Slow Wi-Fi? Let’s Get You Back Up to Speed
Simple Ways to Improve Wi-Fi Speed, Coverage & Reliability
Buffering, slow downloads or a video call that keeps freezing? The good news is that a slow device doesn’t always mean your Wakey Internet connection is slow.
Wi-Fi performance can vary significantly depending on your device, distance from the router, interference, building materials, router placement and other activity happening on your home network.
First Things First — Internet and Wi-Fi Aren’t Quite the Same Thing
Your Internet connection is the service delivered to your modem/router. Wi-Fi is the wireless connection between your router and devices inside your home.
Wakey Network → Modem → Router → Wi-Fi → Your Device
A strong Internet connection can still feel slow if the Wi-Fi connection between your device and router is weak.
That’s why the first step is figuring out where the slowdown is happening.
Quick Test — Is It Your Internet or Your Wi-Fi?
- Move close to your main Wi-Fi router and run another speed test.
- If possible, connect a computer directly to your router using an Ethernet cable and test again.
- Compare the results.
Ethernet is fast, but Wi-Fi is slow?
Your Wakey Internet connection is likely reaching the router correctly, and we should focus on improving the Wi-Fi connection inside your home.
Ethernet and Wi-Fi are both unusually slow?
The issue may be related to the Internet connection, modem, router or another network condition and may require additional troubleshooting.
What Causes Slow Wi-Fi?
Wireless networking is incredibly convenient, but Wi-Fi has to travel through the air and everything between your router and your device can affect it.
1 — Distance From Your Router
Generally, the farther your device is from the router or nearest mesh unit, the weaker the Wi-Fi signal becomes.
A phone beside your router may receive excellent performance while the same phone in a bedroom several rooms away may be considerably slower.
2 — Walls & Building Materials
Wi-Fi signals become weaker as they pass through physical objects.
Common troublemakers include:
- Concrete walls and floors
- Brick
- Metal
- Mirrors and some types of glass
- Appliances
- Cabinets and enclosed spaces
This is why router placement can make such a dramatic difference.
3 — Wi-Fi Congestion & Interference
Your Wi-Fi network shares wireless spectrum with other nearby networks and devices.
In apartments, condos and densely populated neighbourhoods, your router may be competing with many nearby Wi-Fi networks.
Interference can also come from certain:
- Bluetooth devices
- Microwave ovens
- Wireless cameras
- Baby monitors
- Other wireless electronics
The result can be lower speeds, increased latency or an inconsistent wireless connection.
4 — 2.4 GHz vs. 5 GHz
Modern Wakey-provided Wi-Fi equipment may automatically steer compatible devices between available Wi-Fi bands.
2.4 GHz
Generally travels farther and penetrates walls better, but typically provides lower speeds and can experience more interference.
5 GHz
Generally supports higher wireless speeds but has a shorter effective range and is more affected by walls and distance.
Moving between different areas of your home can cause your device or router to change bands or access points. Usually this happens automatically, but wireless conditions can affect the experience during those transitions.
5 — Your Device Matters Too
Not every phone, computer, television or gaming console has the same Wi-Fi capabilities.
Older devices may support older Wi-Fi standards, fewer antennas or lower maximum wireless speeds than newer equipment.
If one device is slow but everything else is performing normally, the issue may be isolated to that particular device rather than your Wakey connection.
6 — Lots of Activity at the Same Time
Every active device shares your available Internet connection and local network resources.
Large downloads, cloud backups, game updates, multiple high-resolution video streams and other heavy activity can consume significant bandwidth.
The more devices actively transferring data at the same time, the more your available bandwidth is being shared.
How to Improve Your Wi-Fi
1 — Give Your Router Some Breathing Room
Placement Makes a Big Difference
Place your main router in an open, central and elevated location whenever possible.
Try to avoid placing it:
- Inside a cabinet or closet
- On the floor
- Behind a television
- Beside large appliances
- Against concrete or metal surfaces
- In the far corner of your home
Open + Central + Elevated = Happier Wi-Fi
2 — Use Ethernet Where It Makes Sense
Nothing Beats a Cable
For stationary or high-demand devices, Ethernet provides a direct wired connection to your router and avoids many of the variables associated with Wi-Fi.
Ethernet is especially useful for:
- Desktop computers
- Gaming consoles
- Smart TVs and streaming devices
- Home-office computers
- Large downloads and uploads
If your computer doesn’t have an Ethernet port, compatible USB or USB-C Ethernet adapters are widely available.
3 — Let Your Router Manage Wi-Fi Channels
Automatic Is Usually Best
Modern routers are designed to automatically select appropriate Wi-Fi channels based on the wireless environment.
