Iphone 4S 6.0.1 has poor wifi reception upstairs

Try using iStumbler to detect and identify neighboring and overlapping wireless access points (WAPs). It's likely an interference issue that can be solved with vigilance. You need to find out what channels your neighbor's WAPs are using, and then switch your router to use the least crowded channel you can find.

Ideally you want to use channels 1, 6, or 11. These are the channels that have the most leeway when it comes to other channels interfering with their signal. Wifi devices operating on a particular channel can interfere with other devices operating on channels up to 5 steps away. The amount of interference grows logarithmically with signal strength and channel proximity.

For example, if you are using channel 1 and your nearest neighboring wireless network is also using channel 1, you are receiving a large amount of interference. If you are on 1 and the other network is on 6, the interference is negligible. However, if you are on channel 1 and your neighbor is using channel 3, you are likely still on the receiving end of a huge amount of interference depending on their WAPs signal strength.

iStumbler will give you information about the signal strengths emanating from the other interfering WAPs, and from there you can infer the best channel to use. You may need to periodically perform the same task as your neighbors change their wifi channels.

I managed to solve this on my own: I gave my phone a static IP address different from the router assigned one, and everything works fine now.

I discovered that my roommate had set up a particular IP address for VPN while working from home a while back. When I got the phone and joined the network, the router assigned my phone that IP address which had various Application and Port forwarding assigned to it. Simple but took digging around in the router settings and logs.