Speed & Upgrades · Connection

How to speed up your internet connection

A slow connection is usually the wireless link, the router, or one heavy device — not the line you pay for. Each question below is answered in its first sentence, followed by the setting or the test that settles it.

Reviewed November 2026 · No downloads, no affiliate links

The short answers

What is the fastest way to speed up my internet?: Test with a cable first. If the wired figure matches your plan, the problem is Wi-Fi, and moving the router and using the 5 GHz band costs nothing.
Does restarting the router help?: Yes, when the router is the bottleneck. Unplugging it for 30 seconds clears memory and stale connections; if speed returns and then fades, the router is the thing to replace.
Is Ethernet faster than Wi-Fi?: Yes in practice. A cable removes walls, interference and the shared airtime Wi-Fi divides between devices, which is why it is the baseline for every diagnosis.
Where should my router go?: Central, elevated and out in the open. Cupboards, floors, metal cabinets, mirrors and televisions all cost signal before it leaves the room.
2.4 GHz or 5 GHz: which is faster?: 5 GHz is faster at short range; 2.4 GHz reaches further through walls. Use 5 GHz wherever it reaches, and 2.4 GHz for the far end of the house.
Does a VPN slow my connection?: Usually yes, by roughly 5 to 30 percent. It encrypts traffic and sends it the long way round; use the nearest server and split tunnelling where offered.
Do I need a new router?: If it is over five years old, single-band, or has no gigabit ports, it caps every device in the house. Replace it before paying for a faster plan.
Should I upgrade my internet plan?: Only if a wired test shows the line delivering less than you pay for. If the cable matches the plan, a bigger plan will not fix a Wi-Fi problem.
Why is the internet slow in the evening?: Congestion. Neighbours share the same network back to the provider, and streaming peaks between about 7 and 11 p.m.
Does changing DNS make my connection faster?: It adds no bandwidth. It can shorten the pause before a page starts loading, which is felt as speed.

Six things can limit a connection

Speed is set by the slowest link in the chain. Finding which one it is takes two measurements, not a guess, and it stops you buying a bigger plan to fix a Wi-Fi problem.

The plan

What you buy, advertised as an “up to” figure measured on a cable with nothing else running. It is the ceiling for everything below.

The line

What actually reaches the house. Cable and DSL slow down when the street is busy; a damaged line shows up as packet loss and dropouts rather than steady slowness.

The router

The box that turns the line into Wi-Fi and shared ports. Its age, firmware, heat and memory determine whether the rest of the house ever sees the plan speed.

The wireless link

Distance, walls, the band in use, neighbouring networks and household appliances. Usually the largest single loss between the line and a phone or laptop.

The device

Its Wi-Fi adapter, driver and age. A laptop with an older card can cap at a fraction of the plan no matter what the router offers.

The other end

The server or service responds at its own speed. A healthy connection to a slow website still feels slow, and nothing in your house changes that.

Why is my internet so slow?

Because one of six things is limiting it: the plan, the line, the router, the wireless link, the device, or the service at the other end. A speed test by cable, then by Wi-Fi, says which.

Run the test twice on the same device, once with an Ethernet cable and once on Wi-Fi, within a few minutes. A small gap means the line is fine and the problem is elsewhere.
A large gap means the wireless side: distance, walls, band, channel or an old adapter. The Wi-Fi audit page walks through that comparison room by room.
If both figures sit below the plan, the line or the provider's network is the limit, and no router setting will change it.
If both figures match the plan and pages still feel slow, the cause is latency, DNS or the browser rather than bandwidth.

Does restarting the router actually help?

Yes, when the router is the limit. A restart clears memory, drops stale connections and lets warm hardware cool; if the speed comes back and then fades again, the router is failing rather than the line.

Unplug the router's power for 30 seconds, then plug it back in and give it two minutes. With a separate modem, power-cycle the modem first, wait for its lights, then the router.
Check the router's vents and where it sits. A box under a cushion, in a closed cabinet or on top of a hot amplifier runs slower and drops connections.
Install firmware updates when the router offers them. They carry stability fixes, and they are the last thing most people check.
A restart that fixes the speed for an hour is a symptom, not a cure: plan for a replacement, and note how long it takes to degrade.

Is Ethernet really faster than Wi-Fi?

Yes in practice, and it is the only way to measure the line itself. A cable removes walls, interference and the airtime Wi-Fi has to share between every device on the network.

