Here's something that surprises a lot of people: you could be on a great nbn® plan with a brand new modem and still have frustratingly slow WiFi in half your house, simply because of where the modem is sitting.
Before you spend a dollar on new hardware, it's worth knowing this: placement is the single most effective fix available to you, and it's completely free. Moving a modem from a corner to a central, open position can transform a home's coverage more than buying an entirely new device.
The Quick Answer: Where Should I Put It?
If you only take one thing from this guide, it's this. Put your modem:
- Central to the rooms you actually spend time in (not necessarily the geographic centre of the house)
- Elevated, on a shelf or bench around 1 to 1.5 metres off the ground
- Out in the open, with no cupboard, cabinet, or wall cavity around it
- Away from the kitchen, and away from anything metal or full of water
- Clear of the exact obstructions listed further down, not just "away from clutter" in general
That's the short version. The rest of this guide explains why each of these matters, gives you a layout-specific decision path, and covers what to do if your home's shape means one modem simply can't reach everywhere.
A Decision Path for Your Home Layout
Not every home has an obvious "centre." Use whichever of these matches your place.
Apartment or single-level, mostly open-plan home:
Place the modem in the main living area, as central as possible to the rooms you use daily. This is usually the simplest case and one well-placed modem will cover the whole space.
Standard single-storey home with separate rooms:
Identify the room that sits roughly in the middle of your most-used spaces (living room, kitchen, main bedroom, home office) and place it there, elevated and in the open. A central hallway or a shared wall between two frequently used rooms works well.
Two-storey home:
Place the modem as close as possible to the mid-point between floors, near the ceiling of the ground floor or the floor of the upper level. If you can only place it on one level, choose the level where you spend the most time during the day, and expect the far corners of the other level to be weaker.
Long, narrow, L-shaped, or wing-shaped home:
There often isn't a single point with good reach to every room. Identify the zone you use most (living areas, bedrooms, home office) and centre the modem within that zone, accepting that a rarely used room at the far end may stay weaker regardless of placement.
Home with a granny flat, converted garage, or detached studio:
A single modem, however well placed, is very unlikely to reach a fully detached space. Skip ahead to the mesh and extender options below.
If you've matched your layout above and positioned the modem accordingly, the next sections explain how to fine-tune that position and what to avoid nearby.
What Good Placement Looks Like in Practice
It helps to picture an actual example rather than just rules. A well-placed modem in a typical three-bedroom home might sit on a small shelf in the hallway that connects the living room, kitchen, and bedrooms, roughly at head height, with nothing else stacked around it and a clear, unobstructed view down each hallway. From that single spot, it has a relatively short, wall-light path to every room that matters.
Compare that to a modem sitting on the floor behind the television in the back corner of the living room, which is a common default simply because that's where the nbn® cable enters the house. From that position, a big share of its signal is absorbed by the entertainment unit, wasted downward into the floor, and blocked by exterior walls, before it even starts trying to reach the bedrooms.
The difference between those two spots, with the exact same modem, can be the difference between full-strength WiFi in every room and a bedroom that buffers every night.
What If Your nbn® Connection Point Is at the Wrong End of the House?
A common problem that undoes a lot of good intentions: the nbn® connection box (also called the NTD, or Network Termination Device) is fixed wherever it was installed, and that's rarely the ideal spot for WiFi coverage. It might be in a front hallway, a garage, or a back bedroom, simply because that's where the external cable happened to enter the property. The good news is that the NTD's location doesn't have to be your modem's location. You have more flexibility here than most people realise.
Run a longer ethernet cable. This is the simplest and most reliable fix. Your modem connects to the NTD via a standard ethernet cable, and that cable can be as long as you need it to be, run along skirting boards, through a roof space, or under floorboards, to place your modem in a genuinely central spot rather than wherever the NTD happens to sit. A 10 to 20 metre ethernet cable is inexpensive, and running one is a simple weekend job or a quick task for an electrician or data cabler if you'd rather not do it yourself.
