How to test your speed
That slow iPad you’re holding might not be so slow after all. It might just be a bad internet connection causing all those performance issues, which is why the ability to test your iPad’s internet speed is so important for troubleshooting.
Many applications depend on the web, and a poor connection can affect these applications in many different ways.
Photo Pixabay
To test your iPad, you need to download Ookla’s mobile speed test. To test your iPad’s Wi-Fi speed, simply launch the app, give it permission to use location services if requested, and tap the large Start Test button.
The Ookla test shows up as a speedometer in your car, and like that speedometer, you don’t need to hit top speeds to register a fast connection. There is nothing to worry about if it does not complete. It really depends on how you use your iPad.
You should test your connection more than once to get an idea of your average speed.
Wi-Fi may slow down for a few seconds and then come back up again, so by doing various tests, any strange variances can be noted.
If you get poor speed, such as less than 5 Mbs, try moving to a different location in your house or apartment.
Try testing the speed next to your router first, and then move to other parts of your residence.
When a Wi-Fi signal travels through the wall, appliances, and other obstructions, the signal can weaken. If you find that you have a dead spot (or, most likely, a very slow spot), you can try repositioning the router to see if that speeds up the connection.
What is a good speed?
Before you know if you’re getting good speed or not, you’ll need to know the bandwidth capabilities of your Internet connection. This may appear on your Internet Service Provider (ISP) bill.
You can also test your connection using a desktop or laptop computer that is connected to your network via an Ethernet cable connected directly to the router.
You can use the web version of the Ookla speed test to find out the approximate maximum bandwidth on your PC.
3Mbs : You will have trouble streaming videos and may experience webpage or music load times.
It takes about 1.5 Mbs to get clear audio from Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming music apps.
However, if you consistently have less than 3 Mbs, you may experience some issues as your internet connection can bounce between 1-2 Mbs.
3-5Mbs: You should be fine streaming music and loading web pages, but you’ll still have problems with streaming video, and you may experience decreased quality from YouTube and other providers.
6-10Mbs : Video streaming should be smooth, but you might have trouble streaming high-quality videos from multiple devices. This is a good speed if you only stream Netflix or Hulu Plus to one TV or tablet at a time.
11-25Mbs : realistically you’ll want more than 10Mbs to make sure you won’t get stuck streaming HD quality videos or on multiple devices at once.
25+ Mbs : this is the speed at which you can stream 4K or UHD video. You shouldn’t have a problem connecting multiple devices and streaming video from multiple sources, either.
Don’t forget the ping time!
The «ping» time can also be an important indicator. While bandwidth measures the amount of data that can be downloaded or uploaded at the same time, Ping measures the latency of your connection, which is the time it takes for information or data to get to and from remote servers.
This is very important, especially if you play a lot of multiplayer games. You should get a ping time under 100ms for most connections.
More than that can be noticeable, and anything above 150 can cause noticeable lag when playing multiplayer games.
Wow. I’m faster than my laptop!
In fact, it is possible to exceed your «max» on your iPad if you have a newer model and your router supports the use of multiple antennas.
This is generally the case with dual-band routers that broadcast at 2.4 and 5 GHz. Basically, your iPad is making two connections to the router and using both at the same time.
This can be used as a technique to speed up your Wi-Fi if you’re having trouble. The newer 802.11ac routers even use a broadcast technology to focus the signal to your devices.
But you have to own both a new router that supports that standard and a new iPad that supports it.
The iPad has supported this technology since the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4, so if you have one of these or a newer iPad like the monster-sized iPad Pro, it can support the newer routers.
Getting Slow Speed: Now What?
If your tests show that your iPad is running slowly, don’t panic. Instead, restart your iPad and run the tests again. This will fix most issues, but if you’re still having trouble, you can try resetting the network settings on your iPad.
You can do this by opening the Settings app, selecting General from the left side menu, and then Reset from the general settings.
On the new screen, select Reset network settings. You will need to log into your Wi-Fi router again after selecting this, so make sure you know the password.
You should also try rebooting your router. Sometimes older or cheaper routers can drag down the longer they stay on, especially if there are a lot of devices connected to the router.
It may interest you:
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