Where to put your router for the best Wi-Fi signal

Your router sends Wi-Fi in every direction, a bit like a lamp lights a room. Put the lamp in a corner, on the floor, inside a cabinet, and half the house stays dark. The same happens with Wi-Fi, and moving the router is the cheapest fix there is.

The short answer

The best place for a router is:

• Central: as close as possible to the middle of the area you want to cover.
• Raised: on a shelf or a wall mount, roughly at chest height or higher.
• In the open: not inside a cabinet, not behind the TV, not surrounded by metal.
• Away from interference: not next to the microwave, a cordless phone base or a baby monitor.

Why central and raised works

Wi-Fi gets weaker with distance and with every obstacle it crosses. A router in a corner wastes half its range outside, on the street or at the neighbors'. A router on the floor sends a lot of signal into the floor and has to go through furniture before reaching anything useful. Raising it and centering it gives every room a shorter, cleaner path.

Where not to put your router

• Inside a cabinet or a TV stand, especially a closed one with a metal back.
• Behind the TV. Large screens contain a lot of metal.
• On the floor.
• Next to the microwave. Microwave ovens interfere with the 2.4 GHz band while they run.
• Near a fish tank or water heater. Water absorbs Wi-Fi.
• Behind a thick wall or in a basement utility room, when you use the internet on the floors above.
• In a far corner where the fiber or cable enters the house, if that corner is far from where you live.

When the socket is in the wrong place

Often the router sits where it does because that's where the fiber or cable line enters the home. You usually don't need to move the line itself:

• Use a longer Ethernet cable between the provider's box and your router, and put the router in a better position.
• Keep the provider's modem where it is and add your own mesh system or access point in a central spot.
• Ask your provider about moving the socket if you're renovating anyway. It's often cheaper than it sounds.

Router placement in different homes

In an apartment

Aim for the center of the apartment, not the entrance hallway where the line often arrives. A shelf in the living room, if it's central, usually works well. Avoid placing the router against a shared wall: half its signal would serve your neighbors.

In a two-story house

If you use both floors equally, put the router on the upper floor, near the center, or on a high shelf on the ground floor close to the stairs. Signal spreads down more easily than you might think, while a router in a ground floor corner often leaves the opposite upstairs bedroom in a dead zone. If a whole floor is still weak, the floor itself is the obstacle: a mesh node or access point on that floor is the reliable fix (see mesh vs Wi-Fi extender).

In a long or L-shaped home

A single router rarely covers both ends of a long or L-shaped home well. Place it near the corner of the L or the middle of the long side, measure, and consider a second access point at the far end.

Antennas: point them the right way

If your router has external antennas, don't point them all straight up. A common approach is one vertical and one horizontal: vertical antennas spread signal sideways across a floor, horizontal ones help reach the floors above and below.

Test before and after

Router placement is easy to get wrong by instinct, because walls and floors don't block Wi-Fi equally. Before moving anything, measure the rooms you care about. Then move the router and measure again.

The quickest way is a heatmap: with WiFi Heatmap you map your home on your iPhone, see which rooms are weak, move the router and map again to compare. If you'd rather do it manually, follow the walk test in how to find Wi-Fi dead zones.

Frequently asked questions

Is it bad to keep the router on the floor?

Yes. Much of the signal goes into the floor and has to pass through furniture. A shelf at chest height or higher usually gives noticeably better coverage.

Can I put my router in a cabinet?

It's best not to. A closed cabinet weakens the signal, and one with a metal back or glass doors with a metal frame can block it significantly. If you must hide it, choose an open shelf.

Should the router be upstairs or downstairs?

Put it on the floor where you use the internet most, as close to the middle of the house as possible. In a two-story home with equal use, a high spot near the stairs or a central upstairs room often works best.

Does the router need to be near the modem?

Only if they're connected by a short cable. You can use a longer Ethernet cable to place the router in a more central position.