Where you place your Wi-Fi router in your home can make a significant difference in the strength of the signal that reaches various areas. Some people choose to keep their routers hidden from view inside pieces of furniture such as cabinets and closets.
For the best Wi-Fi reception in your home, you should avoid placing your Wi-Fi router inside furniture such as wooden cabinets, cupboards, and closets. Placing your router inside furniture or close to physical objects not only causes signal degradation but also interferes with your router’s cooling. And the same applies to modems.
You can use a floating shelf such as the one below to mount your router:
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Putting A Wi-Fi Router In A Metal Cabinet
It is not advisable to put your Wi-Fi router in a metal cabinet because metal such as steel or aluminum significantly degrade the Wi-Fi signal by reflecting waves away from the intended direction, thus causing a poor connection. A better alternative would be to mount your router on the wall or place it on top of a wooden shelf.
Best Place To Put A Wi-Fi Router In A House
The ideal place to put your router would be in midair. However, since that is hard to do, placing it on an elevated shelf in the center of your house or mounting it on a wall will definitely improve your Wi-Fi signal. To prevent overheating, always ensure there are at least 4 inches of space between your router and objects around.
Laying A Wi-Fi Router On Its Side
Most routers are designed to work in either the vertical or horizontal position, not both. But when short on space, it usually seems like a good idea to put your router on its side in a cabinet or closet.
However, it is never advisable to lay your router on its side because doing so will likely block the air vents on the side panels and likely cause it to overheat. Having adequate space and airflow around the router is essential to prevent overheating.
If you don’t have enough space on your shelf, a better idea would be to buy some wall mounts and mount your router on the wall. This will ensure that the router’s air vents are never blocked and the device is always placed in the right orientation.
Mounting Your Wi-Fi Router On The Ceiling
Mounting your router on the ceiling sounds like a good idea especially if you are struggling to get a good Wi-Fi reception or better signal distribution in your house.
However, you should avoid mounting your router on the ceiling because most routers have upward-pointing antennas designed to send signals further upwards and sideways and not downward. Turning the router upside down could also affect its cooling and encourage overheating.
In addition, the fact that there aren’t very many ceiling mounts for routers plus cables running on ceilings don’t look neat discourages many people from mounting their routers on the ceiling. If your goal is to improve the Wi-Fi signal in your house, a better idea would be to mount the router on the wall or install a ceiling-mountable access point.
The following video shows how to install an access point in the ceiling:
Placing Your Wi-Fi Router In The Attic
You should avoid placing your router in the attic because this could expose it to humidity, dust, and extreme temperatures (especially during the summer), thus causing it to fail a lot sooner. Also, the insulation in the ceiling as well as the ceiling itself could decrease the signal strength causing poor Wi-Fi reception.
Putting Your Router Behind Your TV
You should avoid putting your router behind or near your TV because it could cause signal interference and affect the performance of your router. A good rule of thumb is to always place your router at least 5-6 feet away from other electronic devices, especially those that might be using the same frequency range as the router.
Putting A Wi-Fi Router Next To Speakers
You can put your Wi-Fi router next to or near your speakers provided the speakers are shielded. Most speakers found in home theaters, subwoofers, and sound bars are usually shielded to prevent their electromagnetic field from extending too far from the speaker enclosure and interfering with the operation of other electronics such as routers, computers, and TVs.
If you find that placing your router next to the speakers affects the performance of your router, you can try placing a sheet of metal between the two devices. This should help reduce interference between the two devices, thus improving performance.
Conclusion
Putting your Wi-Fi router inside furniture such as cabinets, closets, and cupboards seems like a good idea if you don’t want to leave your router in plain sight. However, you should also be mindful of the fact that doing so could degrade the strength of the Wi-Fi signal as well as affect its cooling capability.
Placing your router close to other electronic devices such as TVs, unless they are shielded, should also be avoided. The best spot to place your router is on top of a shelf or mounting it on the wall. If the Wi-Fi signal isn’t good in some rooms you should consider adding a Wi-Fi access point or repeater to improve the strength of the signal.