For most customers, we recommend leaving channel selection set to Automatic.
Manually selecting channels can sometimes help in unusually congested environments, but it’s generally best treated as an advanced troubleshooting step rather than the first thing to change.
Advanced Users
If you are manually configuring Wi-Fi channels, channels 1, 6 and 11 are commonly used on 2.4 GHz because they avoid overlapping with each other when using a 20 MHz channel width.
On 5 GHz, available channels and recommended settings depend on your router, wireless environment and configuration. If you’re unsure, leave channel selection on Automatic.
4 — Add Mesh Coverage Where Needed
Have a Larger Home? Mesh Can Help.
A single Wakey-provided mesh unit can provide coverage of approximately up to 1,500 square feet under ideal conditions, but actual coverage varies significantly depending on your home.
Larger homes, multiple floors and challenging building materials may benefit from additional mesh units.
Wakey-supported mesh systems can support additional units where compatible. Contact the Wakey Crew if you’d like help determining whether another mesh unit may be useful for your home.
Don’t Put the Mesh Unit Inside the Dead Zone
A mesh unit still needs a good connection back to your main router or another mesh unit.
Place it approximately between the main router and the area needing better coverage.
Main Router → Mesh Unit → Weak Coverage Area
If the mesh unit itself receives a poor signal, it has a poor connection to extend.
5 — Restart When Troubleshooting
A Clean Restart Can Help
If your Wi-Fi has suddenly become unusually slow or unstable, restart your router.
- Disconnect power from the router.
- Wait approximately 30 seconds.
- Reconnect power.
- Allow the router several minutes to completely restart.
- Reconnect and test again.
There’s generally no need to routinely restart a healthy modern router. A restart is most useful when you’re actively troubleshooting an unexpected problem.
Restart ≠ Factory Reset
A normal restart simply turns the router off and back on.
A factory reset erases your router’s configuration and may require you to set up your Wi-Fi again.
Don’t press or hold the router’s RESET button unless you’re intentionally performing a factory reset using the instructions for your specific router.
6 — Check What Else Is Using Your Connection
Something May Be Busy in the Background
If speeds suddenly seem lower than normal, check whether another device is:
- Downloading a large game or update
- Backing up photos or files to the cloud
- Uploading large files
- Streaming high-resolution video
- Running software updates
Pause heavy activity temporarily and test again.
7 — Temporarily Disable Your VPN
Using a VPN?
VPN services route your Internet traffic through another network and may affect speed, latency or streaming performance.
If you’re troubleshooting slow speeds, temporarily disconnect your VPN and run another test. If performance improves significantly, the VPN or selected VPN server may be contributing to the slowdown.
8 — Update Your Devices
Keep Your Devices Current
Software, operating-system and Wi-Fi driver updates can include networking improvements and bug fixes.
If one particular phone or computer is having trouble while everything else works normally, check that device for available updates and restart it before continuing troubleshooting.
9 — Do You Actually Need a Faster Internet Plan?
Sometimes More Bandwidth Is the Answer — Sometimes It Isn’t
A faster Internet plan may help when your household is genuinely using more bandwidth than your current plan provides — for example, many people streaming, downloading, gaming, working and uploading simultaneously.
However, upgrading your Internet plan generally will not fix weak Wi-Fi coverage, interference or poor router placement.
Getting your expected speed over Ethernet?
Focus on Wi-Fi placement, coverage and your wireless devices before considering a faster plan.
Consistently maxing out your current connection?
A higher-speed plan may provide more bandwidth for everyone using the connection at the same time.
Still Slow? Try This First.
The 3-Step Wi-Fi Check
1 — Get Close
Move close to your main router and test again.
2 — Restart
Restart your router, allow it to completely reconnect and test again.
3 — Go Wired
If possible, test a computer using Ethernet. This helps determine whether the slowdown is your Internet connection or the Wi-Fi connection inside your home.
Still Having Trouble? The Wakey Crew Is Here.
If the problem continues after trying the steps above, reach out to Wakey Support through Live Chat, SMS or Email.
It’s helpful to tell us:
- Which Internet plan you’re subscribed to
- Your Wi-Fi speed-test result
- Your Ethernet speed-test result, if available
- Whether all devices are affected or only one
- Whether the problem happens everywhere or only in certain rooms
- Which modem/router you’re using
That information helps us determine whether we should focus on the Wakey connection, modem, router, Wi-Fi coverage or an individual device.
Please note: Wi-Fi performance varies based on your router, device capabilities, distance, building materials, interference, network activity and other environmental conditions. Wireless speeds may therefore differ from speeds measured over a wired Ethernet connection.