Check for existing internal cabling. Many homes, particularly anything built or renovated in the last two decades, already have phone or data points wired into a wall in multiple rooms. If one of these existing cable runs happens to connect back toward your NTD, you may be able to use it to relocate your modem without running any new cable at all. It's worth checking before assuming you need fresh cabling.
Use a powerline adapter as a cable-free alternative. If running a physical cable isn't practical, for renters, or homes where cabling through walls isn't an option, a powerline adapter can carry the connection from the NTD to a more central room using your existing electrical wiring instead. This is a reasonable middle-ground option, covered in more detail further down.
Consider a mesh system with a wired backhaul. If you're already leaning toward a mesh system because of your home's layout, this scenario is actually a good use case for one. You can connect the primary mesh unit directly to the NTD wherever it is, then place additional mesh units in the central, well-used parts of your home. The units communicate with each other, so your WiFi coverage comes from the well-placed units, not from wherever the NTD happens to be.
The one thing to avoid is leaving your modem sitting right next to the NTD purely out of convenience, especially if that spot is a garage, laundry, or the edge of the house. It's almost always worth the small effort of a longer cable to get the modem into a room that actually serves your household, rather than accepting weaker WiFi everywhere because of where a cable happened to be installed years ago.
How WiFi Signals Actually Work
Your modem broadcasts WiFi as radio waves, radiating outward in all directions, like a dome of signal expanding from the device. That signal gets weaker the further it travels, and it loses strength every time it passes through a wall, floor, or physical obstacle. Concrete and brick are particularly tough on WiFi, while plasterboard and glass are more forgiving.
There are also two main frequencies at play. 2.4 GHz travels further and penetrates walls better, but is slower and more prone to interference. 5 GHz is faster, but has shorter range and struggles more with walls. Most modems broadcast both, and your devices switch between them automatically, which is why a device several walls away often feels sluggish: it's likely dropped to a weaker signal on either band. This general pattern, that every wall or door between you and your modem affects your speed, is consistent with WhistleOut's own troubleshooting guidance on diagnosing slow nbn® connections.
How the Shape of Your Home Affects Signal Spread
Because WiFi spreads outward in a dome shape, the shape of your floor plan matters just as much as the size of it.
Square or compact homes are the easiest case. A central position has a roughly equal, short distance to every room, so coverage tends to be even throughout.
Rectangular homes stretch that dome along one axis. A central position still works, but the two far ends of the rectangle will always be weaker than the middle, simply because they're furthest from the source in a shape that doesn't spread evenly in every direction.
L-shaped or wing-shaped homes are the hardest case for a single modem. The dome of signal spreads in a circle, but the home bends around a corner. A modem placed at the centre of an L-shape often has strong signal down one wing and weak signal down the other, because the bend in the building interrupts the direct, straight-line path the signal wants to travel.
Multi-storey homes add a second dimension to the same problem. The signal has to spread not just outward but through a floor or ceiling, which is typically a denser obstacle than an internal wall, so upper or lower levels usually see the steepest drop-off of all.
Open-plan homes are relatively forgiving, since fewer internal walls mean fewer chances for the signal to lose strength before reaching a room. Homes with many small, separated rooms lose more signal simply because there are more walls between the modem and any given point.
The practical takeaway: the more your home deviates from a simple square or open layout, the more likely it is that no single position will give you perfectly even coverage, and the more valuable a mesh system becomes.
The Most Common Sources of Interference
A handful of household items cause the vast majority of interference problems. These are the ones worth actually checking for.
Microwave ovens. By far the biggest offender. Microwaves operate on the same 2.4 GHz frequency as WiFi, and running one within 3 to 5 metres of your modem while someone's using 2.4 GHz WiFi can cause visible slowdowns or drop-outs for the duration of the cook. This is the main reason the kitchen is consistently the worst room for a modem, even when it's centrally located.
Cordless phones and older baby monitors. Many older cordless phone bases and analog baby monitors also broadcast on 2.4 GHz. Sitting within a metre or two of your modem, they can cause a persistent, low-level dip in signal quality rather than a dramatic drop-out.
