What causes latency?

Latency is affected by several elements: distance, propagation delay, internet connection type, website content, Wi-Fi, and your router.

Some of these elements are fixable, while others are simply essential for everyone's online experience. So in case you're wondering why your latency is so high, here are some likely guilty parties.

1. Distance

Distance is generally the fundamental driver of latency—in this case, it refers to the distance between your computer and the servers your computer is requesting data from.

For example, on the off chance that you live in Madison, Wisconsin, and you visit a website hosted by a server located in Chicago, Illinois, the response time of the website ought to be pretty quick. That's because your request needs to travel a relatively short distance of 147 miles and back.

In any case, on the off chance that you live in Miami, Florida, and attempt to access that same website hosted by a server in Chicago, the response time will be slower. This is because your request needs to travel 1,381 miles to the Chicago server and back to you in Miami.

2. Propagation delay

Real quick, let's discussion about propagation. In material science, propagation is "the sending out or spreading of light or sound waves, movement, etc."1 When we're talking internet, propagation is the activity of sending out your data packets to a server.

Your data packet → the server

This brings us to propagation delay: this is the means by which long it takes for your data packets to reach that. (Yet, it doesn't include the time it takes to cross the full distance  back to your computer—that's full circle time.) Propagation delay is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to how much latency you experience.

3. Internet connection type

Your internet connection type can likewise assume a role in how high or low your latency is. Generally, DSL, cable, and fiber internet tend to have lower latency, while satellite internet tends to have higher latency.

4. What's on a website

Ever clicked on a connection and waited several minutes for the website to stack dreadfully numerous GIFs, promotions, or large images? That is correct, you simply experienced latency because of someone plastering The Office memes everywhere on their Angelfire page.

On the off chance that a website is home to bunches of large files, like HD images or videos, or multiple outsider promotions (the ghastliness), your web browser needs to download those files and advertisements to show them to you. What's more, if those files or promotions are hosted on a server that's distant from you, there will be a little latency on account of distance.

5. Wi-Fi versus Ethernet cable

On the off chance that you need to reduce your latency as much as humanly possible, you'll need to use an Ethernet cable to connect to the internet.

Does Wi-Fi affect latency?

Wi-Fi is great, yes, however your wireless sign is more susceptible to noise, meaning your data packets likely need to be re-sent, or retransmitted, on the off chance that they become lost.

Wi-Fi likewise needs to go through the motions, like encryption conventions, to travel to and fro from your computer. Furthermore, typically, those wireless signs fade, or lose strength, over distance faster than an Ethernet connection.

6. Your router

An old, slow router can stall your computer's connection to your internet provider's modem, whether you use Wi-Fi or an Ethernet connection. This is especially true if your router doesn't uphold the internet speed you're paying for or if you have many individuals and devices connected to your router at the same time.

Upgrading to a new router may decrease your latency, in any case, unfortunately, it likely won't have excessively huge of an effect.

Perform Latency Speed Test.