Fluctuating WiFi speeds. (Just curious)

[#1]

Why does my (or maybe most peoples') wifi downspeed seem to vary so much? Specifically, I often check the wifi speeds at different times of day and night and quite frequently they will be perfectly within range but sometimes significantly lower. I check them from the same places in my house and from the three sources I have, the router and two wifi repeaters. Seems odd. My hard wired pc always reports the speeds that I should be getting, (it is only on wifi that it varies by so much.). Router is in latest master socket and if I test very close to it it always gives good high speeds.  Almost exclusively the upstream speed stays more or less as it should.

Not a complaint, just seems odd to me. A bit of a black art!

[#2]

Wireless signals are very very prone to other wireless signals interfering with it, the more wireless signals there are around you the more interference there can be and it doesn't even have to be within your own home it can be your next door neighbours or the rest of the street and with them all trying to get the best signal, it's why routers offer a number of wireless channels to switch to it's often best to switch to another channel if things slow way down it could be that everyone else is using the same channel and the signal is just being swamped.

Wireless signals also don't really like obstacles being in the way like walls the thicker they are the harder it is for them and it also doesn't like long distances so the more objects it has to contend with and the further away the router is from the device that is trying to use it the weaker the signal becomes, The router also has a part to play too some have better wireless capabilities and range than others.

It's a double edge sword wireless is great that there is no cables running all over the place but the downside is having to contend with interference etc that can lead to less speed than if you were running a cable.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

@fred77

If you have a non Apple (Android for example) phone etc. download a sniffer app, I use Wifi Analyser. With this app you can see your and others wireless signals. If you look at these signals in all the locations where you use your wireless devices you can find the clearest channel to use. You can then go into your router advanced Wifi settings and manually select this channel.

By using this app maybe the black art element will be reduced!

[#4]

Hi @fred77

I bobbed on to answer this but it appears that @Terranova667 has already provided an excellent response.

The only thing that I would add is that specific wifi troubleshooting for our routers can be found here

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks,

Dave