You just hired the faster Internet connection rate from your operator but sometimes it gets stuck playing the last episode of The Mandalorian Disney+ or online games have a lot of lag when you connect via WiFi to your router.
Obviously these problems do not arise because you have contracted an insufficient speed, but because your router may not be optimized to deliver that speed to your devices efficiently.
In most cases, The routers of the operators are quite basic and are only capable of delivering the contracted connection speed through a wired connection, but the Wi-Fi connection speeds of these devices leave much to be desired.
Next, we show you how to check the speed of your internet connection and we offer you some tips and tricks to solve connection problems at home.
Have you tried restarting?
It may seem like the most obvious and silly solution, but the simple fact of reboot the routeror doing a complete shutdown by disconnecting the router from the electrical current for at least 5 minutes, solves more than 80% of connection problems and problems related to poor network performance.
The explanation is very simple. The router is running for weeks and even months and during that time it does not stop working connecting and disconnecting devices. For example, every time you leave home with your mobile it disconnects from your WiFi, to automatically reconnect when you return.
In some of these processes, the connection can give rise to some small error that makes your router have to take more steps to send the data from the Internet to your device. Now multiply those small errors by the times you go in and out of the house and you can get an idea of the dimension that can take.
Restarting the router makes a clean slate to those small errors that accumulate in the router’s logs, causing the router to recover its optimal configuration on its own.
Run a speed test on your device
Before you start worrying about the lack of connection speed The ideal is to make sure if there really is a real problem of lack of speed on the part of the operator, or if your router is creating a funnel limiting your internet connection.
There are many applications and websites that, through a simple speed test, test the speed of your connection. In fact, it is more than likely that your Internet operator has one on its website.
If not, you can use third-party connection speed tests like Speedtest.net, Fast.com, or CloudFlare.
These tests are based on the sending and receiving of data packets between your device and a remote server, measuring the time it takes to go up and down from the server and its speed. Before performing the test, you should close all apps and services that may be consuming bandwidth Internet on your device, as well as other browser tabs.
It is also important not to focus on just one test, but repeat the same test three or four times in different time slots and even on different days to see if the results are more or less stable or vary drastically. Do not focus on a single test either. Use several to check that the measurements are consistent.
The results obtained are expressed in mbps (Megabits per second) a unit by which the transmission of computer data is measured, and the same unit of measurement that appears in the contract with your operator.
To do this, you can connect a network cable directly to one of the rear jacks of your router and to your computer to make the measurement.
With that test scenario, the results should be adjusted to the contracted speed. If they are not, we recommend that you contact your operator and notify them of the problem as it may be an error in the configuration of your connection node and they may even solve it remotely.
Yeah you have contracted a 300 Mb fiber connection, your connection speed should be very close to this figure and even slightly higher. WiFi connections have some added limitations and could yield results well below that figure.
How to do Wi-Fi speed tests
If the network cable connection speed tests have been satisfactory and give results close to the contracted rate, it is time to test the coverage and speed of the WiFi connection offered by your router.
I can tell you in advance that if your router is the one provided by the operator, it is more than likely that the results will be very modest. The reason is that these routers offer a very modest antenna and WiFi network management system and in many cases will not even deliver 50% of the contracted speed.
You can do the test from any device connected by WiFi to your router. Stand 1 or 2 meters from the router and start one of the tests that we have mentioned before or their versions in app format if you prefer. If the data obtained is much lower than that obtained with cable speed tests, there you have the culprit.
WiFi connection speed has many elements involved. From the connection protocol of the router or the network card of the devices (WiFi 5, WiFi 6 or WiFi 7), to the power of its antennas (both the router and the device), always being limited by the slowest device, so it is advisable to avoid WiFi extenders and other intermediate devices when testing.
By WiFi, it will always be more difficult to obtain the connection speed you have contracted, because all the devices related in the connection have to be updated and support the latest connection protocols. Something very unusual in the routers of the operators.
In addition, the further you get from the router, the lower the connection speed due to the loss of transmission power, something that becomes much more noticeable as walls, furniture or other electrical devices are placed between the router and the connected device. . That is why you must stay close to the router to obtain more or less realistic results.
Test the connection speed from the router itself
Some routers and mesh network systems, like Amazon’s Eero or Huawei or Honor routers, have their own network optimization tools, including connection speed tests to detect problems.
In the case of Huawei and Honor routers, this speed test is integrated into the configuration app that is installed on the mobile or from the router configuration menus.
The app automatically performs a speed test, analyzes the saturation of the transmission channels and, if necessary, changes the WiFi transmission channel of the router to optimize signal delivery and improve transmission speed.
