Frequently asked questions

Speed and ping measure different things. A speed test shows how much data your line can move; ping is how long one packet takes to get there and back. Games use only 1–5 Mbps, so a 500 Mbps plan doesn't lower ping. High ping with fast speed usually comes from a busy line (bufferbloat), Wi-Fi, a far-away server or a poor route. Test & Optimize checks all four and tells you whether the cause is in your home, on your line or beyond it. The full guide: high ping but fast internet.

Under 20 ms is excellent, 20–50 ms is good for any game, 50–100 ms is fine for most casual games, and over 100 ms is noticeable in shooters and fighting games. Steady matters as much as low: a ping that jumps from 30 to 150 ms feels worse than a steady 60 ms. The game server check shows your ping to the regions where game servers run.

Bufferbloat is lag that appears only when your line is busy: a download, an upload or a stream fills the queue in your modem or router, and game packets wait behind it. Ping can jump from 20 ms to 200 ms or more. The speed test measures ping under load and grades it. The fix is Smart Queue Management (SQM) on your router; the Smart Queue assistant works out the exact limits to enter, and the bufferbloat guide explains the rest. It's usually fixable at home.

Jitter is how much your ping changes from one packet to the next. Under 10 ms is good for gaming and under 30 ms is fine for video calls. High jitter causes rubber-banding in games and robotic voices on calls. It usually comes from Wi-Fi or a busy line. The speed test reports jitter, and the lag spike finder shows when it happens.

Spikes on a regular beat usually come from something on a timer: Wi-Fi scanning for networks, a Mac's AirDrop radio, Starlink switching satellites, or a device syncing in the background. Random spikes are more often a big download or a weak Wi-Fi signal. The lag spike finder records ping ten times a second and names the likely cause. If downloads are to blame, see stop background downloads causing lag.

First find where it starts. Run the speed test on a cable, then on Wi-Fi: if loss only shows on Wi-Fi, move closer to the router or follow the Wi-Fi fix guide. If it shows on a cable too, restart the modem and check its cables. If loss keeps coming back on a wired connection, it's worth recording it with the 24/7 monitor so you can show your provider when it happens.

Play on a cable instead of Wi-Fi, pick the closest game server region, stop big downloads while you play and turn on Smart Queue so other traffic can't fill your line. Test & Optimize finds which of these applies to you and walks you through each fix. You can't lower ping below the distance to the server, but you can remove the lag added on top.

Rarely. Ping depends on distance, routing and how busy your connection is, not on your plan's top speed. A bigger plan only helps if your line is often completely full; Smart Queue usually fixes that for free. Run the speed test and look at ping under load before paying for an upgrade.

Evenings are when everyone streams and games, so both your home network and your provider's network are busiest. If only your devices are busy, game mode and Smart Queue help. If your router is quiet and the line still slows down every evening, the 24/7 monitor or a one-week Lag Proof records it hour by hour. Providers compared shows evening slowdowns by provider and city.

Yes. A cable adds almost no lag and no jitter, while Wi-Fi typically adds a few to tens of milliseconds and spikes when the signal is weak or other devices are busy. If a cable isn't possible, sit in the same room as the router or use a mesh node nearby. The Wi-Fi room check measures how much lag Wi-Fi adds in each room.

5 GHz (or 6 GHz on Wi-Fi 6E and 7) is better for gaming: more channels, less interference and lower lag. 2.4 GHz reaches further through walls but is crowded and slower. Use 5 GHz when you're within a room or two of the router. The Wi-Fi fix guide covers bands, channels and placement.

Test another device on the same Wi-Fi. If only one device lags, it's that device: a busy processor, low-power mode, Data Saver or a weak Wi-Fi card. The device check checks this in about three seconds.

QoS gives some devices priority. SQM (Smart Queue Management, with fq_codel or CAKE) keeps the queue in your router short for everyone, so a download can't push your ping up. For lag, SQM works better and needs no rules per device. The Smart Queue assistant gives you the limits, and the router guides show where the setting is on ASUS, TP-Link, OpenWrt and more.

Starlink hands your dish from one satellite to the next on a regular schedule, which can add short spikes every several seconds, and its queues can also bufferbloat when the line is busy. The lag spike finder recognises the pattern, and the Starlink guide covers what you can change.

Turn on UPnP on your router, or forward the ports your game or console uses to its address. If your provider uses CGNAT (a shared public address), port forwarding can't work and you'll need to ask them for a public IP. The connection check shows your NAT type, and the game guides list the ports for each game.

