Start with the ceiling: no Wi-Fi setting can make your internet faster than the plan you pay for. If you have a 100 Mbps connection, the best possible outcome of everything below is that you actually get close to 100 Mbps in every room, instead of 12 Mbps in the bedroom.
That is still a large improvement for most Indian homes. Here is what genuinely produces it, and the popular advice that does nothing at all.
India Now Has 6 GHz Wi-Fi, and It Changes the Buying Advice
This is the biggest recent development and almost nobody has noticed. India has delicensed the lower 6 GHz band — 5925 to 6425 MHz — for low-power indoor wireless access, with the rules gazetted in May 2025 and the operative notification following in January 2026.
In plain terms: Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 equipment can now legally use 6 GHz in India. That band is effectively empty, so it avoids the congestion that makes 2.4 GHz miserable in dense housing.
Two caveats. Both your router and your device must support 6E or Wi-Fi 7 — one alone does nothing. And the delicensing is for indoor low-power use, with specific exclusions including aircraft below 10,000 feet, drones, oil platforms, and use inside vehicles, trains and boats.
Choose the Right Band
2.4 GHz travels furthest and passes through walls best, and it is also the most congested band in any Indian apartment building. It has only three non-overlapping channels — 1, 6 and 11 — so in a building with twenty routers, everyone is fighting over three lanes. Use it for range and for smart-home devices that support nothing else.
5 GHz has far more channels and much higher throughput, but weakens noticeably through walls. This is the right default for laptops, phones and TVs in the same or adjacent room.
6 GHz is the cleanest spectrum available and the shortest range. Excellent in the same room, poor two walls away.
If your router advertises a single merged network name and band steering keeps parking devices on the wrong band, split the SSIDs — give 2.4 and 5 GHz separate names and connect deliberately. It is less elegant and it works better.
Placement, Which Matters More Than Any Setting
Most Indian routers are installed wherever the cable entered the flat, which is usually a corner near the front door — roughly the worst possible location.
Move it central and elevated. A router at chest height in the middle of the home covers dramatically better than one on the floor in a corner. Radiation spreads outward and downward, so high and central beats low and peripheral every time.
Keep it away from metal cupboards and steel almirahs, mirrors, aquariums and water tanks, microwave ovens, and cordless phone bases. Do not put it inside a wooden cabinet or behind the television.
Settings Worth Changing
Pick your channel manually. Use a Wi-Fi analyser app to see which channels your neighbours occupy, then choose 1, 6 or 11 on 2.4 GHz — whichever is least crowded. On 5 GHz, higher channels are usually quieter.
Set channel width sensibly. 20 MHz on 2.4 GHz reduces interference in crowded buildings. 80 MHz on 5 GHz is the practical sweet spot; 160 MHz sounds better and is often less stable.
Update the firmware. Almost no Indian household ever does this. Log into the router’s admin page and check — it fixes both performance bugs and security holes.
Use WPA3, or WPA2 with AES. Never TKIP, which caps speed and is insecure. And change the default admin password, which on many ISP-supplied routers is still admin/admin.
Three Things That Do Not Work
Aluminium foil or a cut soda can behind the router. This redirects the signal, it does not amplify it. You gain a little in one direction and lose coverage everywhere else. It is not a speed boost.
QoS to “increase speed”. QoS reallocates the bandwidth you already have when there is contention. It cannot create bandwidth beyond your ISP link. Useful for prioritising a video call over a download; useless as a speed upgrade.
Buying a mesh system to fix slow internet. Mesh fixes coverage, not line speed. Worse, a mesh node using wireless backhaul typically halves throughput at each hop, so a badly placed mesh can be slower than one well-placed router. Mesh is justified for multi-floor homes or large flats with genuine dead zones — ideally with wired backhaul or a dedicated backhaul radio. For most two-bedroom flats, moving the router or adding one wired access point is cheaper and faster.
When It Is Not Your Wi-Fi
Before rearranging your furniture, isolate the problem. Plug a laptop into the router with an ethernet cable and run a speed test. If the wired speed is close to your plan, your line is fine and the problem is Wi-Fi. If the wired speed is also poor, no amount of router tweaking will help — that is an ISP issue, and our guide to testing broadband speed properly covers what your plan is actually obliged to deliver and how to complain.
Also note that evening congestion on your ISP’s own backhaul is real and is invisible from inside your home. If speeds collapse only between 8pm and 11pm, that is the shared line, not your router.
And if the trouble is mobile data rather than home broadband, the causes are different — see why 5G is sometimes slower than 4G. We cover practical Indian connectivity issues at Techleez com.
The Order to Try Things In
- Wired speed test, to establish whether Wi-Fi is even the problem.
- Move the router central and elevated.
- Split the SSIDs and connect your main devices to 5 GHz.
- Pick a clear channel manually.
- Update the firmware and switch to WPA3 or WPA2-AES.
- Only then consider new hardware — and if you buy, buy Wi-Fi 6E or 7 now that 6 GHz is legal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get more speed than my broadband plan?
No. Wi-Fi changes only how much of your plan actually reaches your devices.
Is 6 GHz Wi-Fi legal in India now?
Yes. The lower 6 GHz band was delicensed for low-power indoor wireless access, so Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 can use it, subject to stated exclusions.
Does aluminium foil behind the router improve Wi-Fi?
No. It redirects signal rather than amplifying it, improving one direction at the cost of everywhere else.
Will a mesh system make my internet faster?
It improves coverage, not line speed. Wireless backhaul typically halves throughput per hop, so a poorly planned mesh can be slower than one well-placed router.
Should I use 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz?
5 GHz for phones, laptops and TVs near the router. 2.4 GHz for distant rooms and smart-home devices that support nothing else.
How do I know if the problem is my router or my ISP?
Connect a laptop by ethernet cable and run a speed test. Poor wired speed means the problem is the line, not your Wi-Fi.
Fold Smith
Fold Smith is a technology journalist and the lead editor of The Techleez, an India-first publication that decodes technology, digital payments, streaming and online culture for everyday readers. From UPI and fintech explainers to OTT streaming guides, Android tips and online-safety checklists, he personally tests the apps, tools and services featured on the site before recommending them. His focus is practical, research-backed guidance that helps Indian readers make smarter digital decisions — spend less, stream better and stay safe online. When he is not writing, he is usually tracking NPCI circulars, first-day-first-show box office numbers, or the next big OTT premiere.
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