Metal furniture and appliances. Filing cabinets, metal shelving, and the back of a fridge reflect and absorb signal rather than letting it pass through. Keep at least half a metre of clear air between your modem and anything substantially metal.
Fish tanks and large bodies of water. Water absorbs 2.4 GHz signal more than most people expect. A large fish tank or water cooler sitting between your modem and a room you're trying to cover can noticeably weaken the result.
Everything else, Bluetooth speakers, other minor electronics, tends to have a much smaller effect than these four. If you're troubleshooting a weak spot, check this list before anything more exotic.
Move the Modem Away From These Exact Objects
A quick, scannable checklist for the objects worth physically checking around your modem right now:
- Microwave oven (keep at least 3 to 5 metres away)
- Fridge or large kitchen appliances
- Cordless phone base or older analog baby monitor
- Filing cabinets, metal shelving, or anything with a large metal surface
- Fish tanks, water coolers, or a cluster of large, well-watered indoor plants
- TV units, entertainment cabinets, or any enclosed cupboard
- The floor (elevate it, even if nothing else changes)
If your modem is currently touching, sitting inside, or sitting directly beside any of the above, that's the first and easiest thing to fix, often before you even think about which room it's in.
What to Do When One Modem Isn't Enough
Even a perfectly placed modem has limits, especially in the trickier layouts covered above: wing-shaped homes, multi-storey homes, or homes with a detached living space. If you've worked through the decision path, the checklist, and the interference list, and you're still getting weak spots, that's not a sign you've done something wrong. It's a sign the floor plan has outgrown what a single access point can deliver.
This is the point where the solution shifts from "reposition what you have" to "add coverage where placement can't reach." That doesn't necessarily mean replacing your modem. It usually means extending it.
WiFi Extenders
A WiFi extender (or repeater) picks up your modem's signal and rebroadcasts it from a new location. Inexpensive and easy to set up, and effective for covering a specific weak spot such as a back bedroom or garage. The downside is that extenders create a separate network name, so devices may not always switch to the strongest signal automatically.
Powerline Adapters
Powerline adapters use your home's existing electrical wiring to carry internet signal between rooms. You plug one adapter into a power point near your modem (connected by ethernet), and another into the room where you need better coverage. A neat solution for rooms where running an ethernet cable isn't practical, though performance can vary with the age and quality of your home's wiring.
Mesh WiFi Systems
A mesh system is the gold standard for whole-home coverage, and the most effective option for the layout challenges above. Instead of one modem covering the entire house, multiple units placed around the home work together as a single network, with devices automatically connecting to whichever unit gives the best signal.
For larger, wing-shaped, or multi-storey homes, a mesh system is well worth the investment. We stock the TP-Link HB210 Pro, our recommended WiFi 7 mesh system, in single-unit, 2-pack, and 3-pack configurations depending on the size of your home.
Ethernet for High-Priority Devices
For devices that don't move, such as gaming consoles, desktop computers, or smart TVs, a direct ethernet cable connection bypasses WiFi entirely for the fastest, most stable connection possible. If your home has wall ethernet ports from a previous installation, use them.
How to Test Your Current Signal
Before repositioning anything, get a baseline so you can measure whether the changes actually help.
Speed test app: Run a speed test (fast.com or speedtest.net) in different rooms and note the results. It's worth understanding what a single test can and can't tell you: a result measures your WiFi, your device, and the route to one server at that moment, not necessarily your underlying nbn® line. The ACCC's broadband speed guidance is a useful reference for what providers are required to disclose and how advertised speeds should be interpreted.
WiFi analyser app: Apps like NetSpot (Mac and Windows) or WiFi Analyser (Android) show a signal strength map across your home and can flag channel congestion from neighbouring networks.
Once you've repositioned, run the same tests again. Even a modest change, moving away from a corner, up onto a shelf, out from behind the TV, usually produces a measurable improvement in the weaker rooms.
