"My internet is slow" is the helpdesk's vaguest ticket. Five minutes with a speed test turns it into actionable diagnostics.

1. The right speed test

The most reliable browser-based tests:

Run two of them. If both agree, you have a clean reading.

2. Understand the numbers

A speed test gives you three things:

  • Download speed (Mbps) — how fast websites load and videos stream
  • Upload speed (Mbps) — how fast you send files, video calls, screen-sharing
  • Latency / ping (ms) — round-trip time to the server

For a busy office:

  • 25 Mbps down per concurrent user (audio calls don't count much)
  • 5 Mbps up per concurrent user
  • Latency below 50ms

If you're seeing 100 Mbps down on a quiet test but a meeting is breaking up, the problem is upload or latency, not download.

3. Wired vs. Wi-Fi

Always test both. Run the speed test on:

  • Wired Ethernet (if available)
  • Wi-Fi on the same laptop

Wi-Fi is typically half of wired in optimal conditions. If wired is 200/50 but Wi-Fi is 30/10, you have a Wi-Fi problem (see [slow Wi-Fi](/kb/slow-wifi)).

4. Compare against the office's nominal speed

Find out what your office is provisioned for (ask IT, or it's usually in the contract). If you're paying for a gigabit link and seeing 100 Mbps, something between you and the modem is bottlenecking.

Common bottlenecks:

  • Your laptop's Ethernet is 100 Mbps not gigabit
  • The switch port is configured for 100 Mbps
  • The patch cable is Cat5 not Cat5e
  • Wi-Fi can't physically deliver gigabit even when nominal

5. Time of day

Office Wi-Fi gets crushed at peak: 09:30 (everyone arrives), 10:00 (stand-ups start), 14:00 (post-lunch backup runs). Speed test at three different times — if morning is fast and afternoon is slow, you have congestion, not a fault.

6. Test the underlying internet (not just Wi-Fi)

If possible, test on:

  • A phone on cellular (sanity check that you have a cell signal)
  • A phone on the office Wi-Fi
  • Your laptop on the office Wi-Fi
  • Your laptop on Ethernet

Comparing helps localize the problem to a layer.

7. Reading latency under load

For meetings, latency consistency matters more than peak speed. The Cloudflare Speed Test shows latency during the test:

  • Idle latency: under 30ms is excellent
  • Loaded latency: ideally less than 100ms above idle
  • Jitter: under 20ms

If loaded latency spikes to 500ms+, your meetings will choke even though "download speed" looks fine.

What to include in a ticket

If you're raising a slow-network ticket, attach:

  • Screenshot of speed test (with the server name and timestamp visible)
  • Whether you're on Wi-Fi or wired
  • Time of day
  • Whether you're VPN'd in

That single screenshot saves the network admin an hour.