Most people run a speed test when something feels slow: the TV buffering, a call breaking up, a camera that will not load. Search for one in Ireland and you will find eir's, Virgin Media's, Vodafone's and Google's own. They all answer the same narrow question: how fast is the connection between this device and a test server, right now.
They do not tell you where the slowdown is. That is the question that decides who can fix it: your broadband provider, or whoever deals with the Wi-Fi inside your house. Two tests, done in the right places, answer it.
What a speed test actually measures
A speed test sends data between your device and a server and times it. The result can only be as fast as the slowest part of that journey: the server, your provider's network, the line into your house, your router, and the Wi-Fi between the router and your device.
It gives you three numbers.
- Download is how fast data reaches you. Streaming, browsing and downloads depend on it.
- Upload is how fast data leaves. Video calls depend on it, and so does every clip a smart camera or doorbell sends.
- Ping is how quickly the connection answers. A call or a game feels it more than it feels the headline speed.
eir, Virgin Media, Vodafone or Google: which test to use
A provider's own test usually runs to a server on or near its own network, which makes it a fair test of the part the provider is responsible for. If you are going to ring your provider, use theirs: it is the figure they will ask for.
Google's speed test, and the free Wi-Fi check on this site, use Measurement Lab, an open testing platform that is not run by any broadband provider. For comparing rooms, any test works, as long as you use the same one each time.
| Provider | What it says about testing |
|---|---|
| eir | Has a free speed test on its website, at eir.ie/broadbandspeed, for comparing your speed with the one you pay for. |
| Virgin Media | Recommends a cable from your device to the modem for the fastest result, and points out that a device only shows what it can handle: a laptop that tops out at 100Mb shows 100Mb on a 500Mb package. |
| Vodafone | Points to Speedtest.net, and asks you to plug a laptop into the modem with an Ethernet cable and run the test with no other devices on the Wi-Fi. A computer that is busy with other work can also pull the result down. |
The advice lines up: test on a cable, at the router, with nothing else running.
The speeds in your contract
ComReg, the communications regulator, says your provider must put the minimum, normally available, maximum and advertised download and upload speeds of your home broadband in your contract. The advertised figure is the one on the poster; the minimum and normally available figures are the ones to hold your cable results against.
To see which connections your address can get at all, ComReg's Broadband Checker at comreg.ie/broadbandchecker lists them by address or Eircode. ComReg describes full fibre as typically delivering up to 2 Gbps and cable broadband up to 1 Gbps; part-fibre speeds depend on how far you are from the street cabinet.
Test the line: by cable, at the router
To find out what your broadband delivers, take the Wi-Fi out of the picture. Plug a laptop into the router with a network cable and run the test there. If you have no cable, stand beside the router and test with a clear line of sight to it.
- Close anything downloading in the background: updates, cloud photo backups, a TV streaming in another room.
- Turn off a VPN if you use one, since it sends everything through another server first.
- Run it two or three times, and once in the evening, when more people in your area are online.
Compare the result with the minimum and normally available speeds in your contract. If the result is well below them, and stays low on a cable, the problem is outside your house.
Then test the rooms
Now test where the trouble is: the back bedroom, the home office, the kitchen at the back of an extension, outside the front door if you have a doorbell camera. Use the same device and the same test, so the results compare.
The gap between the router result and the room result is your Wi-Fi. Distance, walls, floors and foil-backed insulation all take a share on the way. Our free check treats a room that keeps at least 60 per cent of the router's speed as fine, and one that keeps under 30 per cent as a room that has lost most of it.
Reading the numbers
- Streaming: Netflix recommends 15 Mbps for each 4K stream, so two TVs streaming at once want 30 Mbps or more reaching the rooms they are in.
- Cameras and doorbells: Ring asks for 2 Mbps of upload for each 1080p camera, and rates upload above 10 Mbps as good, 5 to 10 Mbps as okay, and below 5 Mbps as poor. Check the upload in the place the camera is, not beside the router.
- Calls: a steady connection matters more than a fast one. A connection can be quick when it is idle and still stall when someone else starts streaming, which is why our check also measures how it responds while busy.
Line or Wi-Fi: who to call
If the test at the router is slow, on a cable, at more than one time of day: it is the line or your provider's network. Ring your provider with the figures: when you tested, where, and that it was on a cable.
If the router test is fine and the rooms are not: it is the Wi-Fi inside your house. Your provider can swap the router, but a different router in the same spot still has to get through the same walls and floors.
That second case is the one we measure. Our €395 home network assessment tests your broadband at the router by cable, measures every floor, and leaves a working trial system on the floor that struggles for three days, with the figures in a written report. It is credited in full against any work you go ahead with. If the report shows the line itself is the problem, you have the figures to take to your provider.
To start for free, run the Wi-Fi check beside your router and again in the room that struggles. It grades the result green, amber or red, and tells you whether it is worth going further.