Few things in a home are as quietly irritating as a Wi-Fi signal that dies at the kitchen door. You hold your phone up like a torch, take one step to the left, and the video loads. Nothing has broken. The router is usually just in the wrong place, shouting on a crowded channel, or trying to punch through a wall it can't beat. Work through the checks below in order — placement first, then settings, then extra hardware. Plenty of people fix the worst of it in an afternoon without buying anything.

Start with where the router actually sits

Wi-Fi spreads outwards and downwards in a rough doughnut shape, so a router on the floor in a back room is working against you from the start. Aim for the middle of the house, as high as is practical — a hallway shelf, the top of a bookcase, a windowsill if the house is long and thin.

Then get it out of wherever it has been hidden. Cupboard doors, TV cabinets and the gap behind a sofa all absorb or block signal. So do fish tanks, mirrors, radiators and anything metal, including the back of a television and the boiler. A router sitting next to a cordless phone base or a baby monitor is fighting for airspace too.

Stand the aerials upright unless the manual says otherwise, and keep the router a metre or two clear of large appliances. In a Victorian terrace with solid brick internal walls, every wall costs you signal. In newer homes, foil-backed plasterboard in a loft conversion or a warm-roof extension can be just as bad.

Map the dead spots before you spend anything

Walk the house with your phone and a simple signal meter app. Stand in the same spot in each room — middle of the floor, chest height — and note the strength and the speed. Do it once in the afternoon and once at eight in the evening, because a signal that's fine when the neighbours are out can fall apart when everyone is streaming.

Do these three things while you're at it:

1. Plug a laptop into the router with an Ethernet cable and run a speed test. That's your baseline. If that number is poor, no amount of mesh kit will help.
2. Check how many devices are connected. Twenty-plus gadgets is normal in a busy household, and ageing smart plugs and printers can drag a network down.
3. Note which rooms fail. "The whole house is bad" and "the back bedroom is bad" need different fixes.

Channels, bands, and the 2.4 versus 5 GHz question

Your router probably broadcasts two networks. The 2.4GHz band travels further and pushes through walls better, but it is crowded — every neighbour, doorbell and microwave is on it. The 5GHz band is faster and cleaner but drops off sooner.

If you can separate the two network names in your router's admin page, do it. Then choose per device: laptops and streaming boxes on 5GHz where the signal is decent, smart plugs and garden sensors on 2.4GHz.

On 2.4GHz, only channels 1, 6 and 11 don't overlap. Most routers pick automatically and do a reasonable job, but if a scan shows three neighbouring networks on yours, switch. On 5GHz, leave it on auto unless you have a reason not to.

Room by room: where signal goes to die

• Kitchen: microwaves, fridges and foil-lined cupboards. Expect trouble and plan around it.
• Bathroom: tiles, mirrors and a foil-backed wall are near unbeatable. Some drop in speed is normal.
• Back bedroom: usually a chimney breast, a wardrobe or two walls from the router. Move the router, not the furniture.
• Loft conversion: foil-backed plasterboard kills Wi-Fi stone dead. A cabled access point on the landing beats any extender.
• Conservatory or garden office: glass, metal frames and distance. Anything beyond one external wall wants a cable or a dedicated outdoor access point.
• Underfloor heating and foil insulation: both block signal from below or above. Worth knowing before you blame your broadband.

Extenders, powerline adapters and mesh

A cheap extender repeats a signal it has already received, which halves the speed. It also works badly if you put it in the dead spot — it needs something decent to repeat. Put it halfway, in a room that still gets three bars.

Powerline adapters send data over your mains wiring. They can be brilliant in a flat or a modern house where both sockets sit on the same circuit, and disappointing in an older property with separate ring mains.

Mesh systems are the neatest fix for a big or awkward house, and the rule is the same: satellites need a strong link back to the main unit, so place them at the edge of good coverage, not in the room that fails. If you can run Ethernet to each node, do it. Wired backhaul turns a mesh into something close to a proper network.

When the Wi-Fi isn't the problem

If your wired speed test is poor, or evening speeds collapse while morning speeds are fine, the issue may be your line rather than your router's position. Check your contract's advertised speed, count how many people are streaming at once, and try a reboot — routers that have run for months can get flaky. Provider firmware updates are usually worth taking.

If you rent, or live in a block of flats where everyone shares the same channels, remember that cabling may need a landlord's permission, and that a call to your provider is often the quickest route. For anything involving contracts, minimum terms or cancellation fees, read the small print or take independent advice.

A practical plan for this weekend

1. Move the router to a central, high, open spot. Change nothing else yet.
2. Run a wired speed test for your baseline.
3. Walk the house with a signal app, morning and evening.
4. Set the 2.4GHz channel to 1, 6 or 11 — whichever is quietest.
5. Split the bands if you can, and put fixed devices on 5GHz.
6. Move any extender or mesh node out of the dead room.
7. Only then consider buying mesh kit or running a cable.

Most homes improve noticeably after the first four steps. If yours doesn't, and the wired speed is good, the answer is usually more access points rather than a bigger router. Weak coverage is far more often about position, channels and walls than about raw power. Sort those first and the dead spots shrink to the point where you stop noticing them.

Photo: 4787421 / Pixabay