You’ve just upgraded your fibre and excitedly run a speed test. You want that screenshot for the ‘gram.

498Mbit/s strong? Nice.

Now for some gaming — but Fifa lags. Netflix is buffering in the lounge, and you told everyone you’d sorted it. TikTok is frozen upstairs. Even the neighbour has the audacity to peer over the fence and ask if the Wi-Fi is broken.

So what’s going on? Where did the 500Mbit/s go?

Honestly, nowhere. Speed tests just don’t tell the whole story.

What’s up? My speed test is lying?

Sort of, but not quite. When was the last time you ran a speed test? Better question: where were you standing when you ran it? If the answer is “next to the router”, we have one word.

Exactly.

Testing speed next to the router is like checking your shower pressure at the water tank. It tells you what’s possible, not what you’re actually getting at different points in the house. Think we’re reaching? Run the test upstairs. Or in the study. Or on the patio. Then try it next to the TV that keeps buffering.

Chances are you’ll see the problem.

There’s a difference between fast internet and fast Wi-Fi

This is where most people get caught out — not you, though, not after this. Your fibre connection brings the internet into your home. Your Wi-Fi then has to distribute it.

See the distinction?

They’re not the same thing, and they’re not doing the same job.

You can have the fastest fibre under the sun, but if your Wi-Fi can’t keep up you’ll never see a fraction of those speeds. Imagine buying a Ferrari, driving it down Ontdekkers, then complaining the car is too slow.

Your router may be the weakest link

Not all routers were created equal.

The basic one that was fine when you signed up only had to connect two phones and a laptop. Fast forward a few years and you’re asking a Nokia 3310 to hotspot a data centre.

Something’s gonna give.

Where it sits matters too. A router shoved into a cupboard, tucked behind the TV or left in the corner of the house where the fibre came in is fighting through brick walls before it reaches anyone.

Have you checked which band you’re on?

Most people don’t realise their devices will happily sit on the slower 2.4GHz band even when a faster 5GHz one is available.

The reason? 2.4GHz travels further and gets through more walls. The trade-off? Speed. It is also the more crowded band, with only three non-overlapping channels to share around.

Newer devices closer to the router can make full use of 5GHz for streaming, gaming and calls. If your network isn’t steering devices onto the right band, you could be blaming your internet for a Wi-Fi problem.

It’s also your neighbours’ fault

Well, not in the way you think. They’re probably not piggybacking off your fibre.

But if you live in a busy estate, in close-knit homes, or in a neighbourhood where every house runs multiple networks, your router is fighting for airtime with everyone in range. The result is interference, inconsistency and congestion — especially in the evenings and on work-from-home days.

Your speed hasn’t changed and the fibre isn’t “not fibre-ing”. The airwaves are just busier.

Throwing more speed at the problem won’t fix it

This is where people waste money.

The internet feels slow, so they go from 100Mbit/s to 250Mbit/s. Then 500Mbit/s. Sometimes faster.

But if the bottleneck is your Wi-Fi, you’ve bought speed that never reaches your devices. It’s like replacing your garden hose with a fire hose when the sprinkler is blocked.

So, what’s the fix?

Before upgrading your fibre package again, ask yourself:

Is the problem everywhere, or only in certain rooms?
Is your router several years old?
Are dozens of devices sharing one access point?
Do speed tests look great next to the router and terrible everywhere else?
Does everything grind to a halt once everyone gets home?

Mostly yeses? Your Wi-Fi is the problem, not your line. A newer router, properly configured bands, or a mesh system that hands your devices between nodes as you move through the house will do more for you than another speed upgrade. Mesh only works as well as the link between its nodes, though, so it is worth having someone set it up properly rather than guessing.

Because nobody cares what their speed test says. They care whether the damn thing works.