Getting Accurate Results
Follow these steps to ensure your speed test reflects your true connection capacity, not a bottleneck elsewhere in your network.
Use a wired Ethernet connection
Wi-Fi introduces interference, signal loss, and protocol overhead. A direct Ethernet connection to your router eliminates these variables and consistently yields 10–40% higher throughput. If Ethernet isn't available, move as close to your router as possible and ensure no walls or appliances are between you and it.
Close other applications and browser tabs
Background processes — software updaters, cloud sync services, streaming apps, and even idle browser tabs — consume bandwidth. Quit non-essential applications before testing to avoid measuring shared capacity rather than your full connection speed.
Pause active downloads and uploads
Any active file transfer — downloads, cloud sync (Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud), torrent clients — competes directly with the speed test for bandwidth. Pause these entirely before running a test. Even minimal background sync activity skews results significantly.
Test at different times of day
ISPs experience peak congestion in the evenings (typically 7–11 PM local time). If your results vary significantly between morning and evening tests, you're observing network congestion from your ISP — not your router or device. Document both periods to build a case when contacting your provider's support. Check the ISP rankings to see how your provider compares nationally.
Run multiple tests and compare
A single measurement can be misleading. Run 3–5 tests in a row and compare the median. Significant variation between consecutive tests suggests network instability — a problem distinct from average speed that is often related to jitter or packet loss rather than raw throughput. Our methodology page explains how each metric is calculated.
Still getting unexpected results?
If your speed is consistently lower than your plan speed after following these steps, the issue is likely with your ISP, modem, or router. Read our guide on slow internet →