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How To Find Out How Fast Your Wifi Is

Even if Netflix loads chop-chop and Instagram refreshes seamlessly, it's notwithstanding of import to test your dwelling house internet speed—especially now that your WiFi router is working overtime equally your home office information provider.

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Once you know your number, you can double check you're getting the speeds your internet service provider (Verizon, Comcast, etc.) claims it'southward giving you lot, and make certain none of your devices is acting as a bottleneck for that sweet, sweetness cyberspace. Thankfully, it'southward a pretty quick test. Permit's swoop in.

Step #1: Plug In

close up of mobile phone

Jiri Hamhalter / EyeEm Getty Images

Wireless connections take variables: the walls that block the signal, the interference from neighbors' WiFi networks, and even the tech inside your gadgets. The merely way to get an authentic number for the speed of your dwelling wireless connectedness is to connect a laptop or desktop directly to your router.

Typically, that's the blackness box with a coaxial cablevision going into information technology, and the Verizon or Comcast logo somewhere. It's worth noting that if you practice employ a branded router from your internet service provider, it'south not gratis; you're technically renting this device and your monthly internet bill will reflect that fee (usually almost $10 to 15 per month). In the long run, it'south probably worth information technology to buy your own home router.

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If y'all accept two boxes, don't worry. One of those is probable the modem, which feeds into a router that broadcasts the wireless signal. All you need to practise is find an open Ethernet port in either box to create an unbroken connection concatenation from your computer to the wall.

This may be a bit of a ordeal. If you accept a mod MacBook, you lot'll need an Ethernet adapter. (I use this one from Satechi). Second, the router is probably somewhere nether a tabular array or behind a couch, so you'll probably demand to crouch down to achieve information technology.


➡️ Gear We Love: The Best WiFi Routers


At that place might be an Ethernet cable already plugged into the router—usually a port that'south white or marked with a globe/sphere logo. That'south the router's connection to the exterior. Go out that alone, and plug your laptop into 1 of the other ports, which should be marked similar this: <…>

Once y'all're plugged in, turn off WiFi on the laptop so y'all're just connected through the Ethernet cable.

Step #ii: Measure Your Wired Connection

speedtest results page

Screenshot/PM

Open up a browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, whatever). Go to Speedtest.internet and hitting Go. This volition check your download speed in mbps, or megabits per 2d.

If Speedtest says you're getting more than than 50 megabits per second (Mbps), you're doing pretty well. Withal, await at your net nib and compare your number with the number your isp says you're getting. If you're paying for the Gigabit Deluxe parcel, but simply clocking 100 mbps, information technology might be time to make a stink with client service.

Earlier you lot practice, however, know there are a whole host of things that could exist slowing downward your wireless connexion after it makes its way through the wall, and those problems are, in fact, on you lot.

Pace #3: Check the Wireless, Too

Text, Font, Line, Screenshot, Technology, Computer icon,
The Network Analyzer Pro app volition prove you all devices continued to your network.

Alexander George

If your wired connectedness speeds are good, now you tin can measure the wireless connexion speeds. Speedtest.cyberspace has a gratis app past the same name that is simply as great. For anyone who wants more geeky numbers, I use Network Analyzer Pro ($four).

Amongst its functions, that app will evidence you all the devices on your wireless network — useful for figuring out if any specific devices are hogging your bandwidth, or if you recollect a neighbor is mooching. (If your home internet doesn't have a password, set 1 right now before someone more than nefarious than a neighbour decides to get on lath.)

Common Wireless Bug

If your wireless speeds are much, much slower than the wired speed, in that location are a couple of possible culprits. Namely, your router may exist too old for your newer devices, or older devices might be too old for your new router. The engineering science that undergirds WiFi has improved over the years, and older routers and gadgets are simply incapable of dishing out or receiving the fastest signals on the marketplace.

If all your devices are equally slow, bank check the capabilities of your router. The near recent and peppy wireless standard is called 802.11ax, or "Wi-Fi half-dozen," and if your router doesn't support information technology, you aren't getting the fastest speeds available.

Information technology'south non all up to the router, however. Devices tin can slurp internet as fast equally their internal radios allow, so if one old laptop or calculator in particular is sluggish, it might be on that gadget and non your router. Like before, cheque the specs and see what kind of WiFi it can handle.

Yous should besides look at what wireless channels are being used—I use a free app called Netspot for this. If you live in a densely populated area, yous can expect at what channels your neighbors' routers are using, and set your router to a dissimilar aqueduct, where you'll get slightly less interference.

That's a setting you can arrange by going to the admin folio for your router. The instructions for doing so change from brand to brand and router to router, just y'all should be able to detect the instructions and default password for yours with some cursory Googling. Then, while you're in there, change that password equally well.

wireless router

VICTOR DE SCHWANBERG Getty Images

If WiFi speeds are good when yous're virtually the router, only are slow in other rooms, the walls are probably blocking the signal. My advice: skip the "extenders" and purchase a mesh networking kit. These piece of work by relaying a signal from the main router to a 2d or sometimes 3rd satellite beacon that amplifies the original signal.

I personally use the Netgear Orbi, but likewise recommend a pack of eeros if you have a big business firm. Yep, $200-plus seems like a lot of money to bump your speed, but for how easy the Orbi and Eero are to set up and maintain, and how immediately noticeably they boost performance, information technology's worth it for almost anyone who uses a lot of WiFi at home. Pregnant, everyone.


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Senior Editor As Editor in Primary, Alexander oversees all of Popular Mechanics' editorial coverage across digital, print, and video.

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