Most home Wi-Fi is slow for reasons nobody talks about. Nine beliefs are costing you speed, and myth 8 is the one people pay extra every month for.
Bars show signal strength only. A strong signal on a crowded channel still crawls, because every nearby network takes turns using the same airtime.
The FCC puts it plainly: 2.4 GHz covers more of the house, 5 GHz moves data faster. Far rooms and thick walls are a 2.4 GHz job, not a 5 GHz one.
The 6 GHz band opened 1,200 MHz of new spectrum, but it is indoor and low power by rule, and its range is roughly 60-70% of 2.4 GHz. Same room only.
A cheap single-radio extender cannot listen and talk at once, so it repeats every packet and roughly halves your speed. Look for a dedicated backhaul band.
The FCC's first home-network tip is to put the router in a central spot. A cabinet, a floor corner or a spot behind the TV throws away coverage for free.
Routers on the same channel take turns transmitting, so their traffic eats yours. On 2.4 GHz only channels 1, 6 and 11 avoid overlapping each other.
A MAC address travels unencrypted and can be copied in software, so a filter list stops nobody. The encryption setting is what protects you: use WPA3.
The FCC lists an old or slow router among the top causes of slow internet. If the bottleneck is your own hardware, a bigger plan changes nothing.
Move the router to a central spot, switch 2.4 GHz to channel 1, 6 or 11, and run a wire to whatever sits still. Then test before paying for more speed.