Realistically Speed Up Your Home Internet

Internet could be frustrating when the loading of pages takes ages. Though there are many factors that affect the bandwidth speed the most common cause is actually from the infrastracture, or your ISP provider. So before you hire an IT expert to investigate, you can do this simple tips to establish who or what the culprit is!

Test ISP Speed

There are many testing websites that determine the speed of an internet connection. You can use any of them. I usually use http://www.speedtest.net to check my connection. Just be careful in clicking the links in it as there are links that do something else(2). To be safe, just click the begin test(1)!

What to do?

If the connection shows a very slow speed, you can not do anything but to let your ISP know. You can also email a screenshot of your test.

During the first week of my new internet provider, the speed I am getting is only up to 1.5Mbps. I have contacted my provider and they checked remotely my line and their exchange. They said it will take at least 5 days to get a faster and more stable connection. 

After 5 days, the result improved. Below shows the speed I am getting(4.55Mbps) whilst my ISP's test on my line said it can go from 7Mbps up to 14.3Mbps speed(3). As there is a significant difference of the minimum speed, I have booked an engineer to check the line inside my house. I will update this post once they get down and see what's causing the problem.

Poor Wi-Fi Reception

Radio waves transmission and reception can be affected by physical barriers like solid walls, distance and other devices using the same frequency as the router in transmitting the Wi-Fi signal. The result would be dropping connection, disconnection or can not connect at all. If your internet connection is better with a wire on your laptop rather than wi-fi connection elsewhere around the house(blackspots), then the problem could be the Wi-Fi transmission because of the barriers mentioned.

What To Do?

It is more sensible to use wire on devices that are a meter away from your router to take advantage of the wired and faster data transfer. It could be your apple TV,  games console or a desktop located very near to the router.

Try to identify the blackspots around the house and use a powerline networking adaptor at that spot. Do not forget to buy RJ45 connector(ethernet cable) if it's not included in the package. Or you can also use a wi-fi extender if you will be using a wireless only devices like mobile phones and tablets.

Use Bandwidth Effectively

Most gadgets today are internet connected, but not all of us are aware that when we are using our home wi-fi, we are actually dividing the bandwidth from our ISP equally to the connected  devices. If the bandwidth is low and there are several equipments sharing it, expect that the speed gets slower. So it may not be suitable to do extensive internet activity like downloading a whole length film or streaming movies. VOIP's like skype can also be frustrating to use.

What To Do?

If the streaming movie keeps on buffering, the most provable reason is insufficient bandwidth. If the movie is downloadable, then it is better to download it fully before playing. Of you can choose to play it with a lower resolution, if there is such an option. 

The same when using VOIP applications for video calls. If that's the case, you can try to use a lower resolution, or turn off videocall and just use voicecall instead. OOVOO is one of VOIP's that you can change the video resolution on the go. See how to do it at http://prakticality.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/oovoo-tips-and-tricks.html

You can also limit the devices using the connection by turning off other equipment's wi-fi buttons.  If simultaneous internet use can not be avoided then do not do extensive internet activity at the same time.

And lastly, you can use google's user agent switcher to render all websites into mobile sites when you are using a desktop or laptop. This does not only save bandwidth  but to render the pages appear faster as well. See how to do it at http://prakticality.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/how-to-maximise-low-bandwith.html.