I moved my router from a low shelf beside the TV to a higher spot across the room, expecting better coverage, but the internet is now noticeably slower in the rooms where I use it most.
I read that placing a router higher and out in the open should improve Wi-Fi because there are fewer obstructions. I doubt that advice applies when the new location is farther from connected devices and closer to a wall. Does that explanation hold up, or can moving it higher still make performance worse?
Higher is only better when the new position still gives the router a cleaner path to the devices. It is not a rule that overrides distance, walls, furniture, or interference. Moving it across the room and closer to a wall can easily make the connection worse, especially if that puts another wall or a large object between the router and your usual rooms.
The wall matters even more if the router is now near a corner, against masonry, or beside metal, wiring, appliances, or other electronics. Router antennas do not radiate equally in every direction, either. If the router or its antennas changed orientation during the move, the strongest coverage pattern may now miss those rooms. The faster 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands are particularly sensitive to added distance and obstacles, so a device may show a usable signal while delivering lower speeds or switching bands.
I would test the old and new positions rather than relying on the usual placement advice. Run the same internet speed test from your normal rooms, using the same device and roughly the same time of day. Run several tests in each location since a single result can vary. It is worth checking the Wi-Fi network or band too, because the device might have connected to 2.4 GHz after the move.
A better compromise may be a higher position on the original side of the room, a few feet away from the TV and other electronics. Keep it out in the open, but prioritize a central location and fewer barriers over maximum height. A small move left or right can sometimes matter more than raising it several feet.
Height probably is not the cause by itself. Since the router was physically moved, check the connections before spending time fine-tuning Wi-Fi placement. A damaged, loosely seated, or sharply bent Ethernet/coax cable can reduce performance, and plugging the modem cable into the wrong router port can create confusing results.
Test from a few feet away from the router, then repeat over a wired connection if you have a laptop with Ethernet. If wired speed is normal but the nearby Wi-Fi result is poor, look at channel congestion, antenna position, or whether the router reused different wireless settings after being unplugged. If wired speed is slow too, the problem is likely the cable, modem connection, or WAN port rather than where the router sits.
I agree with testing the old location, but I would first move it back using the original cables and ports exactly as they were. That gives you a cleaner comparison than changing placement, cabling, and orientation at the same time.
A higher shelf might gain a little coverage, but moving the router several feet sideways can easily cancel that out. Wi-Fi cares more about the path between the router and your devices than the router’s height by itself.
Compare the old and new positions on a simple floor plan. From each location, draw an imaginary straight line toward the rooms where performance matters. The old signal may have crossed one wall almost straight on, while the new path cuts diagonally through that same wall, catches a second wall, or passes through a bathroom, mirror, cabinet, or metal door frame. Crossing a wall at a shallow angle effectively puts more material in the way. That can make two locations in the same room perform very differently.
I would compare more than download speed. On the same device, check the Wi-Fi signal level or reported connection speed in your usual seat, then compare it near the router. If the connection is fast nearby but drops sharply in the other rooms, the internet service and cabling are probably fine. The new route through the house is simply worse. If performance is poor even beside the router, then @devhive9400’s cable and port checks become much more relevant.
Keep the router in the open, but do not treat “higher” as the main target. A waist-high central position with a clean path can beat a router near the ceiling at the far edge of the room. Try moving it along the same wall in small increments rather than jumping between two completely different locations. Even shifting it away from a corner, mirror, television, or large cabinet can change which obstacles sit between it and the devices.
The best comparison is the position that serves your actual rooms, not the position that looks ideal according to general placement advice. If the old shelf consistently wins from those rooms, moving back is a perfectly sensible answer. You could then raise it slightly on that side of the room without changing the useful signal path.
“Higher is better” is incomplete advice. Your phone or laptop may now be clinging to a weak 5 GHz connection because both bands share the same network name, even though 2.4 GHz would work better in those rooms.
Check the connected band in the router’s device list. Then temporarily give 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz different names and test each separately from your usual spot. That removes band steering and client behavior from the comparison.
If 2.4 GHz is stable but slower and 5 GHz falls apart, the new location simply pushed those rooms beyond useful 5 GHz range. I would not buy an extender yet. Move the router back toward the original side, reconnect the device, and see whether the faster band becomes reliable again.
Honestly, don’t expect any single spot in that room to give you rock-solid numbers. Wi-Fi wanders around no matter where the router sits, so if you’re comparing one test to another you’ll drive yourself nuts chasing ghosts.
The band-steering point from @rocketthinker3831 is the one I’d chase first, because that’s usually what turns a small placement change into a big speed drop. What everyone’s skipping though is neighbor interference. When you moved across the room you may have parked the router closer to the wall you share with someone else’s network, and a crowded channel over there can hurt you even with a clean line of sight. Speedtest is fine for a rough before-and-after, but it won’t tell you the channel is the problem. Peek at the router’s channel or Wi-Fi analyzer for that. If the old shelf just works from your usual seats, move it back and stop overthinking the height thing.
A signal weakened by extra walls usually fades in a fairly predictable way, while a multipath dead spot can wreck performance after the router moves only a few feet. Wi-Fi signals bounce off walls, metal furniture, mirrors, and appliances. Those reflected copies can arrive at a device slightly out of sync and cause retransmissions, even when the signal indicator still looks acceptable. Modern Wi-Fi handles reflections reasonably well, but room geometry can still produce bad spots.
That is why @openwolf7019’s suggestion to move the router in small increments matters more than it may sound. Try shifts of six inches to a foot rather than choosing only between the old shelf and the new shelf. Test from the same chair each time. Moving the router away from the wall or changing its position slightly may be enough to get that room out of a signal null.
For a cleaner diagnosis, ping the router’s local address from the affected room instead of relying entirely on an internet speed test. Compare packet loss and latency variation in both locations. If the local connection becomes erratic in the new position, the Wi-Fi path is the issue regardless of what your ISP is doing. If local pings remain stable but internet tests slow down, look for WAN problems, other devices downloading, or a cable disturbed during the move.
I would push back slightly on the idea that this is just normal Wi-Fi randomness. Individual tests vary, but a repeatable slowdown in the same rooms after a physical move usually has a physical cause. Signal bars alone often hide the real problem because they do not show retries or the actual modulation rate.
Before you chase placement, reboot the router in the new spot and let it repick a channel. Half the time a router that got unplugged and moved just latched onto a busy channel and never re-scanned, which lines up with what @hawk.data said about neighbor interference. Do that before you start sliding it six inches at a time.
Don’t wedge it on a high shelf with poor ventilation. Heat collects up there, and a router surrounded by books or decorations can slow down or become unstable once it warms up. “Higher is better” apparently assumes the router can still breathe. Pull it into open air for an hour and retest before changing channels or buying anything.