Positioning your Wireless Modem/Router
NB: In the diagram the word ‘modem’ should be replaced with ‘router’
Getting the best out of your router is what every geek strives for. You want that top notch download and upload speed. Even if you don’t need it, you want it and its worth a lot of effort.
So over the past week I have been playing with my Linksys WAG54G modem/router and been having a lot of fun. However I have been unlucky increasing Wi-Fi speed to my laptop around 10 metres away. I tried DD-WRT to try ‘hack’ my router to run to its maximum potential, however it wasn’t compatible with my particular version.
It took me over a week to really point out the obvious, my router was positioned extremely badly, it was nestled under computers, printers, wires and plants. So being the geek I am, I decided to run a few tests on whether the change in placement of the router would increase my speed.
So from these results we can see that placing a router just half a metre higher can double your speed. Try this trick before you try any other of those ‘tin foil’ or ‘mega-booster’ ones. I’m certainly looking forward to improved speeds.
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October 20th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Hey Ant, just nitpicking but don’t you mean router when refering to height? (I know you’ve got a modem router combo) It’s just it doesn’t really make sense to me to put the modem high up (unless you’re putting your router high up as well and you wish to gain a nearly unnotticible gain in speed by having them right next to each other on a really short cable)
Anyway nice blog I was pleasantly surprised where’d you get the code for it?
October 27th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Hey Sam
Yeh you’re right, I do have a modem/router combo as many others do. But for an increase in speeds they do have to be both positioned high up. Thanks for pointing it out.
This blog is running Wordpress and running a highly modified theme.
thanks for the comments and don’t forget to tel your friends about it!
November 1st, 2008 at 9:18 am
I seem to get really good speeds from my router from my room and it is downstairs. There are about 2/3 walls between it too. I don’t get any improvement if I am 1 metre away from the router either.
You should have run a speed test from a wired connection to compare the speeds you get internet over wifi to the speeds you get from your ISP.
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
It’s quite hard to tell at the moment due to Xnet’s crap speeds at off peak hours. But should be fixed within a month by switching to Orcon. I tried the speed test via gigabit ethernet and only got 50kb per second more. There is a direct line between the router and my laptop so I should be getting good speeds.