Use Cat5e or Cat6 cable, and check both ends are gigabit ports. A 100 Mbps port anywhere in the path caps a 500 Mbps line at 100 Mbps.
On Wi-Fi, only one device talks at a time. A phone streaming in one room reduces the throughput available to a laptop in another; a cable does not.
Keep desktops, consoles, televisions and work calls wired where possible. It is the cheapest speed improvement in most homes.
A cable that reports a link but no internet points to a port or cable fault — try another cable and another port before blaming the provider.

Where should I put my router?

Central, elevated and in the open, ideally within sight of the rooms that matter. Every wall, cupboard and metal object between router and device costs speed.

Avoid cupboards, floor level, the space behind a television, and the corner of the house where the cable happens to enter.
Keep it away from mirrors, fish tanks, metal shelving, microwaves and cordless-phone bases. Water and metal absorb or reflect the signal.
Point the antennas upright for same-floor coverage. If the router has internal antennas, orientation is a matter of standing it as designed rather than on its side.
If the best spot has no socket, run a longer Ethernet cable from the modem rather than leaving the router where the cable arrives.

2.4 GHz or 5 GHz: which one should I use?

5 GHz is faster at short range, 2.4 GHz reaches further through walls. Put the devices you care about on 5 GHz when they are within a room or two of the router.

5 GHz carries more data but is stopped more easily by walls and floors, so it fades sooner as you move away.
2.4 GHz is crowded: microwaves, baby monitors, doorbells, cordless phones and every neighbour's network share it.
Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 add a 6 GHz band that is faster and currently quiet, with the shortest range of the three.
When the router publishes one network name for both bands, it decides for you. Splitting them lets you choose — most routers offer this in wireless settings.

Does changing the Wi-Fi channel help?

Sometimes, and mostly on 2.4 GHz. If neighbouring networks sit on your channel, everyone waits their turn; channels 1, 6 and 11 are the only three that do not overlap.

A Wi-Fi scanning app shows how many networks share each channel. Pick the emptiest of 1, 6 or 11.
Set the channel width to 20 MHz on 2.4 GHz. Wider is faster in theory and worse in a crowded street.
On 5 GHz, leave the channel on automatic unless a scan shows a clear alternative; it has many more channels and usually manages itself well.
Changing the channel is a two-minute test. If throughput at the same spot does not improve, change it back and look elsewhere.

Do Wi-Fi extenders actually speed things up?

Rarely. An extender repeats a signal it already received, so devices behind it run at roughly half the speed of the room it borrowed from: it extends coverage, not speed.

For a room that needs speed, use a mesh node or second router connected by cable. That carries the full line rather than repeating half of it.
Where wiring is impossible, powerline adapters using the mains wiring are usually more consistent than a wireless extender.
If you do use an extender, place it where the signal is still strong — halfway to the dead spot, not in the dead spot.
Check whether the extender is the reason a nearby room got slower: it can occupy airtime the main router needs.

Does a VPN slow down my internet?

Usually, by roughly 5 to 30 percent. Traffic is encrypted and takes a detour through the VPN's servers, and the further away that server is, the longer the round trip.

Choose the nearest server, and a modern protocol such as WireGuard where the app offers a choice.
Split tunnelling sends only the apps that need the VPN through it, leaving video calls and streaming on the direct connection.
Test with the VPN off to see what it costs you. If the difference is large, that is the VPN, not your line.
A VPN can occasionally improve throughput when a provider throttles a specific service, but that is the exception rather than the reason to use one.

Will changing my DNS server make my internet faster?

It will not add bandwidth. It can shorten the pause before a page starts loading, which people experience as a faster connection.

Public resolvers such as 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8 are often quicker to answer than a provider's default.
Set it on the router to cover every device, or on one device to test the difference first.
The gain is measured in milliseconds per lookup, so expect pages to start sooner rather than files to download faster.
If pages stall and then appear all at once, the wait is usually name lookup or latency rather than throughput.

Why is my internet slow when other people are home?

Because bandwidth is shared. One 4K stream takes about 25 Mbps, a console update can take everything available, and cloud backups run without asking.

The router's admin page lists connected devices and, on most modern routers, current traffic per device.
Pause cloud photo and file sync while you work, and set game consoles to update outside working hours.
Traffic prioritisation — QoS or “gaming” and “work from home” modes on the router — keeps calls and video steady when something else is downloading.
Wire the heavy device rather than adding more Wi-Fi devices to share the same airtime.

Should I pay for a faster internet plan?

Only if a wired test shows the line delivering less than the plan promises, and the provider confirms the line is running at its limit. If the cable matches the plan, a faster plan will not fix a Wi-Fi problem.

