Guides
Troubleshooting guides
What usually causes each problem, how to tell which one you have, and what to try, in plain English.
Common problems
- Why is gaming lagging even though my Internet is fast?Lag in online games usually comes from delay, lost data or a busy connection, not slow speed. How to find which one you have and fix it.
- Why is my Internet slow?Slow Internet can come from Wi-Fi, a busy connection, your provider, DNS or the device itself. How to work out which, in a few minutes.
- Why is my Wi-Fi slow?Distance, walls, interference, the wrong band or an overloaded router can all slow Wi-Fi. How to tell Wi-Fi problems from Internet problems.
- Why is my ping so high?High ping comes from distance, Wi-Fi, a busy connection, VPNs or your connection type. What counts as high, and the fixes that actually lower it.
- Why does my Wi-Fi keep disconnecting?Wi-Fi dropouts come from weak signal, interference, power-saving settings, an overheating router or provider outages. How to find which and fix it.
- Why does my Internet slow down at night?Evening slowdowns come from a busier household, your provider's network at peak time, or Wi-Fi interference. How to tell which, and what to do.
- Why is my computer's Internet slow when my phone is fine?When one computer is slow but other devices are fine, the cause is that device: Wi-Fi hardware, drivers, VPN, background apps or settings. How to fix it.
- Why is my Internet slow when my speed test is fast?A fast speed test doesn't rule out a problem. Bufferbloat, lost data, jitter, slow DNS and Wi-Fi can all make a fast connection feel slow.
- Why does my streaming keep buffering?Buffering comes from not enough steady speed: weak Wi-Fi, a busy household, lost data or your provider at peak time. How to find the cause and fix it.
- Why do my video calls keep freezing?Frozen video and robotic audio come from lost data, unstable response times, slow upload or a busy connection. How to find which and fix it.
Lag in popular games
- Why is Fortnite lagging?Fortnite lag usually comes from Wi-Fi, a busy connection at home or the wrong server region. How to check your ping and packet loss in-game and fix it.
- Why is Call of Duty lagging?Lag, packet burst and high latency in Call of Duty and Warzone: what the warning icons mean, how to show your latency and packet loss, and how to fix them.
- Why is Valorant lagging?Valorant lag usually comes from packet loss, jitter or bufferbloat. How to show network stats, what network buffering does, and how to fix it.
- Why is Roblox lagging?Roblox lag can come from the Internet connection, the device, or the game itself. How to tell which, check ping, and fix lag on phones, tablets and computers.
Explainers and fixes
- What is bufferbloat?Bufferbloat makes a fast connection lag whenever it's busy. What it is, why it happens, how to tell if you have it, and how it's usually fixed.
- How to fix bufferbloatStep-by-step: find your router's Smart Queue Management or QoS setting, set it up so it works, and check that it fixed the lag.