Small office access point placement
In a small office you rarely need planning software to place an access point well. Measure the coverage you have, move or add one access point, and measure again. A WiFi heatmap makes each round quick to judge.
Updated
Set a target first
Decide what "good enough" means before you start. For an office where people take calls, a common target is -67 dBm or better at every desk and in every meeting room: Cisco's recommended minimum for voice over Wi-Fi. For data only, about -72 dBm is a commonly quoted minimum. Areas people only walk through, like corridors and storage rooms, can be weaker.
1. Survey what you have
Make a baseline heatmap with the current setup. Take readings at every desk, in each meeting room, the kitchen, the reception and the far corners. The step-by-step guide How to make a WiFi heatmap covers how to read the signal and where to stand. Export the result so you can compare later.
2. Find out why the weak areas are weak
The heatmap shows where; the room usually tells you why. The usual causes in offices:
- The access point is in the wrong place. In a comms cupboard, behind the server rack, on the floor under a desk or at one end of the office because that is where the internet line comes in.
- Walls and fittings. Brick or concrete walls, lift shafts, glass with metal coating, metal filing cabinets and kitchen appliances all absorb signal.
- Distance. One consumer router rarely covers a long, narrow office well from one end.
3. Choose a better position
- Put the access point near the middle of where people actually work, not where the cable happens to end.
- Mount it high, on the ceiling or high on a wall, with as few walls as possible between it and the desks.
- Keep it away from large metal objects and out of cupboards.
- If you need a second access point, place it so the weakest spot between the two still meets your target, rather than right next to the first one.
- Prefer wired connections between access points. Mesh nodes that connect to each other over Wi-Fi use part of the airtime for that link.
Before drilling, you can test a position by placing the access point there temporarily on a shelf or a tall cupboard and taking a few readings in the weakest areas.
4. Measure again and compare
Survey again with the new setup, using the same reading spots as before, and export the new heatmap. Put the two images side by side: the weak areas should have moved up a band or two. If one area is still weak, repeat with a small adjustment rather than starting over.
5. Check the channels
With more than one access point, make sure neighboring ones are on different channels. On 2.4 GHz, use only channels 1, 6 and 11, which do not overlap. On 5 GHz there are more channels to choose from, so overlap is easier to avoid. Most business access points can pick channels automatically; check that they have not all chosen the same one.
When to bring in a professional
This measure-and-adjust loop works for a few access points on one floor. For several floors, dozens of users per room, or a new office that is still being fitted out, a predictive design followed by a validation survey is the better approach; see predictive vs measured heatmaps.