Fixing a slow Wi-Fi isn’t always about upgrading your plan, buying a pricier router, switching Wi-Fi bands, or changing the default DNS. Sometimes, the real problem is those old, less powerful devices on the network that take longer to transmit data and force other devices to wait for their turn. The good news is that your router probably already has a solution for this called airtime fairness. You just need to switch it on.
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Unlike Ethernet, where every device gets its own dedicated cable that goes to the router, Wi-Fi is a shared medium. Devices like your phone, laptop, smart speaker, security cameras, and the printer are essentially competing for the same wireless airtime when they’re on Wi-Fi.
By default, most routers try to be fair by giving every device on the network an equal turn to send and receive data. But the thing is, routers measure fairness in terms of data packets, not the amount of time it takes to transmit them. So, if one of the devices on the network is slow to exchange data, it can make your other devices wait.
For instance, your old Wi-Fi printer or that budget smart plug talks to the router at a much slower speed than your phone or laptop. So when it’s that slow device’s turn to use the airwaves, it hogs the channel for much longer just to send the same amount of data. Of course, one slow device isn’t a big deal. But when you have multiple devices that are slow, your blazing-fast internet plan stops mattering. At that point, the real bottleneck is slower devices competing for airtime on your network.
Airtime fairness can fix this problem
Time, not turns, is what actually should matter
Screenshot by Pankil Shah — No attribution required
The good news is that most routers have a feature that solves this problem, and it’s called airtime fairness. Instead of giving every device on the network an equal number of turns, it gives them an equal amount of airtime. That simple tweak in logic changes everything.
For instance, if you’re gaming on your PS5 and your old smart plug is checking with the router every few seconds, under the default settings, both get one shot at the channel. But the problem is that your PS5 can dump its data and clear the channel in a flash, while the smart plug, which is understandably running less powerful Wi-Fi hardware, takes several times longer to send the exact same tiny packet.
With airtime fairness, your router stops measuring fairness in packets and starts measuring it in milliseconds. Your console gets its share of airtime, moves a massive amount of data, and gets out the way. The smart plug is capped to roughly the same window of time, so it can’t sit there hogging the channel just because it’s slower. That’s just one example. The same logic applies across every device fighting for airtime on your network.
Some routers, like Google’s Nest Wi-Fi router, ship with airtime fairness pre-enabled. Many don’t, though, so it’s best to check for yourself. Type 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 in your browser’s address bar and hit Enter. Then, type in your admin username and password to get in and look for the Airtime Fairness option. This will be in different places depending on your router’s model, but it’s usually easy to find. Note that some routers may not even offer this option at all.
QoS is another feature worth experimenting with
Some data is always more important than other
Airtime fairness handles the “who gets to talk” problem, but there’s another setting that handles “what’s actually worth talking about.” It’s called Quality of Service (QoS), and it basically lets you tell the router which traffic matters more. Most routers let you configure QoS by app type, device, or sometimes both. You can use this to prioritize video calls and gaming traffic while pushing background downloads and software updates lower down the queue.
This is especially handy when the network is slammed. Instead of letting a device or an activity hog your bandwidth, your router distributes workload based on what matters to you. All you have to do is specify which devices or types of activities should be prioritized, and the router takes care of the rest. Inside the router settings, look for QoS, Traffic Prioritization, or Adaptive QoS, and set it up.
Coverage
4,400 square feet
Number of Devices Supported
200
Bands
2.4GHz, 5GHz
So, airtime fairness stops one device from eating up the channel, while QoS decides which traffic gets to cut the line when things get busy. These two simple tweaks can do more good to your Wi-Fi than upgrading your internet plan ever will.
