Question WiFi gets really slow in my room ?

[briblo1982]

It seems that my wifi gets really slow in my room. The house is one level. I have unplug everything and it still does nothing. All of a sudden the speed just went up and stayed between 200 mb to 300mb sometimes 400mb. It's a 1gig internet for the house.

 

[Paperdoc]

A LOT of the real speed of the internet is the speed of the OTHER end - the system sending stuff to you. And that is impacted by what sort of stuff you look for and where it comes from. If you want to know the actual max speed of your own system. use a few speed testing tools. Likely at least pone is supplied by your internet provider, but there are lots of others. We have wired Gigabit Ethernet in the house, some high-performance WiFi units and a Gigabit fibre optical feed from the provider. Tests normally show downloads of 800 Mb/s or more on a wired connectiion. But the real downloads of many files take longer - some fast but some MUCH slower -than that rate would predict, varying widely from varied sources. And bear in mind that WiFi is NOT Gigabit. A single typical WiFi channel operates about 250 to 300 Mb/s, although a good system can do that for 3 different users simultaneously.

 

[Misgar]

If you're using a laptop and moving around, WiFi signal strengths can vary widely, even in the same room.

If you can be bothered, you could "map" the signal strength in different locations to work out the best place for fastest downloads (when available).
https://techwiser.com/wifi-mapping-apps/

As a rough rule of thumb, the old inverse square law applies to isotropic radio signals, but walls and floors in between the WiFi transmitter and receiver can have considerable attenuating effects.

Just moving your laptop from one side of the room to another could see signal strength change by more than 10dB.

I use InSSIDer to check WiFi AP signal strengths in hotel rooms and public venues, to find the best position for maximum throughput.
https://www.metageek.com/inssider/

https://www.webservertalk.com/best-wifi-analyzers-for-windows-networks/

If the signal level drops below -75dBm, I wander around with inSSIDer running on the laptop, to find a stronger signal. At -90dBm, you'll be lucky to connect to any web sites at minimal speed. With the laptop right next to the WiFi transmitter, you might see -25 to -30dBm.

Bandwidth (throughput) increases as signal strength increases. You're unlikely to see a signal stronger than -20dBm. Below -80dBm, I abandon attempts to work normally.

For static PCs, I use a mixture of 1Gbps and 10Gbps Ethernet plus SFP+ fibre optic.

If I need consistent high speeds on a laptop, I use a 2.5Gbps USB Ethernet dongle (also available with USB-C connector).
https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Ethernet-Aluminum-Computer-Compatible/dp/B0CWV2Q6HJ

 

[MJS WARLORD]

Hello @briblo1982 ...... I have recently upgraded from copper wire broadband to full fibre , on copper wire i was only getting 20mb per second as my local exchange that is only 1 mile away is very old , that said i was able to run 2 pc , a laptop , a tablet and 2 smart phones , the only time i struggled was downloading big games on steam.

So , now to your question .... i recently moved to full fibre. on full fibre my isp gave me a pdf to prove i get 800mb to my ont box and hub.
The problem is that because of where my hub is and the layout of my property i can no longer use ethernet to my main pc ....i must use wi-fi for everything and just like you i only get around 350mb to all my devices. Just out of curiosity i temporarily put my spare pc into my hub using ethernet and got full mb speed.

Do not talk to your isp about speed difference in your home because they will say ... we are sending max speed to your home , how you use it ( ethernet or wi-fi ) is not our problem. Yes it is annoying that wi-fi looses so much download speed but in reality the only time you would see a difference between 1gb to your home and 300mb to your devices is when you download big games and how often do you do that.

In my particular case i have gone from slow copper wire 20mb to 350mb fibre to all my devices so even though i dont get the 800mb i am still running over 10 times faster than i was,

Dont waste money on devices to boost wi-fi in your home because if you succeed your isp MIGHT throttle your connection and you could be worse off.

 

[faalin]

If you are pulling 200-400mb on wifi that is totally acceptable speeds.

Wired Ethernet:
A 1 Gbps Ethernet connection theoretically offers up to 1000 Mbps (1 Gigabit per second) of bandwidth. In real-world scenarios, you might see slightly lower speeds due to overhead and protocol limitations, typically around 900-950 Mbps.

