Ethernet is dramatically better
Wi‑Fi interference, signal quality, channel contention or mesh backhaul is likely contributing. Optimize the wireless link before blaming the ISP.
Diagnostic experiment
Wi‑Fi vs Ethernet: isolate where the lag begins
A wired retest is one of the fastest ways to separate local Wi‑Fi problems from queueing or latency elsewhere in the connection.
Run a controlled A/B test
- Run Connection Vitals on the Wi‑Fi connection where you normally notice lag. Label it “Wi‑Fi”.
- Connect the same computer by Ethernet if possible and disable Wi‑Fi.
- Rerun the test and label it “Ethernet”.
- Use the built-in before/after comparison.
How to read the difference
Both are similarly poor under load
The bottleneck may be router/WAN queueing or the access network. SQM is a more relevant next experiment.
Keep the experiment fair
Use the same device, test endpoint, location and approximate time. Stop unrelated bulk transfers before each baseline. No two Internet tests are perfectly identical, which is why Connection Vitals labels the repeatability indicator as run quality rather than statistical confidence.