Where is the best place to put a Wi-Fi router?

Central, elevated, and out in the open. Avoid closets, basements, the floor, and metal enclosures. A central upstairs hallway in a two-story home usually beats any corner placement.

Do walls really block Wi-Fi?

Yes — meaningfully. Drywall barely matters, but brick, concrete, stone, and mirrored or metallized surfaces absorb or reflect 5 GHz signal heavily. 2.4 GHz penetrates better but is slower and more congested.

Should I keep my router away from other electronics?

Yes. Keep it at least 3–6 feet from microwaves, baby monitors, cordless phones, large metal objects, and the back of TVs. These either compete for the 2.4 GHz band or physically block signal.

When do I need mesh instead of a single router?

Mesh helps when a single router can't cover the floor plan — typically over ~1,800 sq ft, multi-story homes with thick floors, or long ranch-style layouts. Wired backhaul between nodes is dramatically better than wireless backhaul.

Optimal Router Placement — A Practical Guide to Wi-Fi Coverage

Optimal router placement: physics, not folklore

Most Wi-Fi complaints get solved before anyone touches the firmware. Move the router twelve inches, off the floor, away from the TV, and dead zones disappear. The physics of radio propagation rewards a few simple habits.

The three rules of placement

Central — equal distance to every room you care about. Wi-Fi radiates in a sphere; corner placements waste half the signal on your neighbors.
Elevated — at least chest height. Floor-mounted routers lose half their effective range to the floor itself.
Open — out from behind TVs, out of closets, off the inside of an entertainment cabinet. Every solid surface attenuates signal.

What blocks Wi-Fi

Roughly, from worst to least disruptive:

Mirrored walls, foil-backed insulation, metal stud framing, refrigerators, file cabinets.
Concrete, brick, stone, large aquariums.
Plaster with chicken wire (common in older homes).
Drywall, wood, glass — modest impact.

Sources of interference

The 2.4 GHz band overlaps with microwaves, Bluetooth, baby monitors, older cordless phones, and many smart-home devices. The 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands are largely clear of consumer interference, which is one reason modern routers steer fast clients onto them.

When to add nodes vs upgrade the router

If you have a single dead zone in an otherwise solid network, a single wired access point in that area beats any router upgrade. If coverage is patchy throughout, a mesh system is the cleaner solution. If your router is older than 4–5 years and on a sub-gigabit plan, both decisions can wait.

Wired backhaul beats wireless

Mesh systems work by relaying traffic between nodes. If those relays are wireless, you lose roughly half the available bandwidth at every hop. Running a single Ethernet cable to a remote mesh node ('wired backhaul') restores full speed at the far end of the house.