Guides · Network and Wi-Fi
Where to put the router
A lot of slow Wi-Fi is a placement problem. Move the router before you buy anything.
Why the spot matters
Radio weakens with distance and with every wall it crosses, and Wi-Fi is radio. The 2.4 GHz band goes further and gets through walls better, but it is slower and shares the air with microwave ovens and baby monitors. The 5 GHz band is quicker and gives up sooner. Where you put the router shapes the coverage as much as anything you can buy.
The usual place is the worst
The broadband socket tends to be in a hallway cupboard, behind the television or low on a skirting board, because that is where the engineer left it. A router on the floor of a cupboard covers the cupboard beautifully. Metal, mirrors, radiators, a fish tank and a thick old wall all absorb or reflect the signal, and a closed cabinet full of games consoles and cables is as good as a small metal box.
Where to put it instead
Up high, out in the open, and as near the middle of the home as the cable allows. Shelf height is better than floor height. If the router has aerials, straight up suits one floor; over several floors, angle one of them. Keep it away from the microwave and the fridge. If the socket is stuck in a corner, the cheapest fix is a longer cable between the socket and the router. On fibre that is an ordinary Ethernet lead from the box on the wall, and it can be as long as the room needs. On cable it is the same only if the modem is a separate box; if the router is the modem, the lead from the wall is coaxial, and a longer one is still an easy fix. On a phone-line connection use a proper twisted-pair extension, not the flat kind, and keep it as short as you can.
When a mesh helps
A mesh adds a second unit, sometimes a third, that carries the same network under the same name. It is the usual fix for a house with a dead corner, a long bungalow or a home over three floors. Two units usually do for a flat. Put the second unit about halfway between the first and the dead corner, not in the corner itself, because a unit that cannot hear the first one has nothing to pass on. If you can run a cable between the two, do: a wired link is steadier than a wireless one. A mesh does not make the line from the street any faster.
Before you buy anything
Stand next to the router with your phone, run a speed test, and compare the result with the speed you pay for. If it is slow there, the problem is the line, the router or the phone itself, not where the router sits. Then move the router to a better spot and test again from the worst room. Many dead corners vanish at that point, for the price of a cable.
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