Where should I actually put my mesh wifi nodes?

Mesh systems are sold as though placement were incidental, and it is the whole thing. Two nodes in the right places routinely outperform four in the wrong ones, and the most common installation mistake is completely intuitive: putting the node where the signal is bad, which is precisely where it cannot do its job.

Step by step

1. Map where the signal is actually weak before placing anything.Walk the house with a phone running a speed test in the rooms that matter, and write the numbers down. Guessing produces nodes in corridors and cupboards; measuring produces a plan.
2. Understand why halfway is the rule.A node repeats what it receives. Placed in the weak area it receives a weak signal and rebroadcasts a weak signal with more steps in the chain. Placed where the signal is still strong, it extends good coverage outwards.
3. Wire any node you can reach with a cable.This is the single largest improvement available. A node connected back to the router by ethernet does not have to listen and talk on the same radio, so it delivers full speed rather than roughly half. It also frees the wireless for devices.
4. Avoid chaining nodes wirelessly.A node talking to another node that talks to the router gives about a quarter of the original throughput. If a distant area needs covering, take a cable to the node that serves it rather than adding a third hop.
5. Consider powerline or coaxial adapters where a cable is impossible.Adapters that carry network traffic over the house's mains wiring or over existing television coaxial cable sit between wired and wireless in performance. They are inconsistent — mains wiring varies hugely between houses — but they are worth trying before accepting a wireless hop.
6. Get each node out in the open and off the floor.Waist height or above, not in a cupboard, not behind a television, not on the floor behind a sofa. Radio spreads sideways much better than through furniture, and a node inside a cabinet loses a startling amount.
7. Keep them away from the things that genuinely interfere.Large metal objects, mirrors, water tanks, aquariums, foil-backed insulation and microwave ovens. Water and metal are the two worst, which is why a node near a hot water cylinder or behind a large mirror performs badly for no visible reason.
8. Think vertically in a house.Signal travels through a timber floor more easily than through several masonry walls. A node placed centrally on the middle floor often covers the one above and below better than two nodes spread across a single floor.
9. Check the system's own signal indicator, then re-measure.Most mesh systems report the connection quality between each node and the router in their app. Use it to fine-tune placement, then repeat the walk-around speed test to confirm the change was real.
10. Use one network name and let the system do the steering.Splitting the bands into separate names defeats the mesh's ability to move devices between nodes and bands. Leave it as one name unless a specific device refuses to join, which is usually an older smart-home gadget that only supports the 2.4GHz band.

Tips

• If a device clings to a distant node after you have walked to the other end of the house, turning its wifi off and on forces it to re-choose. Devices are conservative about switching.
• Two well-placed nodes are usually enough for an ordinary house. If you are reaching for a fourth, the problem is placement or backhaul rather than quantity.
• For a garden office or an outbuilding, an outdoor-rated cable or a pair of adapters beats any attempt to push wifi through two external walls.

Common mistakes

• Putting the node in the room with no signal — It can only rebroadcast what it receives. A node fed by a weak signal produces a weak network with extra latency, which is often worse than the original problem.
• Adding more nodes instead of wiring one — Every wireless hop halves the throughput. One node on a cable outperforms two chained wirelessly, and costs less.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask