- Large band supplier Virgin Media has issued advice for British users from his hub
- The company warns against the placement of a direct lighting router of the sun
- This could cause overheating and router performance – or even stop – and there are also other investment problems to consider
You may not have thought much about the positioning of your Wi-Fi router, but it is important-especially since summer strikes the door, and some countries are experiencing their first taste of a heat wave.
The independent reports that caused unusually hot April temperatures in the United Kingdom, the broadband supplier Virgin Media has practiced a warning that it is really not a good idea to place your router in the direct sun when the weather becomes hot. (Or at any time elsewhere).
Virgin Media published a statement to say: “Although we test our [broadband] Hubs carefully at a range of temperatures, they are better in sunlight, just like your phone or laptop. If the concentrator becomes too hot, it could slow down your connection or even stop completely. »»
This underlines the point that your router is like any other equipment – it warms up when used, and has vents and must stay cool. Put the apparatus in full sun in a warm room of cooking, and the results may not be pretty, as Virgin Media suggests.
In the same vein, the declaration advises you not to stick your router in a cupboard, where again, it could become too hot due to a lack of ventilation in the heat. Not to mention the fact that placing it in a closed space interferes anyway with the Wi-Fi signal.
Other investment tips to avoid interference with Wi-Fi include: “Keep the hub at least 1 m of wireless phones or baby monitors, and as much as possible large obstructions such as cupboards and fish tanks.”
Analysis: tips for making your router quickly (or at least a little faster)
Isn’t that quite alarmist? No, in a word, if your router becomes too hot, performance is indeed likely to be altered. (And it is not beyond the consideration that damage could also be caused in the event of extreme thermal conditions-something that we get more used to see these days).
Admittedly, this is not the first time that Virgin Media has managed this opinion, and in fact the company seems to trot this on an annual basis (before summer in the United Kingdom). But this is the first time that I have seen it, and the advice given are good, and more broadly, we should all think a little more about the placement of our router.
Do not put it in the sun, of course, or in a closet, or in your television cabinet, for all the reasons linked to the heat above. Likewise, do not push the router under your desk – try to go up quite high, not close to the ground, and with as little obstructions as possible around the device. All obstacles near the router will only decrease the Wi-Fi signal, just as sure as overheating.
If you are in the mood to improve your Wi-Fi in general, you may want to browse our complete guide on how to increase your Wi-Fi signal force, which includes advice on positioning, as well as technical adjustments that you can apply (such as modifying Wi-Fi channels). It could also be useful to also consider a Wi-Fi extensor in certain scenarios (such as obtaining a better signal in your garden for the summer, perhaps).
