Wi-Fi & networks

Most "slow internet" is not slow internet

The majority of the calls we take about slow internet turn out to be coverage rather than speed. The connection arriving at the house is fine, and the Wi-Fi distributing it is not — which matters, because only one of those is solved by paying your provider more.

The test that separates them takes five minutes: plug a laptop into the router with a cable and run a speed test, then repeat it on Wi-Fi beside the router, then in the room that has problems.

Slow on the cable too

The line or the plan. No equipment in your house will fix it, and that is worth knowing before you spend anything.

Fast on cable, slow beside the router

The router itself — often old, overloaded or misconfigured.

Fast near the router, slow in one room

Coverage. The most common result, and entirely fixable.

What we fix

• Dead zones in specific rooms, sheds, garages and upstairs bedrooms
• Dropouts that happen at particular times of day
• NBN faults — establishing which side of the box the problem is on
• Routers still in service from the original NBN installation
• Mesh systems supplied but never configured properly
• Small business networks, guest Wi-Fi and separating staff from customer traffic
• Warehouse and outbuilding coverage, where wireless alone will not reach

How we approach it

1. Test at the socket first, to establish whether the line is healthy
2. Measure signal strength in the rooms that actually matter to you, not from a floor plan
3. Check for interference from neighbouring networks, which matters in units and townhouses
4. Fix the cause — frequently placement or channel, sometimes hardware
5. Test it again in the same rooms, with you there, before we leave

Why extenders usually disappoint

A range extender creates a second network, typically with "-EXT" on the end. Your phone clings to the weak original signal rather than switching, because devices are reluctant to hand over until a connection is nearly unusable. That is why extenders so often seem to change nothing.

A mesh broadcasts one network name across all its units and hands your device between them as you walk. That handover is the entire point, and it is what makes mesh work where an extender did not. Typical cost is $150–250 installed, and where cabling exists a wired access point beats any wireless option.

What it costs

Wi-Fi and network work runs $90–250 depending on the size and construction of the property. A modem or router setup is $90–150. If the fix turns out to be moving your existing router four metres, we will tell you that and charge for the visit rather than selling you hardware.

There is a full walkthrough of the diagnosis, including what blocks signal and what to try yourself, in our guide to fixing Wi-Fi dead zones.