How Wi-Fi Travels Through Your Home

Most hubs live where the engineer left them: in the front room, often inside the TV cabinet, because that’s where the line comes in. Then everyone wonders why the back bedroom is useless.

Wi-Fi is radio, and radio behaves a lot like the light from a bare bulb. It spreads out in every direction and fades as it goes, so the further you are, the less of it reaches you.

The lamp picture has one useful twist. Radio bounces off walls, ceilings and furniture, the way a mirror bounces light, so it doesn’t only travel in straight lines. Your laptop picks up the signal by several reflected paths at once, which is why it can still connect round a corner from the hub.