How to Increase Your Armstrong Internet Speed

We’ve all been there: You’re three episodes into a weekend binge when your show freezes mid-scene, and the loading wheel starts spinning. Or you’re finally making your point on a work call, and your face locks up on everyone’s screen. Home WiFi connections keep us all up to speed on a daily basis, so when they slow down, you notice. Fast.

The good news is that a faster plan isn’t your only way to increase your Armstrong Internet speed. Most slow Armstrong connections trace back to weak WiFi coverage, older equipment, or a plan your household has outgrown, and a wired speed test tells you which one you’re dealing with. Find the weak link, and you’ve found your fix.

Run an Armstrong Internet Speed Test First

Before you contact Armstrong about a faster plan, run SmartMove’s Armstrong speed test. This free test shows whether your Internet is delivering the speed it should be. If it’s not, you may have some troubleshooting to do either on your own or with an Armstrong representative to get your Internet back up to its best working speed.

Don’t trust your gut on this one. Get real numbers by setting up your test like this:

• Test close to your router: For the cleanest baseline, plug a laptop or computer into your router with an Ethernet cable. If that’s not possible, test in the same room as the router.
• Test more than once: Run the test two or three times at different times of day, such as morning, late afternoon, and evening, since speeds can shift when more people are online.
• Pause everything else: Stop downloads, game updates, and streaming on other devices so they don’t eat into your results.
• Compare against your plan: Check your Armstrong bill or account for your plan speed, then compare it with your download result. A wired result should come close to your plan speed.

If your wired test is close to your plan speed but WiFi tests in other rooms are much lower, your WiFi coverage is the likely culprit. That’s the cheaper problem to solve. Our guide to reading your speed test results breaks down download speed, upload speed, and ping in more detail.
Or maybe your Armstrong speed test shows the right speed for your plan, but your household needs more than that plan delivers. In that case, a faster Armstrong plan may help, and the upgrade checklist later in this guide can help you decide.

Armstrong Internet Speed vs. WiFi Speed

Your Armstrong plan speed is the maximum speed Armstrong delivers to your home. Your WiFi speed is what a single device gets after that signal travels through your router, your walls, and the other devices sharing your network. Think of your plan as the water main and your WiFi as the hose running to the back of the yard. Kinks in the hose slow everything down.

Armstrong’s own plan fine print notes that stated speeds are “up to” the subscribed speed and aren’t guaranteed. Over WiFi, it’s normal to see lower results than your plan speed, and the gap grows on faster plans. A phone two rooms away from the router on an older WiFi standard might top out at a few hundred Mbps even if your home is getting 1 Gig. That’s normal.

To tell them apart, compare your wired and WiFi results:

• Slow on a wired connection: The issue is likely your Armstrong connection, your modem, or your plan.
• Fast when wired, slow over WiFi: The issue is likely router placement, coverage, or your device.
• Slow in only one or two rooms: That pattern points to WiFi coverage.

What Armstrong Internet Speeds Are Available?

Armstrong advertises three residential Internet plans on its Internet plans page, with speeds ranging from 25 Mbps to 1 Gig. Which ones you can get depends on your address, so the same plan list won’t show up everywhere Armstrong offers service.

Armstrong plan	Download speed	Best for	WiFi equipment
Internet 25	Up to 25 Mbps	Browsing, email, and 1 to 2 devices	Included for the first year
Internet 500	Up to 500 Mbps	4K streaming, gaming, and working from home on multiple devices	Included
Internet 1 Gig	Up to 1 Gig	Smart homes with lots of devices and serious gamers	Included

 

A few details apply to every plan. All Armstrong Internet plans have no data caps, so you can binge as many episodes as you want without overage charges. Residential plans also have no contracts and early termination fees. Armstrong also notes that 1 Gbps download speeds require fiber to the home or DOCSIS 3.1 technology, so the fastest tier isn’t available in every neighborhood.

In select areas, Armstrong has also rolled out speeds of up to 3 Gig. If you’re a former MCTV customer in Ohio or West Virginia, your service is now part of Armstrong after the 2026 acquisition, and you can learn more on our Armstrong provider page.

How Much Armstrong Internet Speed Do You Need?

Your household’s busiest hour sets the speed you need. For reference, the FCC defines broadband as at least 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, and Netflix recommends 15 Mbps for each 4K stream. Three 4K streams use 45 Mbps before anyone joins a video call or starts a game download.

Your household	What a typical evening looks like	Armstrong plan to consider
1 to 2 people, light use	Email, browsing, social media, and one HD stream	Internet 25
Typical family, about 6 to 10 devices	A couple of 4K streams, video calls, homework, and online gaming at the same time	Internet 500
Heavy use, 10 or more devices	Multiple 4K streams, large game downloads, home office uploads, and a house full of smart devices	Internet 1 Gig

 

Not sure where you land? Try our Internet speed calculator to find out how much Internet speed you need.

