Doug em4miniatures  | 29 Nov 2011 6:12 a.m. PST |
In a 2 story house, what is the best place to locate your router for optimum wireless connection throughout the house…? For example, is upstairs better than ground floor…? Doug |
 The Editor   | 29 Nov 2011 6:15 a.m. PST |
I would imagine it depends on where pipes are located, major appliances, things that would interfere with the signal. |
 Doctor X  | 29 Nov 2011 6:35 a.m. PST |
Router placement is like retail placement. Its all about location, location, and location. Try a few spots out if you can. |
| alien BLOODY HELL surfer | 29 Nov 2011 7:19 a.m. PST |
wall thickness and age of the kit using wireless can affect it. At ours, the router is downstairs, upstairs my stepsons laptop connects fine (it's pretty new – less than 18months old) but my step daughters old G4 macbook will not get a decent connection no matter what we do. The ipads however do, so it seems the older stuff needs a much stronger/cleared signal. I've tried another identical G4 macbook and get the same result :-( |
 scrivs | 29 Nov 2011 7:19 a.m. PST |
Mine is next to the Sky Plus HD box so I can make the Sky Anytime Plus connection with a CAT5. It's not the best place for the best WIFI connections through the house, but does mean we can watch what we want when we want. |
 Parzival | 29 Nov 2011 7:24 a.m. PST |
Ours is located next to my main computer in my downstairs office along an exterior wall, adjacent to our kitchen wall that boasts our stove, oven, microwave and fridge. No issues whatsoever, anywhere in the house. It even supports my son's Xbox, which is located at almost a diametrically opposed spot upstairs. We do have a small to midsize home (by current US standards), a little over 2k s.f. |
| Doug em4miniatures | 29 Nov 2011 7:39 a.m. PST |
My set-up is very similar to Parzival but I'm thinking of moving my office upstairs and just fell to wondering about it. My laptop connection seems good upstair, in the diametrically opposite room to the router, so no need to move it really – I was just curious if there was any accepted "best place". The iPhone isn't so good upstairs but it's not worth moving the router just for that. Doug |
 Who asked this joker | 29 Nov 2011 7:58 a.m. PST |
Center of the house in the most open room. That is usually in the downstairs. That should provide good coverage to all parts of the house. It should also minimize the leakage to the outside world. The other thing to remember is that the router broadcasts in sort of a thick donut shape. depending on how the antennas are pointing, you might not get such great signal to the upstairs. so a little adjustment might be in order. |
 Martin Rapier | 29 Nov 2011 8:39 a.m. PST |
Most of the wireless access points at work are positioned fairly high up the wall (this is partly so people don't trip over them) which helps maximise effective coverage. At home though, it is just sitting on top of the desktop tower unit downstairs and reaches all devices fine through internal brick walls and even to the end of the garden through 2' thick stone walls. I expect our brains are fried though. |
| Martin Rapier | 29 Nov 2011 8:40 a.m. PST |
Most of the wireless access points at work are positioned fairly high up the wall (this is partly so people don't trip over them) which helps maximise effective coverage. At home though, it is just sitting on top of the desktop tower unit downstairs and reaches all devices fine through internal brick walls and even to the end of the garden through 2' thick stone walls. I expect our brains are fried though. I can also see half a dozen of our neighbours wireless networks, through multiple sets of thick stone walls. |
 T Callahan | 29 Nov 2011 10:11 a.m. PST |
In my previous home I had the router on the second floor. I good access all over including the basement. My current home is a ranch home with a finished basement. I get ok service on the main floor and great service all over my back yard . Terry |
| Ed Mohrmann | 29 Nov 2011 10:49 a.m. PST |
Our home (~2K SF) has the router located in the office,
about 30' from the two computers which access it most
(and the wireless printer). As noted upthread, newer devices have no problem with
connections, while the older units (desktop – 2004;
older laptop 2008) need to be 'up close and personal'. The two newer laptops (2011 early, 2011 October) can
connect from anywhere in the house. |
| Micman | 29 Nov 2011 12:08 p.m. PST |
The performance you will get is very subjective to how your home is constructed. In most cases you will be able to get a decent signal throughout the house, but electrical runs can effect the performance. If you want to be able to get the signal outside be sure to test when the router is closer to that side of the house. |
