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Why is My WiFi so Slow All of a Sudden: 5 Causes and Fixes

You may have hardware issues, but it could be a downstream network issue. Unfortunately, because of how the internet works, this might be an issue with your internet service provider or even some websites you visit. While you might not be able to fix everything, at least you’ll better understand how to fix what you can.

Hi, I’m Aaron. I love working with and around technology. I’ve done so for the better part of 20 years.

Let’s dive into how you can identify and fix problems with slow wifi and the internet more generally.

Key Takeaways

• You can only fix what you can fix and that’s going to be with the equipment inside your home.
• Your internet may just be running slowly and you can’t do more to fix that than restart your modem and router or call your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
• Alternatively, you may be saturating your internet connection with too many connected devices doing too much for your internet connection to handle.
• If you’re not home, your best bet will be connecting to a different network, if you can find one.

Causes and Fixes

I’m going to walk you through my troubleshooting process to identify potential causes of wifi slowness. It’s not perfect by any means, but I think it’s a good starting point to identify the cause of your issue and figure out how to fix it.

It’s critical to understand that there are some issues you just won’t be able to fix. I’ve covered that here. The summary:

• There is a wire that enters your home that connects you to your ISP by attaching to a modem or modem and router combination in your home.
• You can fix any problems downstream of that modem or modem and router combination in your home.
• You likely cannot fix any problems upstream of that modem or modem and router combination not in your home.

With that introduction in mind, let’s cover some of the slow wifi causes you may see, starting with…

1. Slow Internet

Sometimes your slow wifi isn’t your wifi at all. Instead, it might be slowness in your downstream internet connection. That slowness can occur because of various causes all of which result in slowing the connection between your computer and the website you want to browse.

You can identify this by going to an internet speed test site like fast.com, provided by Netflix, or speedtest.net, provided by Comcast. If, after running those services, they report that your internet is substantially slower than the plan you’ve purchased from your ISP, that may be the cause.

While it’s unlikely to be an internal problem, you can reset your internet modem or modem and router combination. Walk over to the modem and unplug the power. Wait 30 seconds. Plug the modem back in.

Once your internet connection returns, run another internet speed test. If that resolved the issue, great! If not, then you should call your ISP to report the issue or wait for it to resolve.

If an internet speed test shows that your connection speed isn’t the cause of the problem, then…

2. Too Many Connected Devices

The speed of your internet connection and networking equipment is limited. Your ISP offers internet plans which represent a maximum speed for your home. That is cumulative to all devices connected.

If you have a 100 Megabit per second (Mbps) connection, you’re likely not going to be able to have 10+ devices streaming high-definition content without significant slowdown.

The same applies to your networking equipment. Your wireless router may only offer a 450 Mbps connection. So even if you have a 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) internet connection, if your devices are connecting through that wireless router then your maximum connection speed will be half of what’s available.

If you have a lot of devices streaming content simultaneously, turn some of those off or just stop streaming content. If that speeds up your network, then you’re over-using your network.

In that case, you have to limit your simultaneous use or increase your internet speed and/or buy devices rated for higher speed than your current devices.

If that doesn’t fix your problems, then…

3. Get Closer to Your Router

Wifi is a radio protocol that allows an internet connection to be broadcast wirelessly. As with other radio signals, they become weaker the further away you are from the source. They can also be blocked by materials between the transmitter and receiver. Since wifi radio waves are high frequency, these impacts can be seen over short distances.

Here’s a short YouTube video about how to measure and map wifi signal strength in your home.

Even if you don’t map wifi in your home, you can improve your wifi connection and speed. Move your connected desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, or streaming device closer to your wireless router. Alternatively, you can connect those devices to your router via an ethernet cable.

So far, I’ve covered things you can do to improve your home experience. When you’re using someone else’s wifi or public wifi at a business, you may not be able to limit other devices, plug in directly, or reboot the router. Instead, your primary option is to…

4. Connect to a Different Network

If one network is slow, another might not be. Different businesses may use different ISPs and will be using different equipment. If you’re experiencing slow internet in one place, if you go somewhere else the connection may be faster.

