What a healthy connection looks like
A speed test tells you how big your pipe is. An internet health check tells you whether the pipe leaks, and how evenly things flow through it. This one measures four things in a single 60-second run over UDP: packet loss (packets that never arrive), ping (how long a round trip takes), jitter (how much that ping varies) and stability (how many seconds in the run spiked or dropped). Those four decide whether calls sound clear and games feel responsive, and none of them is visible in a download speed.
A healthy home connection, tested on a cable or good wifi, shows zero or near-zero loss, a ping that sits within a few milliseconds of its minimum, single-digit jitter, and no more than one spiky second a minute. The verdict list under the result compares your run to the needs of gaming, voice calls, video meetings, streaming and browsing, because a connection can be healthy enough for one and not the other.
Health check results, explained
| Measure | Healthy | Worth checking | Unhealthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Packet loss | 0 to 0.5% | 0.5 to 2% | Over 2% |
| Ping | Within your line type's normal range | 2 times the minimum | Over 150 ms |
| Jitter | Under 5 ms | 5 to 30 ms | Over 30 ms |
| Spiky seconds (per minute) | 0 to 1 | 2 to 4 | 5 or more |
A wifi health check
Most connection problems at home are wifi problems, and the same test doubles as a wifi health check. Run it once next to the router on wifi, then in the room where you usually have trouble. If loss and jitter climb as you move away, the signal is not reaching that room well enough, and a better router position, a mesh node or a cable will fix it. If the result is bad even next to the router, the channel is crowded or the router itself is struggling.
For a definite answer, run it once on wifi and once on an Ethernet cable plugged into the same router. If the cable run is clean and the wifi run is not, the wifi is the whole story. The wifi versus ethernet guide explains what to change for each result.
When the check fails
- Loss on a cable too. Restart the modem and router, check the cables, then contact your provider with the copied result.
- Healthy on a cable, unhealthy on wifi. Move the router into the open, change the wifi channel, or add a mesh node. See how to fix packet loss.
- Healthy in the morning, unhealthy at night. Evening congestion at your provider. Your options are a complaint with evidence, a different plan, or a different provider.
- No packets at all. UDP is blocked on your network. See what to do when UDP is blocked.