Test by cable at an off-peak time and compare the download figure with what the plan states. Providers' “up to” numbers are measured on a cable with nothing else running.
Upload matters more than most people expect: calls, backups and uploading video are limited by upload speed, which is often a tenth of the download figure on cable.
A move to fibre is the change that matters when it is available: it is symmetric and has lower latency, so it feels quicker even at a similar headline speed.
Ask the provider to check the line before you upgrade. Persistent slowness on a wired test is a fault to fix, not a reason to buy more.

Why is my internet slower in the evening?

Congestion. Neighbours share the same network back to the provider, and streaming peaks between about 7 and 11 p.m., so the same line carries more traffic than it does at breakfast.

Test by cable at 7 a.m. and again at 8 p.m. If the wired figure drops as well, the cause is outside your house.
Keep a short record: date, time, wired result and Wi-Fi result. Providers act on patterns rather than on one bad evening.
No router setting fixes congestion on the provider's network. Traffic prioritisation can protect calls from your own household's downloads, not from the street.
If the pattern is severe and persistent, ask for a line or node check — and mention the times you recorded.

My speed test is fast but pages still load slowly. Why?

Because throughput is only part of a connection. Latency, packet loss, a slow DNS lookup, a heavy browser and a slow website all make a fast line feel slow.

Look at the latency figure from the test. Under about 40 ms feels responsive; over 100 ms feels sluggish in every interaction.
Persistent packet loss shows up as pages that stall, calls that break up and a test that fluctuates. It is a line fault worth reporting.
Clear the browser's cache, disable extensions you do not use, and try a different browser to separate the connection from the software.
A page that is slow on every connection, including mobile data, is the website's problem rather than yours.

Will a new router give me faster internet?

It can, if the old one is the limit. A single-band router, one without gigabit ports, or one more than about five years old caps every device in the house regardless of the plan.

Check the wired result first. If a cable already delivers the plan speed, a new router improves only the wireless side — which is often still worth it, but know what you are buying.
Look for gigabit Ethernet ports, Wi-Fi 6 or newer, and support for both 5 GHz and 6 GHz if your devices have it.
A router that needs restarting weekly, drops connections, or runs hot is failing rather than merely old.
Replace the slow device's adapter too. An older laptop's Wi-Fi card is often the lower ceiling, and it is cheaper to fix than a router.

Does the weather affect internet speed?

Not on cable or fibre. Rain, wind and storms affect satellite and fixed-wireless links, and heat can slow equipment in a street cabinet.

Satellite connections slow in heavy rain and snow because the signal has to cross the weather.
Fixed-wireless and mobile broadband depend on a radio link to a mast, so storms and foliage in the path matter.
Cable and fibre run underground or on poles and are not affected by weather, though a storm that takes out power takes the network with it.
If speed drops only during weather, note the times; that is useful evidence for the provider.

The order to work through, in ten minutes

Start with the measurement that tells you where the speed is going, then change one thing at a time. Each step is reversible and costs nothing.

Step 01
Measure the line by cable
One test with an Ethernet cable, one on Wi-Fi, same device and same minute. The gap between them decides what to fix.
Step 02
Restart the hardware
Modem first, then router, 30 seconds unplugged each. Note whether speed returns and how long it lasts.
Step 03
Use 5 GHz and shorten the distance
Connect the device you care about to the 5 GHz network and test in the same room as the router.
Step 04
Stop the background load
Pause cloud sync and backups, close game updates, and check the router's list of connected devices.
Step 05
Fix placement, then channel
Move the router out of cupboards and off the floor, then try a clear 2.4 GHz channel if the far rooms are still weak.
Step 06
Retest and decide
One change, one test. If the wired figure is still below the plan, the next call is to the provider, not the shop.

When it is the provider's problem, not yours

Some slowness cannot be fixed inside the house. These are the signs that the line itself needs attention — and they are what to describe when you call.

The wired figure is consistently below what the plan states, at times when nobody else in the house is using the connection.
The test fluctuates wildly or drops out, which points to packet loss and a line fault rather than congestion.
Slow evenings happen on a cable as well as on Wi-Fi, at the same hours every night.
The modem's status lights show a fault, or the connection drops and reconnects on its own.

Ask for a line check rather than an upgrade. If the wired result already matches the plan, more bandwidth will not change how the connection feels — the fixes are on this page, not on the bill.

Keep going

Run the speed test

Download, upload and latency in about twenty seconds, with nothing to install.

Open

Audit your home Wi-Fi

Find which room loses the speed, and whether the router, band or coverage is at fault.

Open

What is a good internet speed?

The Mbps each task needs, and why latency matters as much as bandwidth.

Open

Test after each change, on the same device and in the same place. One change and one test is the only way to know which fix worked — and the only way to tell a real improvement from a quiet evening on the street.