Wi-Fi:
Wi-Fi speeds vary significantly based on the Wi-Fi standard (e.g., 802.11ac, 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6), the router's capabilities, and the distance and obstructions between the router and the device.

2.4 GHz: Older Wi-Fi standard, typically offering slower speeds maxing out around 450-600mb (perfect conditions)

5 GHz: Newer Wi-Fi standard, offering faster speeds maxing out at 1200mbs (perfect conditions)

Wi-Fi 6: The newest standard, with the potential to reach speeds comparable to or even exceeding gigabit speeds in ideal conditions, but in practice, it's often slower than a wired gigabit connection.

Factors Affecting Wi-Fi Speed:
Distance: The further you are from the router, the weaker the signal and the slower the speed.

Obstructions: Walls, furniture, and other objects can interfere with the Wi-Fi signal.
Interference: Other devices using the same radio frequencies (e.g., microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices) can cause interference and slow down your Wi-Fi.
Number of Devices: When multiple devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, the available bandwidth is shared, potentially reducing speeds for each device.

 

[Misgar]

I have recently upgraded from copper wire broadband to full fibre

When I upgraded from copper (ADSL) to full fibre-to-the-premises, I asked the installation team to route the fibre into the upstairs bedroom I use as a computer room.

The only thing I had to do was drill a 1/4" diameter hole in the wooden window frame for their conduit, because they weren't allowed to drill the hole themselves. Bizarre, but it probably avoids complaints from customers if the rain gets in. Goodness knows how they expected to get the fibre into my house on the ground floor. Through a brick wall?

The result is I now have fibre broadband where I need it most, but I run 10Gb/s Ethernet cables and 10Gb/s OM3 fibre optic cables out of the computer room, down the stairs on the skirting board and around into the ground floor to my servers.

No attempt to hide cables using the professional approach to locate them under floorboards and inside wall cavities, just make sure they're not a trip hazard. It helps that I've worked in large server halls and bare cables don't frighten me. I know some people might regard them as an eyesore.

The only time I use WiFi is on portable devices, but if I need more speed on my laptops, I use 2.5Gbps USB3 Ethernet dongles.

 

[Paperdoc]

Just to clarify on WiFi speeds. A good WiFi Point of Access unit (whether stand-alone or built into your Router) can move data at up to 1 Gb/s (Gigabit WiFi) in TOTAL. That is what is called "Gigabit WiFi". That includes using both the 2.4 GHz band and the 5 GHz bands and it may use both bands simultaneously. But then on EACH of those bands it can use typically 3 sub-bands. That is, on each band it uses channels of specified bandwidth and, to avoid overlapping of channels and data errors, it can use up to 3 channels. Each channel normally is dedicated to ONE user device, so EACH user experiences the data rate of that one channel it is using, although there may be three simultaneous users on their own channels. In fact, the system CAN use each of those channels to service several users using different IP addresses, but of course that means each user in that scenario is sharing the bandwidth of one channel among several users. So the fastest any one user can expect to achieve is when that user is the only one using that one channel, which OFTEN is the case in a private home.

Now, assuming only one user on each channel, the max data transmission rate of one ONE channel on ONE frequency band is about 300 Gb/s, so that is the max rate ONE user can achieve. Hypothetically the WiFi system might use three channels each on two frequency bands , totalling a max of 1200 Mb/s. But if the input to the WiFi system from a wired network (maybe fed by a Gigabit optical fibre feed) is 1 Gb/s, then the WiFi system cannot exceed that it total. So IF the WiFi system is very heavily loaded with six users simultaneously (three channels on each of the 2.4 and 5 GHz frequency bands), each WiFi user will achieve about 160 Mb.s data rates. In a typical home system if only THREE users are at work and all are trying for max data throughput with heavy downloads, then each may experience about 300 Mb/s (the max for one channel).

I note that OP cited "slow" data rates "between 200 mb to 300mb sometimes 400mb", but did NOT tell us whether those are using wired network connections or by WiFi. IF those are with WiFi connections, then that IS the max to be expected even for a single-user system, because that single user can only get the max data rate for ONE channel. In that case, switching to a wired network connection as a single user will show much higher speeds ASSUMING that the in-house wired network is constructed for Gigabit Ethernet. IF OP's uses actually do require max speed, that will make a difference. If not, then the difference may not be noticed.