Which way should router antennas point?
Four antennas, all straight up like a salute. It's how most routers come out of the box. It's not always how they work best in your home.
In this guide
Routers with external antennas almost always arrive with instructions, or at least photos, showing all of them standing straight up. That's a fine default for one kind of home. For others, a small change in angle helps.
How a router antenna radiates
A typical router antenna sends out its signal like a flattened doughnut around it:
- strongest at right angles to the antenna, all around it;
- weakest along the antenna's own direction, off its tip.
So an antenna pointing straight up covers well sideways, across the same floor, and poorly straight up and down. An antenna laid horizontal does the opposite: it sends more signal up and down, and less along the direction it points.
Single-floor home or apartment
Keep the antennas vertical. Everything you need to cover is sideways from the router, which is exactly where vertical antennas are strongest. If the router sits at one end of a long apartment, tilting nothing is still usually best; move the router toward the middle instead. See where to put the router in an apartment.
Two or more floors
Mix the angles. A common and sensible setup for multi-antenna routers:
- some antennas vertical, for coverage across the router's own floor;
- one or two tilted to 45 degrees or horizontal, to push more signal toward the floor above or below.
This won't beat a concrete slab, but it helps the upper floor get what it can. See Wi-Fi weak upstairs.
Why mixing also helps devices
Devices have antennas too, and they sit at different angles: a phone held upright, a laptop lid, a TV on the wall. Wi-Fi works best when the antennas at both ends are roughly aligned. With a mix of angles on the router, more devices find a good match. Modern routers with several antennas use them together, so a mix rarely costs anything.
Routers with internal antennas
No antennas to move, but orientation still matters: the router was designed to stand or lie in a particular way. Use it the way the manufacturer intended, not on its side to fit a shelf, and keep it high and in the open. See router height.
Don't expect miracles, do measure
Antenna angle is a fine-tuning step, not a fix for a bad spot. It's also free and reversible, which makes it perfect for a quick experiment: map the floors, change the angles, map again. WiFi Heatmap shows whether the upper floor gained anything, and whether your own floor lost anything in exchange. See how to test before and after.