Wi-Fi in a small apartment: when distance isn't the problem

Everything is within five meters of the router, and the video still stalls. In a small flat, the enemies are neighbors, metal and your own devices.

Published · 2 min read

In this guide
  1. What actually causes trouble in a small flat
  2. What to do
  3. When it's not the Wi-Fi at all
  4. Check the corners anyway

Advice about home Wi-Fi is mostly about distance: move the router to the middle, add a node for the far room. In a studio or a small one-bedroom, none of that applies. Everything is close, and the connection can still be disappointing, for reasons that have nothing to do with reach.

What actually causes trouble in a small flat

  • The neighbors. In a dense building your network shares the air with dozens of others. This is the single biggest factor in small flats. See neighbors' Wi-Fi interference.
  • The router's immediate surroundings. In one room, the router is probably next to a TV, a monitor, a game console or a metal shelf, or inside a media unit. See router in a cabinet.
  • The kitchen is in the same room. Microwave, fridge and appliances are meters away instead of rooms away. See does the microwave kill your Wi-Fi.
  • Everything is connected at once. TV, console, laptop, phone, speaker, all in one room, all sharing one router's airtime.

What to do

  1. Use 5 GHz, and 6 GHz if you have it. Range doesn't matter here, and the higher bands are far less crowded. See 2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz by room.
  2. Give the router air. On a shelf, away from the TV and monitor, not behind the screen or inside the unit.
  3. Wire what doesn't move. The TV, the console and the desktop on cables free the air for the devices that need it.
  4. Skip the extender. In a small flat an extender adds interference and a second hop for no coverage gain. If one room is truly blocked by a concrete wall, a single well-placed node is the exception. See where to put a mesh node.
  5. If you're replacing hardware, buy one good router, not a mesh kit. A small flat needs quality, not quantity.

When it's not the Wi-Fi at all

Small flats often come with the cheapest internet package, or a shared building connection. If speeds are low everywhere, including right next to the router by cable, the problem is the line. See full bars but slow Wi-Fi.

Check the corners anyway

Even in one room, the bed, the desk and the bathroom behind a tiled wall can behave very differently. WiFi Heatmap maps the whole flat in a couple of minutes, which is usually enough to show whether you have an interference problem, a placement problem, or a line problem.