Why Is My Armstrong Internet Slow?

Check these common causes in order, starting with the easiest to fix. Some take two minutes.

Weak WiFi Signal or Poor Router Placement

WiFi signals weaken as they travel through walls, floors, and furniture. A router tucked in a basement corner or inside a cabinet can leave upstairs bedrooms and back offices with a fraction of your plan speed. Your router doesn’t belong behind the TV.

Too Many Connected Devices

Phones, laptops, smart TVs, game consoles, doorbells, and smart speakers all share the same connection. Even idle devices can run background updates and backups that pull bandwidth away from what you’re trying to do. Count them up. The number might surprise you.

Older Networking Equipment

An older modem or router can cap your speed no matter which plan you pay for. If your equipment is several years old, it may not support the speeds Armstrong now delivers. Pairing an old router with a 1 Gig plan is like putting bicycle tires on a sports car.

Device Limitations

Sometimes the bottleneck is the device itself. Older phones, laptops, and streaming sticks with outdated WiFi chips, or computers with 100 Mbps Ethernet ports, can’t reach higher speeds. Your Internet might be fine. Your laptop might be the one dragging its feet.

Network Congestion

Internet traffic peaks on weekday evenings, when your household and your neighbors are streaming and gaming at once. Your home network gets busier at the same time. Run speed tests in the morning and again at night to spot this pattern. If wired speeds drop far below your plan every night, that’s worth a call to Armstrong.

Your Plan Can’t Keep Up With Your Household

If your wired speed test matches your plan speed but things still feel sluggish, your household may have outgrown your plan. That’s common after adding a remote worker, a gamer, or more 4K TVs. Your Internet didn’t get worse. Your household got busier.

Use this quick checklist to match what you’re seeing with the most likely cause:

What you’re seeing	Likely cause	First thing to try
Slow on every device, even when wired	Modem issue, local outage, or plan speed	Restart your modem and router, then run a wired speed test
Fast near the router, slow in far rooms	Weak WiFi coverage	Move your router or add mesh WiFi or an extender
One device is slow while others are fine	Device limitation	Update the device, move it closer, or connect with Ethernet
Slowdowns in the evening	Peak hour congestion	Test at different times and contact Armstrong if wired speeds drop far below your plan
Buffering when several people stream	Plan too small for your household	Pause downloads and compare your plan speed with your needs
Gaming lag but downloads seem fine	High latency or WiFi interference	Connect your console with Ethernet

 

6 Ways to Increase Your Armstrong Internet Speed

These fixes can speed up your connection with or without a plan upgrade, and most of them cost nothing. Start with the free ones.

Move your Router to a Central Spot

If you’re only experiencing slow Internet speeds on certain devices in your home but not others, the location of your router may be the problem. The more centrally your router is located in your home, the better the Internet connection will be for all of your devices.

Keep it off the floor, out of cabinets, and away from thick walls, metal, and appliances like microwaves. Place devices that need the best connection closest to the router.

Connect With an Ethernet Cable

Given the popularity of wireless Internet access, it’s easy to forget that a wired connection can often be faster and more reliable. A cable keeps your device in one spot, but if you’re gaming, streaming in 4K, or working at a desk, an Ethernet connection delivers faster, steadier speeds than WiFi. Use a Cat5e or Cat6 cable, since older Cat5 cables top out at 100 Mbps. Old cables are sneaky speed thieves.

Restart and Update Your Equipment

Turning it off and on again is the oldest trick in tech support for a reason. A restart clears out glitches that build up over time. Unplug your modem and router, wait about 30 seconds, plug the modem back in, and give it a few minutes to reconnect before plugging the router back in.

If you own your router, check the manufacturer’s app for firmware updates, since they often fix bugs and improve performance.

Upgrade Older Equipment

In some cases, you might be using a WiFi router that isn’t built for the space you need to cover or the speed you’re paying for. Contact your Armstrong representative to find out whether a router upgrade is in order.

Since 1 Gig speeds require fiber to the home or DOCSIS 3.1, an older modem can hold you back. If you own your equipment, check that your modem supports DOCSIS 3.1 and your router supports WiFi 6 or newer.

Not sure whether to buy or keep renting? Our guide to buying vs. renting a modem and router walks through the tradeoffs.

Improve WiFi Coverage Throughout Your Home

If one or two rooms have a weak signal, a WiFi extender can help. WiFi extenders are easy to set up and are a great way to shrink dead zones throughout your property.

