In order to improve the reliability and economy of the network-based traveling wave fault location system， an optimal configuration algorithm for network-based traveling wave fault location equipments based on graph theory is proposed. It can be analyzed that network structure and fault point position will affect the determination of the shortest initial traveling wave transmission path， and consequently affect the effective configuration of traveling wave fault location equipment. In the proposed algorithm， it is firstly assumed that each transmission line in a power grid is fault line， then the Floyd algorithm with the preserved fault line is used to simplify the complex network for further analysis. Subsequently， in the simplified（radiated） network， all the nodes at each side of the fault line are respectively formed two arrays according to the fault point position， the minimum sharing set is determined through the arrays at each fault situation， and then the optimal configuration scheme can thus be determined. At the same time， an additional optimal configuration scheme for the special fault condition is presented. The optimal configuration algorithm is established upon network-based traveling wave fault location principle， which can be used rather straightforward. Simulation results show that the optimal configuration algorithm is reliable and easy to realize.