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| Router Placement and Setup Mistakes |
Most people set up their router once, when the internet was first installed, and never touch it again. That's usually fine for casual browsing, but remote work puts a very different kind of demand on a home network — sustained video calls, VPN connections, and file uploads all day, every day.
A router placement or setting that was "good enough" for streaming in the evening often isn't good enough for an 8-hour workday, and the gap shows up as exactly the kind of intermittent problems that are hardest to diagnose.
Mistake 1: The Router Is Hidden Away
Routers get shoved into cabinets, behind the TV, or into a closet because they're not attractive. Every one of those choices costs signal. WiFi signal degrades with distance and is absorbed or reflected by walls, metal, and dense furniture — a router inside a cabinet is fighting its way through wood and often a metal TV stand before it even reaches the rest of the room.
Fix: Routers belong out in the open, elevated (on a shelf rather than the floor), and as central to the home as your internet line allows. If your desk is far from where the router currently sits, this single change often does more than anything else on this list.
Mistake 2: It's Never Been Restarted or Updated
Routers are small computers, and like any computer they accumulate memory issues and benefit from software updates. Most people never restart their router unless the internet stops working entirely, and many never check for firmware updates at all.
Fix: Restart your router every few weeks — a simple unplug for 30 seconds does it. Separately, check your router manufacturer's app or admin page for firmware updates every couple of months. Firmware updates often fix real bugs affecting connection stability, including ones related to VPN handling and channel selection, covered in more detail in our guide on [VPN connections dropping while working from home].
Mistake 3: Everything Is on the Same WiFi Band
Most modern routers broadcast both a 2.4GHz and a 5GHz signal. Many people never notice this, connect everything to whichever network the phone remembers, and end up with a phone, three streaming devices, a smart speaker, and a work laptop all competing for the same crowded 2.4GHz channel.
Fix: Give your work computer a deliberate, dedicated connection where possible. If your router lets you split the two bands into separate network names (some combine them automatically under one name), do so, and connect your work device specifically to 5GHz when you're at your desk — it's far less crowded and has better throughput at close range. Our post on [why home WiFi slows down during work hours] covers band selection in more detail if congestion is a recurring problem.
Mistake 4: One Router Trying to Cover Too Much House
A single router has a real, physical limit to how far it can reliably reach. In a larger home, or one with concrete or brick interior walls, a router at one end of the house often can't deliver a stable signal at the other end — no setting fixes physics.
Fix: If your desk is consistently in a weak-signal zone no matter what you try, a mesh WiFi system or a single well-placed extender solves this permanently. Before buying anything, though, it's worth testing whether an ethernet cable to your desk is possible — a wired connection sidesteps the entire problem and is usually cheaper than a mesh system.
Mistake 5: Default Admin Password and Outdated Encryption
This one isn't a performance issue, it's a security one, but it belongs on this list because remote workers are handling company data over this same connection. Many routers ship with a default admin password printed on a sticker, and older routers may still be running outdated WiFi security protocols.
Fix: Log into your router's admin panel (usually via a browser at an address like 192.168.1.1) and change the default admin password if you haven't already. Confirm your WiFi security is set to WPA2 or, ideally, WPA3 — not the older WEP or WPA, which are meaningfully weaker. This is a five-minute task most people never do because they never think about it once the internet is working.
Mistake 6: No One Ever Checked What's Actually Connected
Over the years, home networks accumulate devices — old phones, a tablet nobody uses anymore, a smart plug from a device that broke, a neighbour's device that once connected to a guest network. Every connected device is potential competition for bandwidth and potential exposure if it's insecure.
Fix: Most router apps show a list of currently connected devices. Take five minutes to look through it, rename devices you don't recognise as "unknown," and remove or block anything you don't actually use. This is also a good opportunity to set up a separate guest network for visitors, keeping your work device on a cleaner, more controlled main network.
Mistake 7: The Router Is Too Old to Keep Up
Routers have a realistic lifespan. A router bought six or seven years ago was built for a home with far fewer connected devices and far lower bandwidth demands than a modern remote-work household. If you've addressed everything else on this list and performance is still inconsistent, age may simply be the limiting factor.
Fix: As a rough guideline, a router more than five to six years old, or one that predates WiFi 5/6 standards, is worth replacing if remote work performance genuinely matters to your job. This is a "last resort" item deliberately — most connection problems are solved by placement, band selection, and a wired connection long before a new router becomes necessary.
A Five-Minute Router Health Check
Worth doing once a quarter:
- Confirm the router is out in the open, not in a cabinet
- Restart it
- Check for a firmware update
- Glance at the connected devices list for anything unfamiliar
- Confirm your work device is on 5GHz (or wired) rather than a crowded 2.4GHz band
Quick Reference
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Router hidden in a cabinet | Move it to an open, central, elevated spot |
| Never restarted or updated | Restart monthly; check firmware every 2 months |
| Everything on one crowded band | Split bands; use 5GHz for work devices |
| One router covering too much house | Mesh system, extender, or ethernet to your desk |
| Default password, old encryption | Change admin password; confirm WPA2/WPA3 |
| Unknown devices still connected | Review and remove unused devices |
| Router is genuinely too old | Replace only after trying everything else |
If your home network connects to company resources through a VPN provided by your employer, check with your IT team before changing router-level security settings, since some configurations may be required for compliance.