Looking for a way to increase your Internet speed without upgrading your ISP Internet plan? Internet speed can depend on a number of factors, both inside and outside the network.
Starting with the operating system, you have your network card, network cable, wireless router, broadband modem, and possibly other devices before you even leave the house.
Also, this article is intended for users who previously browsed at a certain download speed, but now appear to be browsing at a much slower rate. If you do a speed test on your connection and get between 85% and 90% of the advertised speed from your ISP plan, there’s really not much you can do. You simply won’t be able to get anything faster than the maximum speed of your ISP plan.
In this post, I will talk about different reasons why your Internet connection might be running slow and what you can do to fix those problems. Some issues will be beyond your control, so I’ll split the discussion into two parts: external and internal.
Table of Contents
External Internet speed problems
Connection is shared
First of all, chances are you are sharing your Internet connection with many other people. If you feel your connection is slow, make sure to perform speed tests at different times of the day and night.
If you see a pattern, it could simply be that the congestion is causing the slowness not only for you but also for everyone else using that same connection to the ISP. People streaming Netflix from 6pm to 12am can definitely cause problems.
Possible Solution: If residential Internet speed is not good enough for you, then you can check if your ISP offers business Internet for your area. Many people simply choose a business plan, which costs only slightly more and gives you much better reliability and speed.
Fast Internet lane
Speaking of Netflix, you might just notice some websites running slow and this is due to the debate around net neutrality. Like now, definitely ISPs are charging Netflix charge to deliver their content to your computer faster. If they don’t pay, some ISPs are actively throttling bandwidth.
Possible solution: Support Net Neutrality by sending Comment for FCC on the Open Internet to apply.
Throttling
The last point that brings us to this point is that the ISP will throttle certain types of traffic. If you’re wondering why your torrent downloads aren’t so fast, it’s probably because your ISP can see it and won’t let illegal activity eat up other people’s bandwidth.
They were so good at it that they could even detect it over an encrypted connection like a VPN. Even outside of torrenting, you can get slowed down if you cross a certain data limit. On my parents’ Cox Cable plan, we discovered anything over 200GB for a month is considered high usage and will be reduced.
Possible Solution: The best bet if you like torrenting is to use a VPN. Depending on your ISP, you may or may not be throttled. Also, you should never torrent without encryption or the MPAA will sue you.
Server Speed & Location
Even if you have a Verizon FIOS 50 Mbps download/upload plan, it doesn’t really matter if the server sending you data can only push it out at 2 Mbps.
If the server is overloaded or has some other issue slowing it down, you may see slower speeds, but only on that particular site. Also, if you are in the US and trying to connect to a server located in India, for example, you may also see slower speeds.
Possible solution: Nothing. If you visit a website often and it crashes or loads very slowly, you should find out who owns the domain and send them a polite email. If it’s a government agency of any kind, you’re broken.
Internal Internet speed problems
Now that we have covered some of the external factors related to Internet speed, let’s take a look at the internal factors. Let’s start at the beginning: your computer.
Operating system
It sounds obvious, but you should use a modern operating system that can take advantage of the latest network protocols and services. If you are still using Windows 2000 or OS X 10.4, it may have problems with Internet speed. If you’re still using Windows XP, you should be fine, but you probably shouldn’t be using Windows XP anymore for a variety of other reasons.
The other main things to check for are viruses or malware and remove them immediately. Viruses and malware tend to communicate with the main servers, and depending on the type of data they are stealing, this can slow down your Internet. See my post on how to keep your computer virus and malware free.
Web browser
The browser you use should make no difference to your browsing speed. Depending on your version and brand, it can be substantial.
For example, I had a customer complaining about all kinds of browsing problems and I upgraded him from IE 7 to IE 11 and everything went away. IE 11 also supports a lot of web standards, so things run smoother than even IE 10. There are a few other things to consider:
1. It might be worth trying another browser like Google Chrome or Firefox if you’re currently using IE. Lots of websites have Javascript, and each browser has their own Javascript engine, some of which are significantly faster than others.
2. Try to disable any add-ons, toolbars or other extensions that may be installed in your browser. Add-ons are great, but they can be memory sticks, which in turn will slow down your computer and thus slow down your browsing speed.
3. Don’t clear your cache and browsing history unless you really need to. Cache and cookies are used to avoid having to request the same data from the servers if you visit a website more than once. Yes, cookies can also be used to track you, but disabling cookies or clearing your cache every time you close your browser slows things down.
4. If your Internet plan is already pretty slow and you can’t upgrade, you can try blocking ads on websites to help save bandwidth.
Connection card
Next is the network card on your computer. If it’s a wireless card, you can expect slower speeds than if you were using a wired Ethernet connection.
Currently, only wireless AC will give you speeds faster than 100 Mbps, which is the maximum speed for a non-gigabit network port. If you have a gigabit router or switch, even wireless AC can’t hit 1000 Mbps because it hits 866.7 Mbps.
You may be wondering why that matters when your ISP’s typical speed range is between 4 Mbps and 50 Mbps. Well, since your computer has to talk to your router before the data is sent to the Internet, you want that data to be sent as quickly as possible.
You should ditch any A/B/G router and upgrade to N or AC. A lot of devices like all Apple computers, many Samsung phones etc already have wireless AC built in. Obviously, a direct cable connection will get you the fastest speeds possible without the need to upgrade your network card as long as it’s a gigabit port.
Wireless router
The router you are using can play an important role in your Internet speed. There are a few things to consider as we review routers, so let’s get started.
1. If you have an older router, it may not be able to provide the maximum speed your ISP plan offers. If your ISP puts in their own router, you don’t have to worry about that particular problem. However, I’ve noticed with ISP routers that they only last about a year or two before they become pathetically slow. I’ve always replaced my ISP routers within two years and the speeds have always gone back to their original highs.
2. Since most routers still use the 2.4 Ghz range, you should probably try channel scrambling. Noise in the 2.4 GHz frequency band is a big problem because of the large number of devices communicating through it. You can use a program like inSSIDer (Windows) or WiFi Explorer (Mac) to see all the wireless networks around you and which channel they are using. Adjust your channel to not overlap with someone else’s channel if you can.
3. The location and location of the router is also quite important. In my house they stuff it in a box in my cupboard inside the wall! That’s the worst possible location for a router. Anyway, you have two choices: you can try to boost your WiFi signal or set up a second router that will act as a repeater or extender.
4. Finally, if your router is not properly secured, someone else might be using your bandwidth without you having a clue. Read my previous post on how to prevent others from using your Internet connection.
Faster Internet?
Well that pretty much covers everything! I didn’t mention any hacks or tweaks like messing with your TCP registry settings or your network card settings because most of those speed boosts are just myths and will mess up your connection. your connection more. If you have your own ideas, feel free to post a comment. Interesting!
