Why is my Wi-Fi slow when my plan should be fast?
Your plan sets the top speed into the house. Distance, walls, interference and busy devices decide how much reaches each room.
Your internet plan describes the speed arriving at your router. What reaches your phone or laptop depends on the Wi-Fi in between, and that is where most of the loss happens.
Common causes
- Distance and walls. Brick, concrete, mirrors and floors all weaken signal.
- Interference. Neighboring networks on the same channel, microwaves and some cordless devices.
- Busy network. Streaming, backups and game downloads competing at once.
- Older devices or routers. They may not support faster Wi-Fi standards.
How to tell
Compare a wired speed test at the router with a Wi-Fi test in the same spot and in the slow room. Fast wired but slow Wi-Fi means coverage or interference. Slow wired means the line or the router itself.
Quick wins
Restart the router, update its firmware, and move it somewhere central and raised. Pause big downloads during calls. If one room is always weak, read fixing dead zones.
Home Wi-Fi and network troubleshooting, minus the jargon