Slow internet can be the bane of your existence. It is impossible to check your email, it makes streaming videos a slog, and it takes webpages ages to load. It sounds like a pretty trivial issue, but when it starts happening more frequently, and it lasts longer each time, you know something needs to give.
Figuring out how to fix this problem is usually simple. Ironically, turning it on and off again works in most cases, but if you constantly have to deal with it on a daily basis, you need solutions that will actually work. Here are some things to check when fixing your slow internet.
Inspect Your Router
Checking your router should be one of the initial points of interest for your internet performance. Make sure any ethernet cables are properly connected and that there is no damage, check for any broken components, and make sure all the correct lights are on. If this does not do it, you might want to consider shopping around and looking for new routers, as your old one may be out of date or simply not good enough. This is one of the areas that gives people problems because they use the same hardware for years without thinking about upgrading. There are a lot more options now as well with 5G hardware, increased RAM capacity, and improved processor performance providing the best overall experience for internet capabilities.
Do a Speed Test
Your connectivity may be fine, but it might not be fast enough. In many cases, you have a strong connection, but the speed is lacking, so you need to do a diagnostic test to see what your connection speed is like. There are plenty of online speed tests to see how many Mbps your connection is. You should be around 10-25 for average download speed, and anything over 25 to 100mbps is considered fast. If you stream a lot or need the internet for work, then you should consider getting faster internet service to support all of your needs.
Update Drivers
On your computer is a software component/program that acts as a controller for particular functions, and it is known as a driver. In this case, the drivers for your internet are called network adapter drivers, and they may be out of date or could be missing. This is a problem that goes unnoticed because you do not need to touch your drivers very often as they auto-update to the newest form when your computer updates. Check your drivers for updates, and if any are missing, you can search up your computer make and model, along with your router, and download the appropriate one to fix your connection issues.
Close Applications and Turn Off Connected Devices
To see where your bandwidth starts to bottleneck, you want to turn off all of your internet-connected devices and closeout applications. When running the speed or diagnostic tests, it will give you skewed results if you have a million tabs, apps, programs, and devices all using the same connection at once. Closing all of these will give you a good baseline look at what is happening with your internet connection. You can start to open apps and see how it is affecting the speed or connection. Similarly, you can look at how much bandwidth data you have used for various periods. Daily, weekly, and monthly bandwidth usage will give you a good estimate of how much your connection is being stressed and show you what is causing it. Downloads and streaming tend to be the most common causes.
Make Your Wi-Fi Private
You probably already know to do this by now, but just to be sure, you can always double-check and ensure that your Wi-Fi connection is private. Public internet connections are bad for two main reasons. The first is that anyone can piggyback your internet, which is a security liability. The second is that people love free internet, which means tons of people will connect and slow everything down. Simply password protecting your internet will keep your connections private and out of the view of possible internet thieves. It will reduce the load on your bandwidth by keeping it restricted to you and people close to you that know your password.
Fixing the problems you have with your internet is easy. Sometimes it might be an apparent hardware issue, and even the unseen software problems are a few clicks away from being resolved. Whatever your problem is, you should start with these things to look for to get your internet back to normal performance.
