If I run a speed test, the numbers look mostly fine. Download is close to what I pay for, upload is okay too. But actual day-to-day Wi-Fi still feels bad. YouTube sometimes drops quality, pages hang before loading, and gaming latency feels way worse than it should.
So now I’m confused. If the speed is there, why does the connection still feel crappy?
What would you check first?
speed test ≠ good Wi-Fi. You can have decent throughput and still have bad latency, jitter, retries, interference, or a weak signal in the room you actually use.
First thing I’d check is ping, not raw speed. A connection can pull solid Mbps and still feel awful if latency is spiking all over the place. That’s usually what makes browsing feel weird and gaming feel worse than the speed test suggests.
Check whether you’re on 2.4 or 5 GHz when it happens. If it’s 2.4, I’d look at congestion first. On 2.4 GHz especially, a crowded channel situation can make the network feel gross even when the speed test result looks acceptable. Same with overly wide channel settings.
scan the Wi-Fi environment. Something like NetSpot (https://www.netspotapp.com/) makes this easier because you can actually see nearby networks, channels, signal levels, and whether your Wi-Fi is overlapping with everything around it.
What room are you actually using Wi-Fi in? Because if you’re testing three feet from the router and then using it through two walls and a fridge, there’s your answer.