Suffering From Slow Internet? Moving Your Router Could Fix the Problem

Picture this, you’re ready to sit down and watch a movie with friends, but your internet connection keeps stuttering and lagging. While you can spend time trying to resolve the problem, it’s not ideal, especially if you’re paying for high-speed Internet access. Here’s the good news: it’s likely that your Slow Internet is actually caused by your router settings or location.

The solution usually isn’t to pay a higher monthly bill or buy a new $300 router. This is basic physics. Wi-Fi signals hate obstacles like walls, cabinets, and even your kitchen microwave. By taking a few strategic, cost-free actions, like removing your router from the ground and moving it away from other electronic devices, you can dramatically expand your coverage area and stabilize your connection instantly.

Stop tolerating a signal that stops as soon as you leave the living room. These quick and easy adjustments will optimize the equipment you already own, ensuring your gaming, streaming and video calls actually perform at the speeds you pay for.

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Learn more: Best Wi-Fi 6 Routers for 2025

1. Invest in the right router for your space

First things first: You can trace many connection issues back to your equipment. It all starts with choose the right router. Not all routers are the same, and your wireless speeds depend on variables like the size and layout of your home.

A single wireless access point should be enough for most apartments and small homes (less than 1,500 square feet). If your router is several years old, consider upgrading to a newer model or Wi-Fi 6E. This isn’t the latest and greatest generation of Wi-Fi technology; it would be Wi-Fi 7 – but it’s newer than most have in their homes. It should give you faster wireless speeds and better overall coverage for a reasonable price.

For larger, multi-level homes, it’s worth considering upgrading to a mesh network to provide consistent coverage throughout the home. If you set up the main access point and find that a distant corner of your home doesn’t have solid wireless coverage, simply add another node to that area. Problem solved.

To find out more, see our list of best mesh routers. If you need further advice, check out our router buying guide.

It’s worth noting that where you place the primary access point is always important, whether you have a single access point or a mesh network.

2. Find the best location for your router

When you first move into a new house or apartmentTHE modem is usually installed along the wall in one of the farthest parts of the house. This is simply because this is where the line enters the house and the technician’s job is to make the connection, not to optimize your network. This part is up to you.

It’s tempting to leave everything where the technician installed it, especially if you have no idea where the best place to install a router is, but the original location is unlikely to be the most optimal spot for your router. That said, location might just be the most important consideration when trying to improve your Wi-Fi. Even if you have the latest router technology, you might not get the fastest speeds if your the router is poorly placed.

Choose a central location

Routers send the signal in all directions. If you place your router in the left corner of the house, you lose wireless coverage and if your neighbors can guess your Wi-Fi passwordthey can easily access your network. Moving the router to a central location is your best bet for consistent speeds (and network security).

Installing a router throughout the house from the modem can be problematic. This may require manually running a particularly long Ethernet cable under the floor or along the bottom of your walls, or relying on Powerline network adapters, which use your home’s electrical wiring to transmit an Internet signal from one point to another. The improved wireless coverage will be worth it. If you are curious about the difference between a Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectionFormer CNET broadband editor Hallie Seltzer tested both connections at home to see which worked best.

Lift the router

Routers tend to broadcast their strongest signals downward, so it’s best to mount the router as high as possible to maximize coverage. Try placing it high up on a shelf or mount it on the wall.

Search online and you’ll find many custom wall mounts designed for specific routers, like this self-adhesive backing for the Eero Pro 6 mesh router. A router stand is a simple solution if you struggle to find an elevated spot for your router without a tangle of messy cables.

Avoid other electronic devices

Choose a location away from other electronic devices and large metal objects. The more walls, large obstacles, and electronic devices near your router, the more likely it is that something will interfere with your signal strength.

One type of electronic device to especially avoid is microwaves, which emit a strong signal in the 2.4 GHz band, the same wireless band in which your router operates. Be careful not to place your router behind a large TV, as this can cause electronic interference while physically blocking or disrupting the signal.

In addition to electronic devices, keep an eye out for bulky furniture and the like that could limit signal range. Wi-Fi doesn’t travel well in water, for example, so if you have an aquarium in your home, try to avoid situations where it will be between your router and the device that needs to connect.

3. Change Wi-Fi Channels

The Wi-Fi bands your router uses affect your speeds, but it’s pretty easy to switch between channels. Most routers come with 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz channels — you can think of these channels as the highway that your Internet network uses to transmit data. More advanced routers, like Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7, come with a 6 GHz channel.

You should be able to change your router’s Wi-Fi band in the Wi-Fi network settings, although this may differ slightly depending on the router. Although most routers use dual-band technology, which allows them to use both frequencies at the same time, you may be able to choose a Wi-Fi band to prioritize. The 2.4 GHz band offers a wider range but is slower than the 5 GHz band. Conversely, the 5GHz band is faster, but it struggles to handle short range and keep your entire home connected at fast speeds. Still, changing channels is a quick fix for slowing down Wi-Fi.

4. Configure your Wi-Fi antennas correctly

Some routers have no antennas, but some have as many as eight. These antennas help direct the signal. If there are two or more antennas on your router, do not position them all in the same direction.

Instead, make them perpendicular to each other – position one horizontally and the other vertically. Or slightly change the position of all antennas to cover a wide range of angles. You may need experiment with speed tests to find the most efficient configuration.

The signal from each of these antennas will come out as a wave propagating in all directions, and this wave will be perpendicular to the antenna itself, so a vertical antenna will be more useful in single-story homes, while a horizontal or tilted antenna will emit a signal that propagates upward, which might be more useful in a multi-story home.

5. Map your Wi-Fi signal

Worst case scenario, you may need to map the Wi-Fi signal in your home to find dead zones and analyze coverage range. Several years ago we used NetSpot software to map signal strength throughout the smart home CNET. Ultimately, we were able to take a close look at weak spots in our Wi-Fi network, which helped us shore things up by moving our hardware to more optimal locations.