Free Wi-Fi Speed Test, Room by Room

Run the test beside your router first, then again in the room where the Wi-Fi struggles, on the same device. The router result is roughly what your broadband delivers, and the gap between it and the room is your Wi-Fi.

Enough for everyone at once, in the rooms you use. Netflix recommends 15 Mbps for each 4K stream, so the check allows 15 Mbps for each person in the house, with 25 Mbps as the least any home needs.

This test measures upload as well as download. Upload carries video calls and every clip a smart camera or doorbell sends. 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.

How quickly the connection answers, in milliseconds. The check also measures it while the connection is busy, because a line that answers quickly when idle can stall when someone starts streaming. It grades under 60 ms while busy as green and over 150 ms as red.

Signal bars on a phone do not say how much of your broadband reaches a room. Speed does: test in the room and compare it with the result beside the router. The 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.

A test over Wi-Fi measures the Wi-Fi as well as the line, and results are often lower in the evening, when more people nearby are online. To see what the line itself delivers, test on a cable plugged into the router.

Measurement Lab, the open platform behind Google's own speed test. It publishes each result, with the internet address it came from. Your report is kept in its own link, and we only get your name and number if you send them to us.