How to Move Your Router to a Better Spot

Moving the router is the cheapest Wi-Fi upgrade there is, but only if the new spot is actually better. A router moved from a bad corner to another bad corner gains nothing, so it pays to check the rules before you start unplugging cables.

Follow these steps

1. Pick a central spot in the home. Wi-Fi spreads in all directions, so a router in the middle of the home covers more rooms evenly than one at an extreme end. Think about where devices are actually used most, and aim for the centre of that area, not the centre of the building on paper.
2. Raise it off the floor. Place the router on a shelf or table at roughly chest height, not on the floor or at the bottom of a cabinet. Signals travel better slightly above furniture level, and a router on the floor wastes much of its signal into the ground and nearby furniture.
3. Give it open air on all sides. Keep the router out of closed cabinets, behind TVs, and away from large metal objects and aquariums. Air around the router matters: a router crammed into a cupboard is a router working with one hand tied behind its back.
4. Keep it away from other electronics. Microwaves, cordless phone bases, baby monitors, and large speakers can interfere with Wi-Fi. Give the router some distance from these, and avoid stacking other gadgets directly on top of it.
5. Check the cable limits before you commit. The router needs to reach its wall socket or modem, so check the cable length first. If the ideal spot is too far, a longer network cable is a cheap solution — but do not stretch cables taut across walkways or doorways where they can trip someone or get yanked loose.
6. Move it, then test properly. After moving, test in the rooms that mattered most — the far bedroom, the living room, the home office — with the activities you actually do there. Give it a day or two of normal use before judging, rather than deciding from a single quick test.
7. Note the new spot for future troubleshooting. Remember where the router now lives and how it is connected. The next time something goes wrong, you — or someone helping you — will not have to hunt for it behind furniture.

If the new spot improves the rooms that were struggling, you have gained coverage for free. If the far rooms still struggle, the move has still told you something useful: the problem is distance or walls, and an extender or mesh may be the next step.