13 Ways To Fix Your Internet Issues

Isn't that how all these kinds of articles start? We're not actually going to give you a certain number of ways, but we're going to do our best to walk you through some problem-solving steps!

How to solve home internet issues?

Buckle up! It's about to get nerdy in here. (If you haven't learned about latency or packet loss yet, we'd recommend doing that real quick and then coming back here.)

After you've used Latency Llama (shameless plug) to figure out there is an internet issue, you'll have some idea where that problem is.

For instance, looking at these graphs, where is the problem likely to be?

(This is an actual screenshot of real network issues)

This is showing latency and packet loss from a computer hardwired inside the network out to: Google (8.8.8.8), Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), the router, and another hardwired computer inside the network.

As we can see, there is a ton of packet loss outside the network (Shaka, when the internet fell, right?) and the latency is much higher than it should be for a fiber network (should be 1-2 milliseconds). However, packet loss inside the network is zero and latency is sub-millisecond.

So the slow internet issue is likely at the router (or modem if you're on cable) or at the ISP. The first step in troubleshooting your slow internet issue is to restart the router/modem. If that doesn't fix it, it probably means you need to call your ISP.

It's always possible the router has gone bad (electronics do that over time) or there is too much traffic for the router to handle, but those are both unlikely scenarios.

As an added bonus, when you have graphs like this, when you call your ISP, you can tell them exactly what you're seeing and when it is happening. You can also tell exactly when they have (and haven't) fixed the internet issue.

How about home network (LAN), not internet (WAN), issues?

What if you see high latency or packet loss on the LAN side of the graph? Then it is time to start troubleshooting your internal network.

7 things to check (fine, we caved on the whole X number of ways to do something):

1. Router: It could need a restart, or it could need to be replaced either because it has gone bad or can't handle the traffic load.
2. Switches: Same steps as for the router.
3. Computers: You probably guessed it, see steps for switches, see steps for router, rinse repeat.
4. Network cables: Cables can actually break and give a degraded connection and cause slow internet. That cable that is snaking across your office floor (yup, you know the one), when your kids step on it, it will eventually break.
5. Wireless: Wireless is always going to have higher latency than wired. That doesn't actually mean there is a problem. That's why it is important to graph these things over time, so you can get a baseline of what is normal.
6. Misbehaving IoT device: It's possible that a device on the network (it could be a computer, phone, fridge, camera, or anything else connected to the network) is spamming the network with junk data. Try disconnecting chunks of things from your network until you can isolate exactly what is causing the network problem.
7. Phone a friend: When all else fails, ask the nerdiest person you know.

What is my baseline latency?

It's important to have a baseline for what is "normal" latency for both your internal home network and external connection, so you can spot LAN and internet issues as they happen.

For fiber internet, "normal" latency is 1-2ms, but for fixed wireless it may be in the 20-40 ms range.

For wired home networks, latency is usually under a millisecond, but can be a lot more variable and higher for wireless connections.

Just to make this even more confusing, some devices like switches or cameras may have really high latencies despite there being no issues, just because of how they handle responding to being measured (there are a lot a technical details as to why that most of us don't care about).

You have to measure latency across your network so you know when you're out of your normal ranges. You guessed it, we recommend using Latency Llama to make sure you know your baseline BEFORE it is an issue.

How about baseline packet loss?

Packet loss should basically always be zero, so just look for any anomalies. It's worth pointing out that you may have intermittent packet loss issues that are not showing up in speed tests (see an example) which is again why you should measure continuously.