<section> <div class="wrap"> <h2>Work through it in this order</h2> <ol> <li><strong>Test on a wired connection if you possibly can.</strong> If the wired speed is fine and the wireless speed is not, the problem is your Wi-Fi, not your internet service, and no plan upgrade will fix it.</li> <li><strong>Compare the result to what you actually pay for.</strong> Not to what you assume you pay for. Find the plan on your bill.</li> <li><strong>Test at a busy time and a quiet time.</strong> A connection that is fine at 10am and poor at 9pm points at a shared, congested segment, which is typical of cable and of fixed wireless, not of fiber.</li> <li><strong>Check the upload separately.</strong> A great many complaints that present as "slow internet" are actually a starved upload: video calls that freeze, backups that never finish, large files that crawl. The download figure looks fine because it is fine.</li> <li><strong>Restart the modem and router, once, properly.</strong> It is a cliche because it works often enough to be worth two minutes.</li> <li><strong>Count the things using the connection.</strong> A cloud backup or a game update running in the background will consume everything available and does not announce itself.</li> </ol> </div> </section> <section> <div class="wrap"> <h2>The Wi-Fi problems that masquerade as speed problems</h2> <ul> <li><strong>Distance and walls.</strong> Wi-Fi degrades quickly through masonry and over distance. A router in a cupboard at one end of the house is a common cause.</li> <li><strong>Band.</strong> The 2.4&nbsp;GHz band travels farther but is slower and more congested; 5&nbsp;GHz is faster over shorter distances. Devices do not always pick well.</li> <li><strong>An old router.</strong> A router several generations behind your service will cap what you can reach regardless of the plan.</li> </ul> </div> </section> <section> <div class="wrap"> <h2>When it really is the connection</h2> <p> If the wired speed matches your plan and the plan is genuinely too small, that is the point at which shopping makes sense, and the first question is what else can reach you at all, which is address-specific rather than city-specific. </p> <p> If you are on DSL, the ceiling is often structural rather than something you can tune. See <a href="/guides/what-is-dsl-internet/">what DSL is and why it behaves that way</a>. </p> <p class="hero-cta"> <a class="btn" href="/check-my-address/">See what else is available at your address &rarr;</a> </p> <p> Before you upgrade, check <a href="/guides/what-is-a-good-internet-speed/">what speed you actually need</a>. Buying a larger download tier is the most common way to spend money without fixing anything. </p> </div> </section>