> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.ipcheck.ing/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.ipcheck.ing/knowledge-base/diagnose/why-is-my-internet-slow.md).
# Why Is My Internet Slow?
"Slow" hides two completely different problems, and the fixes have nothing in common. Separate them first and you will save yourself an evening.
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**Quick answer.** **Bandwidth** is how much data you can move per second — it matters for downloads and video quality. **Latency** is how long each round trip takes — it matters for calls, games, and how snappy pages feel. Run the [Speed Test](/knowledge-base/network-tests/speed-test.md) for bandwidth, [Global Latency Test](/knowledge-base/network-tests/global-latency-test.md) to see where the delay lives, and [MTR Test](/knowledge-base/network-tests/mtr-test.md) to find the hop responsible.
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## Which problem do you have?
| What you notice | Which one |
| --------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| Video quality drops or buffers | Bandwidth |
| Large downloads crawl | Bandwidth |
| Pages feel sluggish even though they are small | Latency |
| Video calls stutter, voices overlap | Latency and jitter |
| Games lag or rubber-band | Latency and packet loss |
| Everything is fine, but one particular site is slow | Neither — it is that site or the route to it |
Background reading: [Latency, Jitter & Packet Loss](/knowledge-base/concepts/latency-jitter-packet-loss.md)
## Measure it
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#### Bandwidth: run the Speed Test
Scroll to the [Speed Test](/knowledge-base/network-tests/speed-test.md) section and start it. It runs against Cloudflare's edge network and reports four numbers: **Download**, **Upload**, **Latency**, and **Jitter**, with a chart for each.
When it finishes it also shows **loaded latency** — the round-trip time measured *while* the connection is saturated. This is the single most useful number on the page. If your idle latency is 20 ms and your loaded latency is 400 ms, your connection is technically fast but will feel terrible during any download. That gap has a name: bufferbloat.
Finally it grades your connection for video streaming, gaming, and video chatting.
**Compare the download figure with what you pay for.** Well below it, consistently, is worth a conversation with your ISP. Roughly matching it means bandwidth is not your problem — read on.
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Test over a cable if you can, even once. A Wi-Fi result measures your Wi-Fi as much as your internet connection, and Wi-Fi is the most common culprit of all.
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#### Latency: run the Global Latency Test
Open **Advanced Tools → Global Latency Test**. It uses the Globalping network of probes worldwide to ping *your* address from countries you choose, and reports minimum, maximum, and average delay plus packet loss for each.
Read it geographically:
* **High delay from everywhere, including nearby countries** — the problem is close to you: your own link, your router, or your ISP's local network.
* **Low delay nearby, high delay far away** — that is simply distance. Light takes time. Nothing is broken.
* **High delay from one region only** — a routing or peering problem between your ISP and that region.
* **Packet loss above zero from many probes** — a real fault. Loss hurts far more than latency does.
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If the test reports that your IP is not allowed, your network or firewall is dropping ping packets. That is common and not a fault; you simply cannot use this particular test. Fall back on the Speed Test's latency figure.
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#### Find the hop: run the MTR Test
Open **Advanced Tools → MTR Test**. It traces the full path from probes around the world to your address and shows every intermediate hop with its loss, average, best, worst, and jitter figures.
How to read a hop table without over-interpreting it:
* **Loss at one middle hop that disappears at later hops** — ignore it. Routers de-prioritise replies to trace packets; this is the single most common false alarm.
* **Loss that starts at one hop and continues to the end** — that is real. The problem begins at that hop.
* **Latency that jumps at one hop and stays high** — a long link, or a congested one. Check the ASN column to see whose network it is.
* **The last few hops are your ISP and your own connection** — trouble there is yours to report.
Full guide: [MTR Test](/knowledge-base/network-tests/mtr-test.md)
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## Common causes, most likely first
### 1. Wi-Fi
Far and away the most common. Distance, walls, and neighbours' networks all cut throughput, and old hardware caps it regardless of what you pay for.
Try: move closer to the router; use the 5 GHz band rather than 2.4 GHz; test once over a cable to establish a baseline; check nothing is being downloaded on another device.
### 2. Peak-hour congestion
Speeds that are fine in the morning and poor in the evening point to a shared segment of your ISP's network being oversubscribed. Test at several times of day, note the results, and take that pattern to your provider — it is much more persuasive than "it feels slow".
### 3. Distance and routing
If a service is hosted on the other side of the world, latency has a floor set by physics. But sometimes traffic takes an unnecessary detour — leaving your country, crossing a continent, and coming back. MTR shows this: watch the location and ASN of each hop.
You cannot choose your ISP's routes. You can sometimes route around them with a VPN whose provider has better connectivity to the destination — this is worth testing rather than assuming.
### 4. ISP shaping
Some providers slow specific kinds of traffic. The signal is a speed test that looks fine while one particular activity stays slow, consistently, at all hours. Comparing that activity with and without a VPN is a reasonable test — if the VPN makes it faster, shaping is a plausible explanation.
### 5. Your own hardware
Routers age, overheat, and run out of memory. If everything is slow on every device, restart the router once. If it only helps for a day, replace it.
### 6. It is not you
A single slow site while everything else is fast is that site's problem, or the route to it. Check **Advanced Tools → Service Status** for major services, and the [Connectivity Check](/knowledge-base/connection-tools/connectivity-check.md) for a quick spread of well-known destinations.
My speed test looks great but everything still feels slow
Look at latency, not bandwidth. Check the **loaded latency** figure in the Speed Test result. High loaded latency means your connection collapses under its own traffic — the classic bufferbloat symptom, and it makes a fast line feel broken. Some routers have Smart Queue Management or SQM settings that fix it directly.
Also consider DNS: slow name lookups delay the start of every request while the throughput numbers stay perfect. See [DNS Resolver](/knowledge-base/lookup-privacy/dns-resolver.md).
Speed is fine on my laptop but not on my phone
Then it is Wi-Fi or the device, not the line. Stand next to the router with the phone and retest. Also check whether a VPN profile, a content filter, or battery-saving mode is throttling the connection.
My VPN makes everything slower
Some slowdown is unavoidable: the traffic travels further and is encrypted. A large slowdown usually means a congested or distant exit server. Try a nearer one, and check the exit's latency with the Global Latency Test. Some protocols also perform much better than others on the same provider.
Everything is slow only at certain times
Run the Speed Test at three different times of day and write down the numbers. A repeatable evening dip is congestion on your ISP's shared capacity. That is their problem to fix, and documented numbers are what gets it taken seriously.
## Still stuck?
* [Speed Test](/knowledge-base/network-tests/speed-test.md) — what each number means
* [MTR Test](/knowledge-base/network-tests/mtr-test.md) — reading a hop table properly
* [Sharing a Diagnostic Report](/knowledge-base/getting-started/sharing-a-diagnostic-report.md) — bundle the results for your ISP or an AI assistant
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