I’m trying to figure out whether my problem is actually Wi-Fi or something upstream. At home I keep getting these random moments where everything just kind of dies for a bit. Sometimes it feels like the Wi-Fi drops completely, other times it stays connected but gets so slow it might as well be dead. The annoying part is there’s no obvious pattern.
I’m using my ISP’s modem/router combo, so I don’t exactly have a ton of useful diagnostics built in. Is there any decent program that can monitor signal strength, stability, maybe connection drops over time, so I can catch what’s actually failing?
Try a continuous ping to your gateway and to 8.8.8.8.
First, I’d check to see if the issue is with the Wi-Fi itself or with the ISP. Run something like PingPlotter or just a regular ping to the router and an external website simultaneously. If the router responds reliably, but external packets are dropped, then the problem is more likely with the ISP than with your home network.
@Big-Site-106 Honestly, I’m just used to blaming the Wi-Fi in such cases, but that’s just a guess, I need to check.
NetSpot can help you figure out your Wi-Fi connection. Just open the Inspector tab and monitor the signal strength. If your internet connection drops, but the graph is stable, call your ISP. If the signal drops or fluctuates during these times, it means there’s interference somewhere or the router isn’t coping.
Honestly I’d do both. Use PingPlotter or a continuous ping to see where the failure is, and use something like NetSpot if you want to see whether the wireless signal itself is changing at the same time. That’ll narrow it down way faster than just rebooting stuff and hoping.