Use the open port checker: enter a port such as 3074 (Xbox), 25565 (Minecraft) or 27015 (Steam) and it tries to connect to your connection from the internet. If it's closed, check the forward points at the right device and that the game or server is running.

Usually the wrong server region, bufferbloat from another device, Wi-Fi spikes or a game setting. Each game has its own guide with server regions, settings and ports: Valorant, Fortnite, Counter-Strike 2, Apex Legends, Call of Duty and more. Forwarding ports fixes connection problems, not lag.

Almost never. A VPN adds an extra stop, so ping usually goes up. It only helps when your provider sends game traffic on a long detour, and the VPN's route happens to be shorter. The game server check spots route detours, so you can see whether that's your problem before paying for one.

The one with the lowest steady ping from your home, which isn't always the closest on the map. The game server check pings the cloud regions where game servers run and ranks them for you.

No. DNS only turns a name into an address before a connection starts; it doesn't touch your game traffic. A faster DNS makes websites start loading sooner, especially on a slow resolver. The DNS guide shows how to check and change it.

The one that answers fastest from where you live, which differs by location and provider. The speed test times your current resolver. Net Fix DNS answers from Cloudflare's network with cached results and blocks ads and trackers too.

Use a filtering DNS. Net Fix DNS blocks ads, trackers, malware and phishing with one setting on Android, a one-tap profile on iPhone and Mac, or on your router for every device at home. We keep daily counts, not a log of the sites you visit.

Your public IP is the address websites see. What is my IP? shows it with your provider, network (ASN) and approximate location. Nothing is stored.

No. We never store IP addresses, and Net Fix DNS keeps no log of the domains anyone looks up, only aggregate counts. Check results stay in your browser unless you save or share them. The privacy policy lists exactly what is kept.

Calls need a steady connection more than a fast one, so jitter, packet loss and a busy upload cause freezes and robotic voices. The video-call check scores your connection for Zoom, Teams, Meet and Discord, and calls freezing at home walks through the fixes.

Buffering usually means short dips in speed rather than a slow plan: Wi-Fi drop-outs, another device downloading, or an evening slowdown. The streaming check measures your speed every second for 30 seconds and shows whether it holds for 4K, HD or SD.

Is it down? checks the service's own status page and your connection side by side, so you can tell whether the problem is theirs or yours.

Test on a cable, with nothing else running, a few times a day. Wi-Fi often can't reach the full plan speed, so a wireless test isn't fair to your provider. The speed test gives a quick answer; the 24/7 monitor compares your advertised speed with what you get around the clock.

Providers want dated measurements from a wired device, not one speed test. The 24/7 monitor records speed, lag and outages around the clock, and the ISP Report PDF states what was measured against what, ready to attach to a support ticket. For a one-off, Lag Proof gives you 7 days of measurements for $9. It also tells you when the problem is in your home rather than theirs.

Providers compared shows median speed and lag under load by provider, city and hour of day, built only from results people chose to share.

Enter your domain in the email security check. It grades SPF, DMARC, DKIM, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT and BIMI and gives you the exact DNS records to publish.

Run the external exposure scan from a computer in the office. It checks your own connection from the internet for Remote Desktop, SMB file sharing, databases, SSH, VNC and admin panels, and explains how to close each one.

The website security check grades HTTPS, HSTS, Content-Security-Policy, clickjacking protection, cookie flags, DNSSEC and CAA, with the exact header or record for each fix. To find typo domains that could send email as you, use the look-alike domain finder.

No. No app can make your plan faster than what you pay for. The Net Fix finds the bottleneck that causes lag, spikes or drop-outs, shows you how to fix it, and proves the fix worked with a re-test. See the fix guides for what usually helps.

Test & Optimize, the step-by-step fixes and the standalone tools are free, with no account and nothing to install. Paid plans add the parts that cost us to run; see pricing.

Plus is $34.99 a year (about $2.92 a month) or $4.99 monthly. It adds the 24/7 helper, lag-spike alerts that name the download that caused them, the ISP Report, one-tap game mode, automatic Smart Queue on OpenWrt routers, Net Fix DNS with every block category, and Test & Optimize All.

Lag Proof is a one-time $9 pack, not a subscription: a small helper at home measures your connection for 7 days, then a report shows whether lag starts in your home, on your line or beyond it.

No. Every check runs in your browser on any phone, tablet or computer. The optional 24/7 helper, part of Plus and Lag Proof, runs on a Windows PC, Mac, Raspberry Pi or NAS that stays on; see Net Fix Monitor.

Yes. Ask within 14 days of your first payment and we refund it in full. You can cancel any time and keep your plan to the end of the period. Details are in the refund policy.

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