In addition, it will serve to know if the coverage that reaches us is correct or is very limited. For example, you can carry out a speed test from different rooms in your home and thus see if there is any dead zone where the signal does not reach or it is very weak and you must connect a repeater or PLC devices to make it work better.
How to prepare the equipment to take a test
It is important that you take into account some guidelines to carry out a WiFi speed test correctly and that the results are correct and not have false measurements. This is essential to detect possible problems and see if the connection that reaches you is really correct or not.
Take care of the location
The first thing is to perform the speed test near access point. If you really want to know what speed you get from the Internet and see what is the one you have contracted, the ideal is to put the computer near the router. This way you can have good coverage and the results will be more in line with the contracted rate. If you do that test from far away, you’re going to have problems.
However, if what you are interested in is simply knowing what speed reaches a specific point in the house, then you should do the test from there. For example, if you usually connect from a room, it will be there where you have to carry out that test and see how much you get.
Choose the right band
To be able to connect by WiFi you can do it both through the band of the 2.4GHz as of the 5GHz. We can say that the first is the one that allows us to connect further from the router, since it is less sensitive to obstacles and distance. Of course, it will not have a great speed.
Instead, the 5 GHz band is the one that allows you to reach the maximum speed of wireless Internet. The negative point is that you will have to connect closer to the access point. Therefore, when you go to perform a speed test, keep in mind what band you are connected to.
Prepare the system
Of course you should also have the system ready to be able to do this speed test with guarantees. Ideally, it should be correctly updated, both at the operating system level and the network card drivers. You should also make sure that there is no malware of any kind that might be interfering. For this you can use a good antivirus, such as Windows Defender, Avast or any other option.
If you have an unprotected system, that has some vulnerability or problem, that can cause the speed to be limited. You may have poor results when performing the speed test.
Take a test locally
If you want to rule out Internet problems and really see the maximum speed you can have over WiFi, a very interesting option is to use applications like iperf3 or its Jperf graphics version. This way you can see the speed between two connected computers on the local network. It is a client-server and checks the speed without the Internet connection becoming a bottleneck.
To make it easier, it is best to use Jperf. You will get almost the same as with iperf3, but in a graphical version. You can install it for free for Windows, Linux or macOS. You simply need to have Java installed and then add this tool to the devices. You can to download for Windows or the version you need.
Once you have it downloaded you will see that a file named jperf.bat, which is the one you have to execute. Since you are going to install it on two computers, one of them will act as client and the other as server. On the server you will have to go to the Server section, Listen Port 5001, which is the one that will come by default, and check Run Iperf to start it. This equipment will use the IP 192.168.1.3.
On the client side you have to go to the Client section, put Server Address 192.168.1.3 and Port 5001. Then you give Run Iperf and start establishing communication with the server. You will now be able to measure the bandwidth between both devices.
For speeds of up to 1Gbps we recommend using Jperf because it is very easy to use through its graphical user interface, however, in case of exceeding the real 1Gbps speed, as it happens when we test equipment with Wi-Fi 6 and 160MHz of channel width, our recommendation is that you use iperf3 because it will give you results that are more in line with reality. At RedesZone we have complete tutorials for both tools, so that you know how to use them in detail and without any problem.
Know the speed of WiFi on the Internet
Therefore, once you have taken all this into account you are ready to make a wifi fiber speed test and see how your connection is, but Internet connection, because it is possible that your WiFi speed is lower than the real speed provided by the fiber optic. For this you can access different tools, as is the case of the website speed test. There, as soon as you enter, you will see a button to start the test.
When the process ends, which only lasts a few seconds, you will see that it shows you the results in a box. There it will appear what is the download speed and the upload speed. You can verify if what you receive coincides with what you have contracted or something else should arrive and, therefore, you would have to look for the cause.
But beyond knowing the speed of fiber or ADSL over WiFi, you can also see what the ping is. In this case, the ideal is to be as low as possible. It is the latency of the connection and if it is too high you will have problems playing games on the Internet or making video calls, since there could be cuts.
Tips to improve WiFi speed
How’s your Wi-Fi connection? Do you think you should have more download or upload speed? let’s show some advice so that you can optimize the network to the maximum and do not have problems of cuts or slowness when you browse through the wireless network from your devices.
Optimize the router
The router It is undoubtedly a fundamental piece for the Internet connection to be correct. It is important that it works well and, therefore, it should be optimized as much as possible. Do you have updated router firmware? That is a point you should keep in mind. Also that it is properly protected, with a good password for WiFi and to access the configuration
Likewise, the router must be located in a central place in the house, from where it can better distribute the signal. It is important that it is in a high place, such as on top of a piece of furniture, as well as away from any possible interference from another electronic device.
Use devices to enhance the signal
If you see that the signal is not reaching well, you can use other devices to improve it. In this way you will be able to save the dead zones of your home, where the WiFi speed is very limited and you have problems to connect in a stable way. There are different options for this, depending on the case.
One of them is to use repeaters. Basically what they do is extend the signal to other places. It is not always the best alternative, especially when there is a considerable distance to be covered. In this case it may be a better solution to install a Mesh system or use PLC devices to carry the connection from one area to another by the electrical network.
Choose the best channel and band
To optimize the WiFi network is very important choose the channel correctly to which you connect. If you live in a building with many apartments around it, there may be congestion problems on certain network channels. It is interesting that you connect to one that is free so that the speed is adequate.
Likewise, as we explained before, the wifi band it can be 2.4 and 5 GHz. Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. You must choose one of the two depending on the circumstances and thus be able to achieve maximum speed, without the dreaded cuts appearing when browsing.
Have the equipment in good condition
You cannot miss the fact of always having the devices in good condition, correctly updated and protected. This is essential in order to maintain good performance and ensure that Internet connections work without problems. Sometimes vulnerabilities and bugs can arise that should be corrected.
Therefore, you must have the system updated at all times, as well as the drivers or any program you use to navigate. Also have a good antivirus and applications that allow you to protect security and avoid intruders that can affect the WiFi network and slow down the speed.
In short, as you have seen, it is very useful to do a WiFi speed test. It is something that you can do in a very simple way and be able to see if your Internet connection is working correctly or you should take certain measures to improve it and avoid cuts or loss of speed.