Tip of the Week: Placing Your Router in the Ideal Spot

Whether in the home or office, getting work done nowadays is very reliant on a reliable Wi-Fi signal. This makes it important to have your router placed in the right spot. Let's go over a few best practices so that you can set up your router in a place where it does you the most good.

Keep Your Router in a Central Location

Let's face it—if you're trying to cover the entirety of a building, putting your router at one end or the other is going to be counterproductive. Not only is the signal generally directed outward in all directions from the hardware, putting the router on one side of the building potentially doubles the number of walls the signal will have to penetrate to reach a device on the other side. Plus, that also means that half of your signal is being sent where nobody will be using it. Keeping your router in the middle helps to keep the signal as centralized to your business as possible.

Minimize the Obstacles the Signal Will Have

On the topic, the more your Wi-Fi signal needs to go through to get to your devices, the weaker it will be by the time it gets there. Avoid putting your router in an enclosed space (as aesthetically preferable it may be to do so) to help keep your signal as strong as possible.

Other electronic devices count as obstacles as well, as they can let out interference that, well, interferes with your Wi-Fi signal. Try to keep your router away from these if at all possible.

Position the Antennas Appropriately

Depending on where you need your signal to go, you'd be wise to adjust how your router's antennas are positioned (if your router allows you to adjust them, that is). If you only need your signal to cover the floor that the router is also on, keeping the antennas vertical will be your best bet. If multi-floor coverage is required, angling them slightly (to about a 30-degree angle) may be best.

Truly optimizing your wireless connection may take a bit of fiddling, but keeping these practices in mind is bound to help. For more assistance with your business' IT, give us a call at (202) 640-2737.