A normal WiFi router should be sufficient to cover a standard home up to 100 square meters or an equivalent office. Due to interference, distance, walls or other impediments, in some rooms or areas the router signal is too weak and therefore unstable. Fortunately, a few tricks and some additional devices are enough to obtain an optimal signal in every room and therefore have uniform coverage to connect any device (Smart TV, console, smartphone, PC etc.).In this article we will show you all the best methods for extend the area covered by the WiFi signal in your home or office, so as to be able to cover even the most remote or inaccessible corners with the standard signal of the modem / router in use.
Have better Wi-Fi router coverage at home or in the office
To get the signal to every point of the house or office, we advise you to follow the advice we have collected below to the letter, so as to obtain immediate benefits (i.e. greater coverage for our Internet network).Position the router correctly
The most important decision to have the best Wi-Fi signal coverage is, of course, the location of the router: it may seem like a small thing, but it is very important to be able to cover every room in the room where we place the device well. Walls and furniture block the wireless signal and to reach all the rooms you have to find a equidistant point from which the router "sees" each room.It must be considered that the Wi-Fi signal does not make bends, but bounces off walls, mirrors and furniture and loses strength every time it changes direction or passes through a wall. The router must not be on the ground but at least one meter high and must not be placed inside a metal piece of furniture; in addition to the mirrors, the water also dampens the 2.4GHz frequency signals, the one used by wireless routers.
In our tests, the best place to place the Wi-Fi router or modem turned out to be the wall near the ceiling: at this point it does not encounter many obstacles during propagation, it spreads evenly and also allows you to cover a house with two floors very well. Obviously we have to find the best point on a case-by-case basis, perhaps helping us with an app like WiFi Heatmap, available for free for Android.
Use Wi-Fi Repeaters or Extenders
In the event that we still cannot reach all the rooms in the house, we can aim with our eyes closed on Wi-Fi Repeaters or Extenders, able to amplify the starting Wi-Fi signal; the best repeater we can buy at the moment (as a quality / price ratio) is definitely the TP-Link RE200 Wireless WiFi Repeater (22 €).
Be careful, however, not to make a mistake in positioning the repeater! They should be placed where the signal is still strong enough, so that they can be extended to its full strength. The ideal is to place it halfway between the "uncovered" area and the area where it takes full advantage of the Wi-Fi signal, so that it can be expanded correctly. To learn more about the operation of repeaters and find out how to configure one, we refer to our guide on How does the wifi repeater or "Range Extender" work and which one to buy.
If, on the other hand, we are looking for a valid alternative to Range Extenders, we advise you to focus on Powerline Wi-Fi, as described in our guide How the Powerline works, secrets and limits.
Use new Wi-Fi antennas on the router and PC
Many routers have at least two antennas so that the signal is fired in two different directions. However, keep in mind that if you have a large house, it is better to upgrade the antennas supplied with the modem, so that they can cover many more rooms. The best antennas to use on routers are the WayinTop 2Set 8dBi 2,4 GHz 5 GHz Dual Band Wireless (10 €).
Obviously in order to use these antennas they must be removable on our router and must not be internal (like many models recently released or supplied by the operator).
Another valid help can come by placing good antennas inside a fixed PC (perhaps positioned in the room where the Wi-Fi does not take well): in this case we can take advantage of a good internal Wi-Fi network card such as the Asus PCE-AC56 (28 €) and take advantage of the Windows PC as if it were a hotspot, as well explained in our guide on how Create a WiFi hotspot on Windows PC.
Switch to 5 GHz for devices closest to the router
Many modern routers have dual transmission frequencies: 2,4GHz and 5GHz.
The 5GHz frequency does not suffer from interference but has several limitations, including that of having a more limited coverage and being incompatible with some receivers. The advice is to connect as many devices as possible to the 5 GHz network (especially those close to the router), so as to leave more bandwidth (and better coverage) to distant devices, which will be reached by the 2,4 GHz.
To better understand the difference between the two wireless frequencies, we can read our in-depth analysis Differences between 2,4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks; which is better?
Use two or more routers in cascade
Another very effective method to get the best Wi-Fi router coverage at home or in the office involves using two or more routers in cascade, connected to the main modem by long Ethernet cables.
First of all, let's get adequate Ethernet cables, such as the 10m Cat 7 Network Cable Gigabit Ethernet LAN Cable 10000 Mbit / s (12 €), and use them to connect one or more routers in cascade to the main modem / router, so as to being able to create new separate Wi-Fi networks to connect the furthest devices to (without losing transmission speed). In this regard, we invite you to deepen the topic on our guide on how Connect two wireless routers to increase WiFi range.
Change router
If all the advice we have shown you are not sufficient to obtain better coverage, perhaps the time has come to change our modem / router, focusing on a model with greater coverage and support for new transmission technologies. One of the best routers for coverage is undoubtedly the AVM FRITZ! Box 7590 International Modem Router, Wireless Veloce AC + N, available for € 200.
If we are looking for other cheaper but equally effective models to replace the old modem, we recommend that you read our guide to Best Modem to Buy (Fiber, Dual Band, Wireless AC).
Conclusions
There are numerous methods to obtain the best coverage of the Wi-Fi router at home or in the office: in most cases it is sufficient to position the router better, in other cases we will have to resort to range extenders or new routers connected in cascade. The important thing is to reach the goal, which is to connect optimally to Wi-Fi from any location in the home or office.In two other guides we have shown you how How to add the wifi card to a desktop PC e Which wifi router to buy for the wireless home network?.
Long distance Wi-Fi coverage and extended range
