Solución de problemas de Wi-Fi: una guía práctica

Before changing settings, get a baseline. Run our Prueba de red para comprobar su velocidad de descarga, latencia y fluctuación. Anote los números y luego compárelos después de cada solución a continuación para saber qué fue lo que realmente ayudó.

1. Reinicie su router y módem: desenchufe ambos durante 30 segundos, conecte primero el módem, espere un minuto y luego el router.
2. Reinicie el dispositivo que está teniendo problemas; la mitad de los problemas persistentes de Wi-Fi se deben a una pila de red atascada en el dispositivo, no a la red.
3. Compruebe si otros dispositivos en la misma red tienen el mismo problema. Si solo un dispositivo tiene dificultades, la falla es local de ese dispositivo.
4. Acérquese temporalmente al router para descartar la distancia y la interferencia.
5. Verifique la página de estado o la aplicación de su ISP para ver si hay una interrupción conocida en su área.

Esto significa que su dispositivo tiene un enlace con el router, pero el router o no tiene internet o no lo está transmitiendo.

1. Compruebe si otros dispositivos en la misma Wi-Fi pueden navegar. Si ninguno puede, el problema es el router o la conexión del ISP, no su dispositivo.
2. Observe las luces del módem, una luz sólida de "internet" u "online" debe estar encendida; parpadeante o apagada suele significar que no hay señal del ISP.
3. Intente conectar un ordenador directamente al módem con un cable Ethernet, saltándose el router por completo, para aislar si el router es el problema.
4. On Windows, run Settings > Network & internet > Status > Network troubleshooter.
5. En macOS, mantenga pulsada la tecla Opción y haga clic en el icono de Wi-Fi en la barra de menú para ver diagnósticos detallados, o abra Diagnóstico inalámbrico desde Spotlight.

Sospecha de una falla real del hardware cuando:

• Las luces del router muestran un patrón de error de hardware (consulta el manual para saber qué significa una luz roja o intermitente repetidamente en tu modelo específico).
• Un restablecimiento de fábrica y una actualización de firmware no cambian nada, y el problema persiste en todos los dispositivos conectados.
• El router tiene más de 4-5 años y tiene dificultades incluso con pocos dispositivos conectados; el hardware antiguo simplemente no puede manejar las cargas de tráfico modernas ni los estándares de Wi-Fi.
• Si un dispositivo específico no logra obtener una buena señal en toda la casa mientras que otros funcionan bien allí, la antena o el adaptador de Wi-Fi de ese dispositivo podría ser la falla real, no la red.

Si has aislado el problema a tu conexión de ISP en lugar de a tu propio equipo, contáctalos directamente; ninguna cantidad de solución de problemas del router solucionará una falla en su extremo de la línea.

Slow Wi-Fi is really three distinct faults with three different fixes, and treating them as one problem is why so much troubleshooting goes nowhere. The first is low bandwidth, where pages load but large downloads crawl. The second is high latency, where bandwidth looks fine but everything feels sluggish and video calls stutter. The third is instability, where speed is fine most of the time but the connection drops repeatedly.

Measure before you change anything. Run a speed test next to the router and again where you actually use the device. A big gap between the two means a coverage problem inside your home, which no amount of contacting your provider will fix. Similar numbers in both places mean the incoming connection itself is the limit, and that is a conversation with your provider rather than a router setting.

Wi-Fi is radio, and radio is defeated by physics long before it is defeated by hardware. A router in a cupboard, behind a television, on the floor, or in a corner of the house is working against every law of signal propagation. Moving the same router to a central, elevated, open position frequently doubles usable coverage without spending anything.

• Concrete, brick and anything containing metal or water absorb signal heavily, including mirrors, radiators, fish tanks and foil-backed insulation.
• Every floor between the router and the device costs roughly as much signal as a thick wall.
• Microwave ovens, cordless phones and older baby monitors interfere directly with the 2.4GHz band.
• Keep the router at least a metre from other electronics and never inside a metal enclosure.
• If coverage still fails at the far end of the house, a mesh system beats a repeater, because repeaters halve throughput on the band they retransmit.

Most routers broadcast on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, and newer ones add 6GHz. They behave very differently. 2.4GHz travels further and passes through walls better but carries less data and is heavily congested in flats and terraced housing. 5GHz is much faster with far less interference but loses strength quickly through solid walls.

• Use 5GHz for laptops, phones and streaming devices in the same or an adjacent room as the router.
• Use 2.4GHz for smart home devices, garden cameras and anything at the far edge of coverage.
• If both bands share one name, a device may cling to the weaker one, temporarily splitting the names helps diagnose it.
• On 2.4GHz choose channel 1, 6 or 11, they are the only three that do not overlap each other.

When a connection degrades gradually over days, the cause is usually accumulated state in the router rather than anything you did. A structured restart clears it properly, and the order matters.

1. Power off the modem and the router, and unplug both at the wall.
2. Wait a full sixty seconds so capacitors discharge and the provider releases the session.
3. Power the modem on first and wait for its lights to settle completely.
4. Power the router on and wait a further two minutes before testing.
5. Run a speed test from the same spot each time so you have comparable numbers over weeks.

Keep a short log of results with dates. If your provider disputes a performance problem, a series of timestamped measurements from the same location is far more persuasive than a description, and it also reveals patterns such as slowdowns only during evening peak hours, which point to network congestion rather than anything in your home.

Intermittent network problems are difficult to fix precisely because they are gone by the time anyone looks. A short written record turns a vague complaint into evidence, and it often reveals the cause on its own once a pattern appears.

• Test from the same two places each time, next to the router and where the problem occurs.
• Record download speed, upload speed, latency, the time of day and which band you were connected to.
• Note anything unusual, a new appliance, a neighbour's new router, a firmware update or a house full of guests.
• Test both wired and wireless where possible, the difference separates your home network from the incoming line.
• Keep at least a week of readings before drawing conclusions, single measurements mislead constantly.

With that record, decisions become straightforward. Consistent shortfalls on a wired connection belong to your provider, wireless-only shortfalls belong to placement and interference, and problems confined to particular hours point to congestion that no equipment change will remove.