What To Do About Slow Internet Speed – If the problem is on your end, you can generally fix a slow internet connection. A simple reboot of your modem and router (or all-in-one wireless gateway) can sometimes speed up your connection. But your slow speeds could also be the result of problems on your provider’s end—problems that you simply can’t fix.
Generally, your modem or router (or both) will cause speed throttling if it’s not working properly – the same goes for wireless gateways. If your device is too old, it may not support important Internet protocols. Damage to the device, such as bad ports or components, can also cause slowdowns.
What To Do About Slow Internet Speed
There are several ways to ensure that each step of your network is operating at optimal speed. We’ll help you identify and fix your network’s weakest link, starting with the basics – we’ll get into the nitty-gritty when we go deeper into our guide.
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There are many reasons why your internet is slow. Maybe your ISP is having issues, your home network needs a reboot, or you’re just too far away from your router – the options can be a little overwhelming. We’ll list the most common problems and ways to fix them to get faster speeds.
If your internet only slows down when too many other people are online at the same time, you’re probably using more bandwidth than your plan allows. Use our internet speed test to see if you’re getting the speed advertised by your ISP. If your results are close to the speed of your plan, consider upgrading.
Why Is My Internet So Slow? What Can I Do To Fix It?
Your internet package gives you a specific amount of bandwidth, and if it’s trying to move more information than the bandwidth, you’ll end up in traffic jams.
Think of your internet connection as a path straight to your home. A car’s worth of people (or internet data) can reach your house at once. If there are three cars trying to get there, they have to line up to get to your house. And if more cars arrive while others are waiting to get to your house, the line and delay will get longer.
The easiest way to get more bandwidth is to upgrade to a faster internet plan that can keep up with your household. We are online now more than ever and the internet plan you signed up for a few years ago may not be enough today if your connection slows down every time more people use the internet.
If you need help determining how much bandwidth you need to avoid traffic congestion, check out our How Much Speed Do You Need tool.
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Your slow speeds may be the result of trying to do too much at once on your internet connection. Fortunately, there are some easy ways to ease congestion on your home network that don’t involve yelling at everyone to get off the internet so you can attend a Zoom meeting.
Many routers have a quality of service (or QoS) component that allows you to control how your network prioritizes certain types of data. This way, you can ensure that your streamed data will always have first access to available bandwidth for smooth playback.
Not all routers have adjustable QoS, but if your router does, you’ll find the controls in the router’s web interface.
Many of our tips and troubleshooting guides tell you to log into the router’s web interface. It’s really easy if you don’t know how – just follow our instructions.
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There may be some devices connected to your network that you rarely – if ever – use. For example: you bought a new laptop, but the old one is still idle and connecting to the network. Even when not in use, it still uses bandwidth for updates and other background services. Your router may even have a limited number of devices it can connect to at the same time, and if you have too many devices connected, the router may start dropping some of them from the network.
One simple way to review all the devices using your network is to load the router’s web interface and view a network map. You’ll see all connected devices, whether they’re active or not, so you can block the ones you never use.
Another method is to change the Wi-Fi password, but this only applies to wireless devices. Once you do so, you must manually reconnect all devices that access your wireless network.
Some routers or wireless gateways also have a handy companion app that lets you see everything on your network without having to load a browser. This way you can identify and remove devices that no longer need access to your network.
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If your connection can’t handle everyone online at once, stagger your internet activities so everyone gets a chance to stay connected.
Also, remember to schedule large downloads (like computer and game updates) for times when other people aren’t online.
There’s nothing wrong with sharing your internet with guests when they come to visit, but you don’t want them secretly downloading illegal content while they’re lying on your sofa. This is where the hosted network feature of your router comes into play.
You can create a second guest network using the router’s web interface or mobile app. A guest network allows you to limit how much bandwidth guests can use and which services and websites they can access. It also provides enhanced security by preventing guest devices from mixing with your devices, so you don’t have to worry about guests spreading malware to everything you use.
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Our guest Wi-Fi setup guide has several different ways to create a second network.
Your ISP is also prone to network congestion. It’s a similar situation to traffic on your home network, but on a larger scale.
If congestion gets particularly bad, your internet provider may reduce internet speeds in your area to reduce network traffic.
Unfortunately, you can’t control when and how often people in the same area use the internet – we definitely don’t recommend asking your neighbors to log out so you can zoom in on peace of mind. However, there are some tricks to work around the problem.
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Try to schedule game and media downloads during off-peak hours, such as in the middle of the night. You can also switch to another provider that doesn’t have as many subscribers around you, although this can be hard to tell.
On the other hand, as cable ISPs add many more neighborhood nodes to their networks, congestion at the neighborhood level isn’t as big of a problem as it used to be.
The only type of internet that is not greatly affected by network congestion in a given area is fiber optic internet. Optical infrastructure is able to transmit much more information than other types of Internet, so high traffic does not slow down individual customers at the same time.
Many internet providers have data caps and some will slow down your browsing speeds after you hit that limit. You can usually check how much data you’ve used on your online account or through your ISP’s app. Providers like Xfinity give customers very high data limits – 1.2TB for this example – and shouldn’t cause too many problems for most households. But satellite Internet providers, including HughesNet and Viasat, are less generous with data allowances.
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Satellite Internet providers charge for data usage, not Internet speed. It’s similar to how cell phone plans usually work: once you’ve used up your data limit for the month, your internet connection can slow down.
HughesNet customers may experience speed drops to 1-3 Mbps. Viasat customers can expect all of their internet traffic to be de-prioritized, meaning their data will be moved to the bottom of the queue for all Viasat customers’ data.
Many DSL, cable, and fiber internet companies are ending data caps, but there are many others that continue to maintain them. See if your internet service has a data cap in our ISP data cap guide.
Walls, distance, and even microwaves can interfere with your Wi-Fi signal. Weaker Wi-Fi signals mean slower speeds and frequent disconnections.
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Whether your problem is signal interference and weak Wi-Fi signals, you can tell if your connection works fine near the router but is extremely slow in the next room.
To fix weak Wi-Fi, first check the location of your router. You want to make sure your router is in a central and elevated location and away from things that can affect your Wi-Fi signals (like walls, Bluetooth speakers, etc.).
If that doesn’t work, you may need to replace your router with one designed for longer ranges or better coverage—or you can add an extender to your network to stretch Wi-Fi signals into previously unreachable areas.
Check out our guides on how to extend your Wi-Fi range and long-range routers if you need better Wi-Fi coverage.
How Do Your Devices Affect Your Internet Speed?
Latency is the time it takes to make the round trip from your device to your destination and back. High latency creates a noticeable delay: an
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