Your router is the most important piece of equipment in your home network, and where you put it has more effect on your everyday experience than almost anything else.
This guide covers connecting it correctly and choosing a position that gives you the best possible coverage.
Where to put it
Wi-Fi radiates outwards in every direction and is absorbed by whatever it passes through. The ideal position is central, high and in the open.
- Central in the home, not at one end. A router in the corner of the house wastes half its signal on the garden. Somewhere near the middle of the area you want covered is far better.
- Chest height or higher. On a shelf or table rather than on the floor. Signal spreads outwards and downwards more readily than upwards.
- Out in the open. Not inside a cupboard, TV cabinet or drawer. Enclosed spaces absorb a great deal of signal and trap heat, which shortens the equipment’s life.
- Away from metal and water. Fridges, geysers, metal cabinets, mirrors and aquariums block Wi-Fi effectively. Concrete and face-brick walls are also difficult.
- At least a metre from other electronics. Microwaves, cordless phones and baby monitors interfere with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi.
Think about where you actually use the internet
The best position is central relative to where people sit — the lounge, home office and bedrooms — rather than geometrically central in the building. A router perfectly centred in a store room helps nobody.
Understanding the ports
| Port | Colour / label | What connects here |
|---|---|---|
| WAN or Internet | Usually a distinct colour, often blue or yellow | The cable from your ONT or wireless radio. This is your internet feed — plugging it into the wrong port is the most common setup mistake. |
| LAN 1–4 | Usually all the same colour | Wired devices: desktop computers, smart TVs, games consoles, network printers, access points. |
| Power | Round barrel connector | The supplied power adapter. Use the one that came with the router — voltages differ between models. |
| USB | Standard USB socket | On some models, for a shared drive or printer. Not required for internet access. |
| Reset | Recessed pinhole | Holding this for 10 seconds erases all settings. Only use it if you genuinely intend to start over. |
Connecting everything up
- Place the router in position first. Move it before you connect anything, rather than after.
- Connect the internet feed. Run the network cable from your ONT or wireless radio into the router’s WAN or Internet port. It should click.
- Connect power to the ONT first. On fibre installations, power the ONT and give it two full minutes to establish its connection before powering the router.
- Power on the router. Allow one to two minutes for it to start fully. The lights will change several times during boot — this is normal.
- Check the lights. Power and internet indicators should be solid, and the Wi-Fi indicator lit. See the table below.
- Connect a device and test. Join the Wi-Fi network printed on the router label, then load a website to confirm.
What the router lights mean
| Light | Healthy state | If it’s not |
|---|---|---|
| Power | Solid | Check the adapter and wall socket. Try a different socket. |
| Internet / WAN | Solid or flickering | Off or red means no feed from the ONT. Check the cable and the ONT lights. |
| Wi-Fi / WLAN | Solid or flickering | Off may mean Wi-Fi has been disabled — check for a physical Wi-Fi button on the router. |
| LAN | Lit for each connected device | Off means the cable or the device’s network port isn’t working. |
Looking after it
- Leave it switched on. Routers are designed to run continuously and reconnecting repeatedly is harder on them than staying up.
- Keep the vents clear. Heat is the main cause of premature router failure. Don’t stack anything on top of it.
- Restart it occasionally. A reboot every month or two clears accumulated memory issues.
- Keep it out of direct sunlight and away from damp.
- Use a surge-protected socket. Power surges are one of the more common causes of equipment failure.
If none of this resolves the problem, log a fault with our technical team and we’ll take it from there.