Device speed test over WiFi:
Follow these steps to test the WiFi speed from a specific connected device on your network to the speed test server. Keep in mind that this may not be indicative of the actual speed Fidium is delivering to your home. There are lots of factors, including the use of WiFi, the capability of the device, interference, and other things that could impact your speed test results.
- From the main screen, tap Your Device icon
- Tap on Device Speed Test and the test will run automatically
- If the Device Speed Test fails, wait a few moments and tap the Retry button to try again
Direct internet connection speed test
Follow these steps to test the internet speed coming directly into your location. This test is more indicative of the speed Fidium is providing to your location and is run directly from your gateway to the speed test server.
- Click on the WiFi gateway icon in the center of the Attune app home page
- This brings up a history of your ISP Speed Tests
- Tap on Check Speed Now (this will kick off a speed test)
- You can turn off the Auto-run ISP Speed Test using the toggle switch (on iOS, the toggle is found in the More menu)
If you're experiencing connection issues, see some of our network support articles:
- Connection issues with WiFi gateway
- Connection issues with WiFi extenders
- Device is not connecting to network
Understanding your speed test results
Depending on which plan you have, your speeds will show up as either megabits per second (Mbps) or gigabits per second (Gbps). A bit is a very small piece of data.
- a megabit is 1 million bits
- a gigabit is 1 billion bits (1 Gbps = 1000 Mbps)
You’ll see two numbers. One is for download (data coming to you) speed and the other is for upload (data coming from you) speed. Higher numbers mean faster speeds.
Achieve the most accurate speed test for your network
There are a lot of factors that go into your speed test results. Although under perfect circ*mstances you would be able to send 2 billion bits of information per second using a 2 gigabit service, your actual data throughput will be a little smaller because, well, perfect only exists in the lab.
Please note that if you have a 2 Gig plan, only the newest devices are capable of testing up to that speed. You will get 2 Gigs into your gateway as we deliver that level of connection in to your building.
Here are some things you can do to help achieve the most accurate speed tests possible on your network:
- First, make sure you are conducting a speed test via the Fidium Attune™ or Attune@Work™ WiFi app. This is the most accurate place to test the speed of your network and of individual devices connected to it.
- You will also need to use Cat 5 or Cat 6 Ethernet wiring to connect your devices to your Fidium-provided WiFi gateway. For example, make sure you are conducting the speed test when you have a Cat 5 or Cat 6 Ethernet cable plugged directly into your computer. Speed tests over WiFi will not be as good as a direct connection since there is interference that can slow your connection. Also, speed test results over WiFi will vary widely between device types.
- If your laptop doesn’t already have an Ethernet port, you’ll need to get an adapter. Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 adapters are usually the best, but any adapter is also going to consume some available bandwidth to maintain its connection. This administrative overhead can consume 5 – 10% of overall bandwidth.
- Your Fidium-provided gateway can support gigabit speeds over the ports in the back. If you are providing your own modem-router device, you need to check to make sure that it is gig-capable.
- The speed test results you can achieve are limited by the slowest device or cable in the testing chain. Older laptops, for example, can only process speeds at 100 Mbps or lower. To test up to 2 Gig, you’ll need to be using a newer device with 2,000 Mbps (2 Gig) device capability, but even these devices are subject to consuming some available bandwidth for overhead to maintain a connection. We recommend that you use a computer built in 2019 or newer using an Intel i5 processor, or the equivalent, that has at least 16GB of RAM running Windows 10 or MacOS 10 or higher.
- If you have a Fidium-provided gateway, we’ll keep you up to date with all the latest software updates but if you are using your own device, you’ll need to proactively make sure you are staying up to date with any new firmware patches.
- If you’re testing directly from a computer, make sure to use the current versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari or Microsoft Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported. Make sure you also disable all browser plug-ins. If you have one, unplug the wireless adapter on your computer, and disconnect from any VPN connection.
- Make sure you disable all other network traffic while you are testing your throughput to produce optimal results. That means that you need to disable WiFi or shut down all other wired or wireless devices.
With our Fidium Attune™ or Attune@Work™ WiFi apps, you can see your speed test history over time. We also monitor this for you and will proactively let you know via the app or other methods when you might need to make some adjustments in your network to achieve the best speeds.
