Is your home Wi-Fi slow — or is it your broadband? How to tell the difference

When the internet is slow, most people phone their broadband provider and upgrade their package. Roughly half the time, that is money spent on the wrong problem entirely.

The distinction, in one line

Broadband is the connection coming into your house from the street. Wi-Fi is how that connection travels from your router to your device. Paying for a faster line will not help if the bottleneck is between your router and your bedroom.

The five-minute test

1. Run a speed test on your phone standing next to the router. Write the number down.
2. Go to wherever the internet feels slow — the back bedroom, the garden office — and run the same test.

If the speed next to the router is close to what you pay for, but drops off a cliff elsewhere: your Wi-Fi is the problem.

If it is slow even standing next to the router: your broadband is the problem.

Better still, plug a laptop into the router with an Ethernet cable and test that. That takes Wi-Fi out of the picture entirely and gives you the truth about your line.

If it is Wi-Fi

• Move the router. It should not be in a cupboard, behind the TV, on the floor or next to the microwave. Central, high and in the open makes a real difference.
• Use the 5GHz band for devices near the router (faster, shorter range) and 2.4GHz for the far corners (slower, better through walls).
• Consider a mesh system. Thick stone walls — and there are a great many of those around Bath, Radstock and the Somerset villages — are genuinely hostile to Wi-Fi. A mesh system with a node upstairs solves what no amount of router-shuffling will.
• Powerline adapters can work well in older houses, using your mains wiring to carry the signal.

If it is broadband

Check what you are actually paying for, and whether full fibre is now available at your address — the rollout has moved quickly, and a lot of homes that could not get it two years ago can now. That is usually a far bigger improvement than any hardware you can buy.

The special case: video calls

Video calls stuttering while Netflix plays perfectly is a classic sign of a poor upload speed, not download. Old copper-based connections are often badly lopsided this way. Full fibre fixes it properly.

Running a business from home in the South West? Our business connectivity service, with Vodafone and CityFibre, is a different animal from a domestic package.