How to Test Whether Your Router Needs Replacing

The internet is slow, or it drops, and someone says "it's probably the router". Maybe. It's also the thing you can least test by looking at it. The lights are on, the Wi-Fi name is there, and a new one costs real money. Before you buy, you want to know it's actually the router and not the Wi-Fi, the Ethernet cable, or your ISP.

What a failing router actually does

A router on the way out doesn't usually die. It gets slow at its own job. It takes longer and longer to answer, it drops the odd packet, it locks up for a minute and comes back, and it does all of this more when it's warm or busy. From the sofa that looks exactly like a bad Wi-Fi signal, a tired Ethernet cable, or a bad evening on your ISP's line. Same symptoms, four different bills.

The one thing that separates them: a failing router is slow or dropping on the hop from your PC to the router itself, and that hop has nothing to do with your ISP. If that hop is fine and the trouble is further out, a new router changes nothing.

Why testing it yourself is a pain

The usual advice is a speed test, a restart, and see if it feels better. A speed test measures the whole path to the internet, so it can't tell you which part was slow. A restart clears the fault for a while, which proves nothing, because a bad ISP evening clears itself too. To do it properly you'd run a ping to the router in a command prompt for a few hours, at the time of day it plays up, and read the numbers as they go past. And you'd still need a second ping to something past the router to compare, or you can't tell the router from the line.

How Copper Goose Network Monitor tests it for you

It sits in the Windows tray and, every few seconds, checks two things separately: the hop to your own router, and the path past it to the internet.

When the router hop goes bad, the panel says "Local network degraded - Wi-Fi or router". When your router stops answering altogether, it says "Router not responding - check cable and power". Neither of those is your ISP's.

Every problem is written down in History, with the date, the time, how long it lasted and what it was. A router problem is written as "the hop to the router slow or dropping". Weak Wi-Fi is written as "weak Wi-Fi signal". A bad Ethernet cable and a bad evening on your ISP's line each get their own words too. So you're never guessing which one you had.

History also adds it up by month, and shows the hours of the day that give the most trouble. A router that plays up every evening around eight shows up there as a pattern, not a feeling.

What to do with the result

Take Wi-Fi out of it first. Plug the PC into the router with an Ethernet cable for a few days, at the time of day the trouble happens. If History keeps saying "the hop to the router slow or dropping" while you're wired, the router is struggling on its own, with no radio in the way. Restart it once and see whether the episodes stop for good or come back within days. If they come back, it's the router, and now you're buying with a reason.

If History keeps saying "weak Wi-Fi signal", it's where the router is, not what it is. Move it, or move closer, before you replace it.

If History keeps saying "ISP degraded", the router is fine and the money stays in your pocket. Click "Report for ISP..." in History and send them the dates instead.