clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Want faster wifi? Here are 5 weirdly simple tips.

The location of your router inside your home can make a big difference for the strength of your internet connection. Watch this short video to find out the best spot to place your router for faster wifi:

You might not be able to see it, but the wifi coming from your home router is a physical signal, composed of radio waves that can be blocked or scattered by walls and other electronics. Just take a look at this wifi map that physics grad student Jason Cole made of his apartment:

wifi map by jason cole

You can see how the signal varies in different rooms and weakens while passing through walls. That means you'll want the router in the room where you actually use wifi-connected devices most often.

And though it might complicate your interior design, placing the router in a central location ensures that you're not wasting those radio waves by sending them outside your home or into a neighboring apartment.

router spin

For more easy tips, check out the video above or watch on our YouTube channel.

Video

It’s time to replace urban delivery vans with e-bikes

Video

Why most tennis players struggle to make a living

Video

Why Silicon Valley is here

View all stories in Video

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.