Internet line in the wrong corner: move the Wi-Fi, not the line
The installer drilled the hole where it was easiest, not where the Wi-Fi should be. You can live with the socket and still put the router in the right place.
In this guide
The spot where the internet enters your home was chosen for the installer's convenience: the nearest outside wall, the entrance hall, the corner closest to the street. It's rarely a good spot for Wi-Fi, and yet that's where the router ends up, because the box has to plug into the socket.
The socket and the router don't have to be together
Your provider's equipment usually does two jobs: it talks to the line (as a modem or fiber terminal), and it makes Wi-Fi. The first job has to happen at the socket. The second can happen anywhere a cable reaches.
Option 1: a long Ethernet cable (the best one)
Leave the provider's box at the socket and run an Ethernet cable to the spot where the router should be, near the middle of the home, high and in the open.
- Length isn't a problem. Ethernet works over distances far longer than any home.
- It can be discreet. Flat cables along skirting boards, adhesive clips, a run behind furniture or under a door. Paintable cable covers exist for the parts that must be visible.
- Then choose: either move a separate router or mesh unit to the new spot and turn off the provider box's Wi-Fi, or, if the provider's box is also your router, put it at the far end of the cable and a small switch or the fiber terminal at the socket, depending on how your equipment is split.
Option 2: ask to move the socket
Providers can often relocate the socket or run the internal line to another room. It may cost something and it takes an appointment, but it's permanent. For fiber, don't try to move or extend the optical cable yourself; it's easy to damage.
Option 3: when no cable can go through
- Mesh, with the main unit at the socket and a node halfway to the middle of the home. It works, but the node has to hear the main unit well; see where to put a mesh node.
- Powerline from the socket to the middle of the home, with the router at the other end. See powerline.
Which spot to aim for
Once you're free to choose: the middle of the home, high up, out of cabinets, toward the rooms that matter most. In an apartment that's usually the hallway; in a house, see where to put the router in a two-story house and router in the basement.
Check the new spot before making it permanent
Lay the cable across the floor for a day before fixing it along the walls. WiFi Heatmap maps the home with the router at the socket and then at the new spot, so you'll know the effort is worth it before you drill a single hole.