Place the extender about halfway between your router and the dead zone, since it needs a strong signal to repeat. For larger homes or homes with more than one floor, a mesh WiFi system works better, since several access points work together as one network. Armstrong’s Enhanced WiFi service uses mesh technology for this reason.

Reduce Unnecessary Network Load

Schedule game updates and cloud backups for overnight, and pause large downloads during video calls. Then disconnect the devices you no longer use. Be picky here. That old tablet in the junk drawer doesn’t need a WiFi connection.

If you have Armstrong’s Enhanced WiFi, the HomePass app lets you see every connected device and pause access with a tap. For more ideas, check out our 10 ways to increase your home Internet speed.

Should You Upgrade Your Armstrong Internet Plan?

A faster plan helps when your plan is the bottleneck. Otherwise, you’re paying more for the same slowdown. Run through these questions before you upgrade.

• Does a wired speed test match your plan speed? If yes, your connection is working as it should. If your household still feels slow, an upgrade may help.
• Is your wired speed well below your plan? An upgrade won’t fix that. First, restart your equipment and contact Armstrong support to troubleshoot.
• Is the problem limited to certain rooms? That’s a coverage issue. Better router placement, an extender, or mesh WiFi will help more than a faster plan.
• Has your household changed? More people working from home, more gamers, or more 4K TVs are all good reasons to move up a tier.

If an upgrade makes sense, sign in to your Armstrong account to review your service, or contact Armstrong to see which faster plans are available at your address. Armstrong offers 24/7 technical support if you’d like help deciding. Don’t sweat the commitment. Armstrong plans don’t require annual contracts, so you’re not locked in.

Armstrong Enhanced WiFi and Mesh Coverage

Armstrong’s Enhanced WiFi service improves WiFi inside your home and leaves your plan speed the same. It combines mesh WiFi technology, included network security, and a mobile app for managing your home network.

• Mesh coverage: Multiple access points work together as one network to reduce dead zones, which helps most in larger homes and homes with more than one floor.
• Network control: The HomePass app lets you see who’s connected, pause Internet access, set up guest networks, and manage parental controls from anywhere.
• Included security: Enhanced WiFi helps block known malicious websites and phishing attempts and flags unusual activity on your network.

WiFi equipment is included with Armstrong’s Internet 500 and Internet 1 Gig plans, and Internet 25 includes WiFi at no extra cost for the first year. If your plan speed is solid but your WiFi isn’t reaching every room, ask Armstrong whether Enhanced WiFi is available on your plan.

Is Armstrong Fiber Available?

Armstrong offers fiber Internet in select parts of its service area, which covers communities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, New York, Maryland, and Kentucky. Availability can vary from one street to the next, so the only reliable way to check is to enter your full address. Your neighbor’s options might not match yours.

Fiber to the home is one of two ways Armstrong delivers its 1 Gig tier, along with DOCSIS 3.1 cable technology.

Armstrong Internet FAQs

How fast is Armstrong Internet?

Armstrong offers residential plans from 25 Mbps up to 1 Gig, depending on your address. Its Internet 500 plan is its most popular option for households that stream, game, and work from home.

Why is my Armstrong Internet slow?

The most common causes are weak WiFi coverage, too many connected devices, older equipment, and a plan that no longer fits your household. Start with a wired speed test to narrow it down.

Does Armstrong have 1 Gig Internet?

Yes, in areas where it’s available. Armstrong’s Internet 1 Gig plan requires fiber to the home or DOCSIS 3.1 technology.

Does Armstrong have fiber Internet?

Yes, in select service areas. Enter your address to see whether fiber is available at your home.

Does Armstrong have unlimited data?

Yes. All Armstrong Internet plans include unlimited data, so you won’t face monthly data caps.

Is WiFi included with Armstrong Internet?

WiFi is included with Internet 500 and Internet 1 Gig. Internet 25 includes WiFi at no additional cost for the first year.

Does Armstrong require a contract?

No. Armstrong residential Internet plans don’t require a long-term contract and don’t charge early termination fees.

Can you install Armstrong Internet yourself?

In eligible areas, Armstrong offers a kit so you can install service yourself. If you need a professional installation, Armstrong will schedule the earliest available appointment.

How can I improve my Armstrong WiFi coverage?

Move your router to a central, open spot, then add a WiFi extender for a single dead zone or a mesh system, like Armstrong’s Enhanced WiFi, for larger homes.

Check Armstrong Internet Availability With SmartMove

Start with a wired speed test, fix what you can at home, and upgrade when your results show your plan is the bottleneck. Your next binge session will thank you.

Need to add cable TV or mobile to your Internet service? SmartMove can help you find the best bundles available in your region from the top Internet Service providers. Planning a move or checking a new address? Enter your address to see which Armstrong plans, and which other providers, are available where you live.