Discover what’s slowing up your internet speed 12Mbps to 25Mbps should be good for a small family with medium to high usage, while anything over 25Mbps is great for a house full of gamers, HD video streamers and internet addicts. What broadband speed do you need?Ī basic service offering speeds between 3Mbps to 8Mbps will be good enough for light browsing, email, video calls, and streaming video. Some can even be linked to your smart speakers, so you can simply ask ‘How fast is my internet?’ 5. Google's Nest Wi-Fi includes the ability to run a speed test. (Image credit: Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin smart speaker)ĭepending on the wireless router you use, it is often possible to also run a speed test through its dedicated smartphone app. Run a speed test using your wireless provider If you take time to experiment with it you’ll also be able to identify the optimal spot for your wireless router, as well as pinpoint where you might need to install WiFi extenders. The beauty of these apps is that you can use them to discover the best and worst spots in your home for WiFi signals. Many Wi-Fi speed apps actually just test broadband speed, but Wi-Fi Speed Test for Android and Wi-Fi Sweetspots for iOS do it well. It doesn’t matter if you have lightning fast broadband if your WiFi speeds are tortoise slow. When running the test make sure nothing else is using your internet connection, and if possible, plug your laptop into your router for the most accurate readings. It’s also a great way to compare the speeds you’re getting with other networks, and upgrade if necessary. Why bother to test your broadband speed? Firstly, you can check that you’re getting the speeds you’re paying for, and if there’s an issue, you can take up with your broadband provider. This is just one of the best wifi booster apps that can help. This is important for real-time applications such as online gaming and video calls. The speed test should also show your 'ping' which is the latency of your connection. The 30 second test will show results in Mbps (megabits per second) and as a basic guide a good download speed is at least 25 Mbps, and a good upload speed is at least 3 Mbps. The 5 GHz signal doesn’t extend as far as a 2.4 GHz, but it has more options to bypass interference problems.Broadband Speed Checker is a simple online tool that shows your home’s download and upload speeds. When doing so, look for one that supports both 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi signals. If your router is older, it might be time to upgrade. If you have plaster walls, consider moving the router as close to the center of the home as possible. Either your walls are very thick and dense, or your router is old and unable to broadcast very far. If you step a room or two away from the router and find you’re quickly losing the signal, it’s time to consider the age of your router and its placement. Check for interference, consider changing channels, or upgrade to a router that supports 5 GHz (or even 6Ghz) if your current one doesn’t. For instance, if you can reach the edges of your home and still see a 60 dBm signal (or most of the bars), then any issues you’re having aren’t Wi-Fi-strength related. Once you know how strong your network is, you’ll have a better idea of what to do to improve it. You’ll see dBm measurements in the RSSI entry. Hold the option key and click on the Wi-Fi symbol. On Mac, you don’t need to download any program or app if you want to measure the connected network. Like on a Mac and iPhone, you’ll find dBm measurements listed under the RSSI entry. Just unzip and double-click the EXE file. The program is free, easy to use, and doesn’t require installation. In the past, we recommended NirSoft’s WifiInfoView to inspect Wi-Fi channels, and it also gets the nod for checking Wi-Fi strength. RELATED: How to Generate a Wi-Fi History or WLAN Report in Windows 10 Windows 10 and 11 don’t have a built-in way to view precise signal strength, although the netsh wlan show interface command gives you your signal strength as a percentage.
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