Guide

Is it your Wi-Fi or your internet? A 30-second ping test

Published 23 October 2026

A dark Windows PowerShell window showing 20 pings to 1.1.1.1 with 15 percent packet loss

Short answerFind your router address with ipconfig, ping it 20 times, then ping 1.1.1.1 20 times. Loss or high times to the router means a Wi-Fi problem; a clean router ping but loss to 1.1.1.1 means an internet provider problem.

Internet slow? Before you restart everything, find out where the problem is: between your PC and the router (your Wi-Fi), or between the router and the internet (your provider).

Step 1: Find your router's address

PowerShell

ipconfig | findstr Gateway

Example output

   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1

Step 2: Ping your router 20 times

PowerShell

ping -n 20 192.168.1.1

Example output

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 20, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 9ms, Average = 3ms

Use your own gateway address from step 1. 0% loss and a few milliseconds means your Wi-Fi link is fine.

Step 3: Ping the internet 20 times

1.1.1.1 is Cloudflare's public DNS server, a reliable target that answers pings.

PowerShell

ping -n 20 1.1.1.1

Example output

Ping statistics for 1.1.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 17, Lost = 3 (15% loss),
    Minimum = 24ms, Maximum = 412ms, Average = 96ms

How to read it

Router ping	Internet ping	Problem is
Clean	Clean	Not the connection. Try another website or app.
Clean	Loss or very high times	Your internet provider.
Loss or high times	Bad	Your Wi-Fi.

Provider problem: take a screenshot of both results before you call them. It's hard to argue with.

Wi-Fi problem: move closer to the router, use the 5 GHz network if you have one, or try a cable. See Is your Wi-Fi slow because of your neighbours?

Some routers don't answer pings at all ("Request timed out" every time). Then skip straight to the internet ping on a cable.