Whether at home or at your place of work, you constantly need access to the internet. The internet is a tool that allows you to connect, search, interact with others and even entertain yourself. But to do this, you need an internet connection that provides you with better throughput.
Conversely, you often experience slowdowns when you connect to the Internet to surf your favorite sites. Sometimes, downloading files is too slow on your computer.
In a word, you are not satisfied with your connection. However, it is quite possible to optimize your internet connection whether it is through the Wifi network, the choice of your box or simply by changing your internet offer.
Monitor your current internet connection speed
Generally speaking, when you encounter problems related to the speed of your connection, the first idea that comes to mind is to change your internet offer. But before you even think about improving your internet connection, you need to know exactly how slow your internet speed is. To do this, you need to do a speed test.
On the internet, there are many such as speedtest.net/en/. It is up to you to choose the test tool that suits you. The result of this internet speed test is systematically expressed in megabytes per second (or Mb/s) and this allows to evaluate your connection speed. This is what is called in technical language the bandwidth.
In the United Kingdom, according to certain levels of bandwidth, your connection speed can be specifically qualified as :
- 0 to 30 Mb/s: in this case, the internet connection speed is low. This is an ADSL or VDSL2 internet connection;
- 30 to 100 Mb/s: at this level of speed, the internet connection speed is considered as “very high speed”. Generally it is a question of a typical internet connection of a good VDSL 2 or of certain internet offers called “very high speed”;
- Beyond 100 Mb/s: this is an ultra fast internet connection speed. In this case it is the optical fiber. Indeed, with optical fiber, you can obtain a connection speed between 100 Mbs and up to 1 Gb/s, or even 10 Gb/s in the most advantageous cases. This is the case for example of the optical fiber with Free to which you can subscribe if you are eligible.
Good to know: to test your eligibility for Free’s optical fiber, for example, you just have to go to the operator’s website and press the “test your eligibility” button. A new page will then open inviting you to enter your postal address or your landline telephone number. Once you have entered the information, the operator will inform you of the offers available in your area, specifying whether these offers are in fiber or ADLS/VDSL.
Improve your internet access without changing your offer
Sometimes, it is not possible to change your internet connection. In this case, you will have to apply some basic advices to improve your internet connection speed and therefore your network speed. Indeed, being connected in a wired way with an Ethernet cable or (RJ45) is one of the best ways to get the best out of the connection speed of your internet box.
You should therefore favor the wired connection as much as possible. Certainly the wifi connection has the advantage of eliminating cables, but it is often in spite of the download speed especially if you are connected on the box of an internet operator where the quality of the wifi network is often low. RJ45 cables are cumbersome, but they give you the assurance of having the best possible internet speed.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to leave the wifi network, you will have to optimize the placement of your connected devices. So bring your smartphones, connected speakers or connected lamps as close as possible to your wifi point. Generally it is the walls that block part of the wifi waves. To reduce the gap, you can buy wifi repeaters if you have a large house.
On the other hand, you can buy an efficient router that will allow you to enjoy a quality wifi connection no matter where you are.
In addition to these optimization methods, you can change the channel on which your box broadcasts wifi. In the administrator options of your box, go to the wifi options to change the channel. Thus, you will choose one of the channels that are not taken by the boxes of the neighbors.
You can see the channels used by the boxes around using for example an application that is used to analyze the wifi. In their great majority, the internet boxes of the operators allow to modify the channel of the wifi.
Optimize your internet by updating or changing your web browser
With time, web pages become more and more complex. However, they become heavy to load. If you are using an old browser or an outdated version, your connection may take a hit. For this, you must regularly update your browser software or choose a more powerful one.
For example, the Firefox browser offers many extensions that allow you to optimize your browsing speed. Similarly, with Google Chrome, you have a technology that consumes less RAM. This allows you to have several tabs open at the same time without affecting the speed of navigation. On the other hand, if you are a Mac user, it is recommended to opt for Safari which is a browser adapted to this brand of computers. This software also allows you to delete cookies easily.
Use new devices to optimize your internet speed
Even if you have a new box, you should think about adapting it to less old devices. Indeed, like the boxes, computers, tablets and smartphones must respect the latest standards to not slow down the internet speed. So the more antennas they have, the better the reception. They will pick up the signals from the box better and the data exchange will go faster. There are platforms where you can check and see how well your device is receiving wifi.
Also, if some of your devices are using wifi when you don’t need it, it is recommended to turn them off. Even if they are not in use, they too are taking up bandwidth for nothing. In addition, you can turn off programs that run in the background and thus consume bandwidth without your knowledge.
For example, if you are running Windows, type “Resmon” in the search bar of the Start menu. Then go to the resource monitor and select the Network tab to shut down the programs you are not using.
Check for malware
Viruses that install on your device can slow down the speed of the internet connection. Similarly, there is malware that is on your computer that also consumes bandwidth to display ads or snoop around your computer.
In order to get rid of them, invest in a good anti-virus software that will clean up and eliminate the unwanted ones. This will allow you to have a better internet connection experience.
In short, there are many reasons why your internet connection may be slow. In order to get a better speed, you will need to take stock of your connection. This inventory will allow you to identify the levers on which you will have to act to find a good flow. Either you will have to change your internet offer, update your software, or choose an adequate internet box, etc.
