Your Wi-Fi is not actually slower at night. It is more crowded. Every router on your block broadcasts on the same airwaves, and mine slowed to a crawl at eight every evening until I made a few changes that took about ten minutes total.

Why evenings are the worst

At night, everyone in your neighborhood comes home and starts streaming, gaming, and backing up photos. Your Wi-Fi shares the airwaves with every router around you, and if they are all shouting on the same channel, everything slows down. The internet itself may be fine. The radio traffic is the bottleneck.

The fixes that work

1. Restart your router on a schedule. Set a weekly timer so it reboots at 4am. Routers get sluggish after weeks of uptime.
2. Change the Wi-Fi channel. Log into your router using the address on the sticker on the bottom, find the wireless settings, and switch from Auto to a specific channel. If you live in a crowded area, try channels that are less used. Your neighbor on the same channel is stealing your speed.
3. Use the 5GHz band for streaming. If your router broadcasts two networks, connect your TV, laptop, and phone to the 5GHz one. It is faster and less crowded, even if it does not reach as far.
4. Move the router off the floor and away from metal. Mine lived behind a TV for a year and the TV cabinet was eating half the signal.

When it is not your Wi-Fi at all

If the slow hours are exactly when your household is streaming on three screens, the problem might be your plan’s data cap or your own bandwidth. Check your router’s admin page for live device usage and see who is downloading what. One year I discovered my son’s game console was pulling updates every evening at eight, right on schedule.

None of these need a support call. I have not called my provider since, and the eight o’clock slowdown is gone.