A Simple Troubleshooting Flow
If you're dealing with a specific WiFi problem right now, work through these steps in order rather than guessing at a fix.
1. Pin down exactly where and when it happens.
Is it one room, or the whole house? One device, or every device? A specific time of day, or constant? This alone often points to the answer before you touch anything.
2. If it's one room only: check the direct path.
Stand at the modem and look toward that room. Count the walls in between, and check for any of the interference objects or metal/water blockers listed above sitting in that path. Reposition or clear the path if you find one.
3. If it's the whole house: check the basics first.
Confirm the modem is central, elevated, and out in the open, using the checklist earlier in this guide. A whole-house problem is more often a placement issue than a hardware fault.
4. If it's one device only: suspect the device, not the modem.
Older phones, laptops, and smart TVs often have slower or older WiFi hardware than the modem they're connecting to. If every other device is fine, the issue is likely the device's own WiFi radio or its distance from the modem, not your setup.
5. If it's a specific time of day: suspect congestion, not coverage.
Slowdowns that appear every evening around the same time, regardless of where you are in the house, point to peak-hour network congestion rather than a WiFi placement issue. A speed test at fast.com during that window will confirm whether this is happening at the connection level, before it even reaches your WiFi. You can also compare your provider's published "typical evening speed" against the ACCC's Measuring Broadband Australia performance data, which independently tracks how well providers hold their advertised speeds during the busy 7pm to 11pm window.
6. Reposition, then retest before changing anything else.
Make one change at a time, elevating the modem, moving it away from an interference source, or shifting it to a more central spot, and retest before making a second change. This tells you which specific change actually helped.
7. If you've addressed placement and interference and problems persist, it's a coverage or hardware limitation.
At this point, refer back to the home layout decision path and the "when one modem isn't enough" section above. This is the signal that a mesh system, extender, or wired connection for a specific device is the right next step, not a further repositioning of the modem.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Even with the best intentions, a few recurring mistakes undo an otherwise good placement effort.
Choosing a spot for looks, not signal. Tucking the modem into a stylish cabinet or a shelf that "matches the room" is a common instinct, but it's one of the most direct ways to weaken your WiFi. If the position looks tidy but ticks none of the placement boxes above, it's the wrong spot.
Leaving it where the cable happens to enter the house. The nbn® connection point is often installed wherever was easiest during the original setup, not wherever is best for WiFi. Many households never question this and simply leave the modem there indefinitely. A longer ethernet cable to a better position is a small, one-off fix for a problem that otherwise lingers for years.
Testing in only one spot. Running a single speed test next to the modem and assuming the whole house performs the same way gives a misleading picture. Always test in the rooms that actually matter to you.
Changing several things at once. Moving the modem, buying an extender, and changing WiFi channels all in the same afternoon makes it impossible to know what actually fixed the problem, or whether the new hardware was even necessary.
Assuming a new modem will fix a placement problem. A brand new, more expensive modem placed in the exact same bad spot, behind the TV, on the floor, inside a cabinet, will often perform barely better than the old one. Better hardware doesn't overcome poor physical placement.
Forgetting about old extenders or previous network names. If a WiFi extender or an old mesh unit was set up in the past and never removed, devices can sometimes latch onto its weaker signal out of habit, even if it's no longer well positioned relative to your current setup. Check your device's WiFi settings for lingering old network names if performance seems inconsistent.
Not restarting the modem after moving it. A simple power cycle after repositioning ensures the modem re-establishes its connection cleanly and helps confirm the new placement is genuinely working, rather than running on a stale connection state from its old position.
If you've worked through this guide and are still struggling with coverage, our local support team is happy to help troubleshoot. Sometimes the issue is with the connection rather than the placement, and we can usually tell the difference quickly. Get in touch with our friendly team any time on 13 23 94.
Ezi Broadband is a 100% Australian owned and operated nbn® provider. No lock-in contracts, no hidden fees, and real local support when you need it.