Sometimes, however, you’ll find…

5. Causes Out of Your Control

Unfortunately, you may try everything listed above and still not be able to address your internet issues. It might just be the case that your ISP or downstream websites are inaccessible or running slowly.

If that happens, all you can do is call your ISP and hope that they can fix the issue.

Why is My Internet Slow on My Phone?

Your iPhone or Android phone–or cellular-connected iPad or tablet–likely always has some kind of wireless internet connection. Sometimes that connection happens over wifi. Other times, it will be via a cellular data connection.

Unfortunately, a slow cellular data connection is very difficult for you to do anything about. That typically happens because of:

• Device slowness
• Distance from the cellular tower
• Cellular connection speed
• Internet speed from the cellular provider
• Website slowness

While you can get closer to a cellular tower, typically you may not be able to see it and therefore won’t know how to get closer to it.

Really, the only thing you can do to try to diagnose and address cellular connection slowness is to restart your smartphone or tablet.

Conclusion

There are a few reasons your wireless internet may run slowly all of a sudden. Those causes can range from issues with your ISP to issues with your hardware. As you diagnose your issues, take note of what you think your problem is and how you think you can address it. When you resolve it, take note of the solution.

Over time, as you fix these issues and others, you’ll build an encyclopedia of technology repairs that will serve you well in addressing other similar issues.

What else do you do to try and resolve wifi issues? Let me know in the comments below!

Also Read

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Why is WIFI Slow on PC but Fast on Phone? Ways to Fix it

«Feeling that my computer internet speed was very slow, so I tested the WIFI speed at Speedtest. With the same WIFI, same distance from the wireless router, tested to the same server, the WIFI speed between computer and phone is of great difference. The phone was 33.25Mbps, while the computer was only 3.54Mbps.» —From Quora Forum

It is exactly a typical question asked by the user. To address the issue, WIFI is slow on computer but fast on phone, I will demonstrate you some solutions from different aspects, which can assist you effectively.

Solution 1: Update Internet driver for increasing WIFI speed

Make computer connect to your mobile phone’s hotspot and then test your computer internet speed again. If the internet speed is normal, then it’s router’s problem, otherwise it is computer’s problem. Attempt to update Internet driver once you confirm that the slow speed is ascribed to computer.

Step 1: Right-click on My PC and select Manage.

Step 2: Click Device Manager from the left navigation bar, then select Network adapters.

Step 3: Expand the card, right-click on your connection name (usually it is the first one) and select Update driver.

Solution 2: Clear browser cache and cookies

This is a simple but effective method. Actually, excessive browser cache and Cookies will slow down WIFI speed on computer. To load web pages faster and increase internet speed, you can clear them regularly.

Step 1: Open Google browser, click on Customize and control (three small dots), select Settings from dropdown menu.

Step 2: Select Privacy and security on the left sidebar and then click Clear browsing data.

Step 3: In the dialogue box, you can delete Browsing history, Cookies and other site data, Cached images and files, furthermore, you can remove them within a specific time. Then click Clear data .

Solution 3: Set DNS addresses manually

We access information online through domain names, like google.com. Web browsers interact through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources. Different DNS can influence our domain name resolution speed.

Step 1: Press «win + r» to open Run window, then type ncpa.cpl and click OK.

Step 2: Right-click on the connection you’re using and select Properties.

Step 3: Double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).

Step 4: Select Use the following DNS server addresses, and input «8.8.8.8» and «8.8.8.4».

Solution 4: Modify WIFI preferred band

Now a quantity of WIFI routers support 2.4GHz and 5GHz WIFI band. If computer only supports 2.4GHz connections, it will be slow. So check the type of WIFI standard on your computer first.

Type «cmd» in the taskbar’s search box, and click result to run Command Prompt. In the window, type «netsh wlan show drivers» and press Enter , and information of wireless adapter will be shown to you.

Now check the table below and you’ll know exactly which WIFI band is supported by your computer.

Step 1: Type «network connections» in the search box on the taskbar, and click the result.

Step 2: Navigate to Network adapters item, then right-click on your connected network and select Properties.

Step 3: Click Configure.

Step 4: Switch to Advanced tab, on the listed item, select Preferred Band and set its value as «Prefer 5.2GHz band» first.

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