Download Mbps is the number on the billboard. Upload, latency, and whether the node is full at 8 p.m. are the numbers that decide whether homework and 4K can share a roof.
- HD stream: often tens of Mbps. 4K: more, times the number of TVs.
- Zoom: upload matters more than people think.
- Games: latency and bufferbloat beat raw gigabit.
If Wi-Fi is the bottleneck, read signal tips before you buy a faster WAN. Plans: HomeNet.