Internet connections have evolved a lot in recent years. Not more than 10 years ago, most users had ADSL connections of less than 20 Mbps. The Ethernet network cable has gone from 100BASE-T connections that offered speeds of up to 100 Mbps to Gigabit Ethernet with 1 Gbps. Wi-Fi has also undergone a considerable change with the 802.11g standard that provided 54 Mbps to current networks that comply with the 802.11ac standard and that can easily offer us speeds greater than 250 Mbps. That does not mean that Wi-Fi, in certain occasions, have a different performance and more if we compare it with the Ethernet network cable. In this article we are going to see why Wi-fi is sometimes slow and what its possible causes are.
Distance and channels as culprits
At the moment we connect to a Wi-Fi network we have to be aware of the weaknesses of wireless networks. One of the most important is the interference we have with nearby networks. In that aspect, the more Wi-Fi networks our neighbors have, the more likely it is that we will have a problem.
In some situations we may notice that Wi-Fi is sometimes slow due to distance . In that case, the further away we are from the router, the greater the speed loss. That is why when we are located in the room where the router is located, there are usually no problems. However, as we move away from the router, the signal has to overcome architectural barriers such as walls and it loses speed. That without counting on the aforementioned interferences. For this reason, if the distance is very great on some occasions, we have no choice but to add a Wi-Fi repeater or a Wi-Fi Mesh system, as the case may be.
Another thing that has a lot of influence is the choice of channel , especially in the 2.4GHz band, which, being more congested due to fewer channels, makes the situation more problematic. And the further you get from the router, the worse the situation will be. For this reason, when you have problems with Wi-fi, one of the things that we should first check is the channels that we are using, both from the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz band. The first thing you could try if the router allows it is that from its web configuration it automatically chooses the one that best suits us. However, this is not always possible, either because it does not work well in automatic mode or because it does not have that option. Then we will have to do it manually, and we will choose the farthest channel possible from the two or three networks that are closest to us. Perhaps you might be interested in learning about WirelessNetView to see your neighbors’ channels and then choose the most suitable one.
Wi-Fi is slow at times
We must also bear in mind that we have more and more computers connected to the Internet. That means that we must distribute the bandwidth that our Wi-Fi router is capable of offering among all. In this aspect, every time in our homes we have more connected equipment, such as a Smart TV, smart plugs, a printer and other home automation devices.
In that aspect, Wi-Fi sometimes works slowly depending on the devices that you have connected to the wireless network and also the bandwidth that they are consuming. Thus, in the hypothetical case that we had many devices connected by Wi-Fi at the same time and they consume a lot of bandwidth, a saturation of the Wi-Fi network could occur. In this aspect we could put two typical cases that could cause this situation:
- The use of P2P programs.
- The display of streaming content at high resolution. It is increasingly common for different members of a household to individually enjoy audiovisual entertainment offered by different platforms.
Also, if it’s a particular computer where Wi-Fi is sometimes slow, it could be because you’re using old Wi-Fi drivers and need to update them. Another option could also be that this computer had some malware, so it would be convenient to run a good antivirus. Finally, here are more tips for when Wi-Fi has a good signal, but it cuts out and is slow.
