Embodiments are directed to automatic location of access points in a network. An embodiment of one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums includes instructions for transmitting a request from a computing device to multiple access points in a network to determine a distance between each pair of access points of the multiple access points; receiving at the computing device the determined distances between each pair of access points; generating a proximity matrix containing the determined distances between each pair of access points; solving the proximity matrix to automatically generate a set of locations for the multiple access points; and orienting the generated set of locations for the multiple access points based on known locations of one or more anchor points in a subset of the access points.