your home, as shown on the picture below.

First and foremost, don't settle prematurely on a location for the wireless access point or router. Experiment; try placing the device in several different promising locations. While trial-and-error may not be the most scientific way to find a good spot for your equipment, it is often the only practical way to assure the best possible Wi-Fi performance. Strive to install the wireless access point or router in a central location. If you have only one wireless device, installing near this device is best.

Next, avoid physical obstructions whenever possible. Any barriers along the "line of sight" between client and base station will degrade a Wi-Fi radio signal. Plaster or brick walls tend to have the most negative impact, but really any obstruction including cabinets or furniture will weaken the signal to some degree. Obstructions tend to reside closer to floor level; therefore, some folks prefer to install their wireless access point / router on or near the ceiling. Also avoid reflective surfaces whenever possible. Some Wi-Fi signals literally bounce off of windows, mirrors, metal file cabinets and stainless steel countertops, lessening both network range and performance. You’ll see this advice on almost any article about optimizing Wi-Fi. While a wireless signal can travel through walls, there are certain materials that it can’t penetrate – metal and concrete or cement. In fact, one of the easiest ways to block your wireless signal from your neighbors is to place the router below the level of your cement basement wall. That foundation wall will absorb nearly the entire signal. Most people place their router in the basement, but a common mistake is placing it on a shelf right next to that exterior foundation wall.

The wireless signal from that router radiates out in every direction. By doing this, you’re essentially wasting a lot of the capacity of that router, radiating the signals right into the concrete wall where it has no place to go. It’s even worse situated above, because just around the corner of that wall is a majority of the house, where people upstairs will have a difficult time getting a good signal. Another object that people don’t really consider until it causes Wi-Fi problems is that massive slab of masonry in the middle of the house called a “chimney”. That block of stone can cause problems with a wireless signal when you place the router a little too close to it. Maybe in the basement you have a nice, convenient shelf near the chimney, so if you put your router right there, plug it in, and the next thing you know you can’t seem to get a very good wireless signal throughout half of your house.

Another thing is that people don’t realize just how many devices in a house can generate wireless frequencies or electromagnetic interference that can mess up the wireless signal. Placing your router near any sort of motor, which generates an inductive “flux” and therefore wireless EM frequencies, or devices like a microwave or a wireless telephone that emit similar frequencies to a router – those can all have disastrous effects on your Wi-Fi signal. Also microwaves are one of the router’s worst enemies. Wireless phones as well. When you’re looking to place your router in that perfect location, don’t only think about location – draw a diagram of the floor plan and make sure to highlight where you have existing devices that are actively emitting wireless signals.

Considering the written above, you are now fully aware of picking up the best spot for your wireless router, keeping in mind all the factors that might spoil your connection.

In general we would always recommend you to connect your laptop/PC via LAN cable directly to your router, as in this way you would get the optimal from your connection. Even though, many people prefer wireless to cable as a method, due to the fact they do not like cables, being scrambled, or just being visible around their houses, or due to the many mobile devices, like cellphones, tablets, etc, which do not support cable connection.