Home Wi-Fi Issues? Your Router’s Location Might Be the Problem

Why You Can Trust CNET

Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. How we test routers

Whether you're trying to stream the NFL on game day or sit through a Zoom call without lagging, you know the necessity of a strong internet connection. These days, we need lightning-quick internet speeds for pretty much everything, from hosting friends to working and installing smart home gadgets to unwinding by streaming our favorite shows.

If you've already upgraded a speed tier with your internet provider and followed a few simple steps to improve your connection but you're struggling with buffering, you may be able to boost your connection by changing the location of your router. The best place is not always where the technician sets it up.

So whether you're hosting an NFL viewing party or watching Halloween movies on a loop, keep reading to learn about the best place in your home for your router and other easy tricks for faster Wi-Fi.

You can also check out our picks for the best Wi-Fi 6 routers, the best mesh routers and the best Wi-Fi extenders. (If you have a mesh router, check out our guide for where and how to set that up correctly too.)

Read more: I Tried to Break My Internet. Here's What Slowed It Down Most

Choose the right router for your space

First things first: you can trace a lot of connection issues back to your equipment. It all starts with choosing the right router. Not all routers are the same and how fast your wireless speeds are often depends on the size and layout of your home.

A single wireless access point should suffice for most apartments and smaller homes (under 1,500 square feet). If your router is several years old, consider upgrading to a newer model with support for 802.11ax, or Wi-Fi 6. That's not the latest and greatest generation of Wi-Fi technology -- that would be Wi-Fi 7 -- but it's newer than what most have in their homes and should give you faster wireless speeds and better overall coverage.

For bigger, multilevel homes, it's worth considering making the upgrade to a mesh network to offer consistent coverage throughout the entire house. If you install the main access point and find that a far corner of your home doesn't have solid wireless coverage, just add another node to that area. Problem solved.

To learn more, check out our list of the best mesh routers of the year (our top pick is the TP-Link Deco W7200, which is currently priced at $209 at Walmart). If you need some additional guidance, consult our router buying guide.

It's worth noting that where you place the primary access point still matters, regardless of whether you have a single access point or a mesh network. 

What's the best place to put your router?

When you first move into a new home or apartment, the modem is usually installed along the wall in one of the far reaches of the house. This is simply because that's where the line comes into the house and the technician's job is to set up the connection -- not optimize your network. That part is up to you.

It's tempting to leave everything where the technician set it up, especially if you feel clueless about the best place to put a router. It's unlikely that the original location is the most optimal place for your router.

Choose a central location

Routers send the signal out in all directions. If you keep your router in the left corner of the house, you're losing wireless coverage, and if your neighbors can guess your Wi-Fi password, they can easily access your network. Moving the router to a central location is your best bet for consistent speeds (and network security).

Installing a router across the house from the modem may prove troublesome. It may require manually running an especially long Ethernet cable under the floor or along the bottom of your walls or enlisting the help of power line network adapters, which use your home's electrical wiring to pass an internet signal from point to point. The improved wireless coverage will be worth it. If you're curious about the difference between a Wi-Fi and Ethernet connection, CNET's Hallie Seltzer tested both connections at her house to determine which worked better.

Raise the router

Routers tend to spread their strongest signals downward, so it's best to mount the router as high as possible to maximize coverage. Try placing it high on a bookshelf or mounting it on the wall. 

Search online, and you'll find many custom wall mounts built for specific routers, like this stick-up mount for the Eero Pro 6 mesh router. A router mount is an easy solution if you're struggling to find an elevated spot for your router without a tangle of messy cords.

Avoid other electronics

Pick a location that's away from other electronics and large metal objects. The more walls, large obstructions and electronics near your router, the higher the chances are that something will interfere with the strength of your signal.

One type of electronic device to especially avoid is the microwave, which emits a strong signal in the 2.4GHz band, the same wireless band your router operates in. Be careful not to stick your router behind a large TV, which can cause electronic interference while also physically blocking or disrupting the signal.

Along with electronics, keep an eye out for bulky furniture and the like that might be limiting the signal's reach. Wi-Fi doesn't travel well through water, for instance, so if you have an aquarium in your home, try to avoid situations where it'll be in between your router and the device that needs to connect.

How to set up Wi-Fi antennas

Some routers have no antennas at all, but some have up to eight. These antennas help direct the signal. If there are two or more antennas on your router, don't position them all in the same direction. 

Instead, make them perpendicular to one another -- position one horizontally and the other vertically. Or slightly change the position of all the antennas to cover a wide range of angles. You might have to experiment with speed tests to find the most effective configuration.

The signal from each of those antennas will come out like a wave traveling in all directions, and that wave will be perpendicular to the antenna itself, so a vertical antenna is going to be more helpful in single-story homes, while a horizontal or angled antenna is going to put out a signal that travels upward, which might be more useful in a multistory home.

Map your Wi-Fi signal

In worst-case scenarios, you may have to map out the Wi-Fi signal in your home to find dead zones and analyze the range of coverage. Several years ago, we used the NetSpot software to map out the signal strength throughout the CNET Smart Home. Ultimately, we got a great look at the weak spots in our Wi-Fi network, which helped us shore things up by moving our hardware to more optimal locations.

If you're considering upgrading your router, be sure to check out CNET's picks for best routers. For homes with children, make sure to explore the parental controls of your router.