For a lot of people, nothing is worse than a slow internet connection. We use the internet for so many things, whether that be for work, for study, or just for entertainment purposes. With the advancements in technology, our patience as humans is running thin as we expect everything to be at a fast pace – and when our internet connection experiences lag, it’s super frustrating.

Fortunately, there are several methods that you can use to improve the internet speeds at your home, from basic troubleshooting to re-positioning your modem and much more. You shouldn’t settle for a bad internet connection, and you should make a decent effort to fix the problem right away.

In some situations, the reason for slow internet speeds may not even be the internet itself; it can be other external factors. Consider switching to a ​fiber broadband plan​, as this will inevitably boost your internet speeds right away.

We’ll go over a few useful methods that you can use to improve internet speeds at your home.

Troubleshoot your internet connection

Try to understand the root cause of the internet speed problem, as this will help you to identify the best solutions to improve your broadband speed.

Many factors could be affecting internet speed. You should look at the software as well as the hardware to get a good idea about what might need fixing.

Modems can have firmware updates that require manual updating, so you can’t always expect your modem to update itself automatically. In other cases, some older devices can’t use fiber broadband due to being outdated and not having the technology requirements to be able to use it.

You can also examine other factors, such as the number of devices on your Wi-Fi network, background updates, and signal interference.

Use an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi.

The convenience that is offered by Wi-Fi means that ethernet is often forgotten.

Wi-Fi is generally a lot more convenient as you don’t have to be confined to a particular room, and there’s no need for cables or anything that can get in the way. Along with this, not all devices have the capability to be able to be used with an ethernet cable, making it inconvenient. While this is the case, using an ethernet cable will speed up your internet enough to make using the cable worthwhile.

Generally, the internet that is used with an ethernet cable is faster than a Wi-Fi connection.

This is because, with Wi-Fi, the signal has to travel from the router to your device, which can be disrupted along the way by external factors, and therefore there’s usually a long delay.

Along with this, if you have a huge family or a lot of flatmates all trying to use the Wi-Fi connection at the same time, this can cause delayed loading times and slower internet speeds. The more users you have on Wi-Fi, the slower it gets.

Check your computer

One aspect of internet speed that is overlooked is that it can only just be the computer you’re using.

With older and outdated computers, web pages, along with other applications, are bound to load slower than newer computers, and this continues to happen, the more you use it generally. It may appear to be a problem with your internet itself, but you should check your other devices to see if their internet is slow as well and check your family member’s internet connections to see if it’s just yours.

If it is just your internet connection that is slow, a possibility may indeed be that your computer is slow, not the internet connection.

There’s also a possibility that a background application is using your internet speed. Usually, when Windows 10 downloads updates in the background, the internet becomes slow. You can turn off Windows updates, and it’ll improve your internet.

Scan for viruses

A virus could be another potential cause for your internet being slow. Viruses tend to live on your computer and suck resources away from what you’re doing, which can easily cause the computer to slow down. You should conduct a scan for any viruses that may be harming your computer and install some sort of anti-virus protection to combat this so that you can go back to being able to do things with fast internet speed.

Switching broadband providers isn’t just for saving money.

This also provides you with an excellent opportunity to check out different internet speeds that are available with different packs to see if you might need an upgrade.

You will need to do an internet speed test​ and see whats the actual speed of your internet before making an upgrade to a broadband deal with a better speed.

Making the switch to a new broadband provider is an excellent opportunity to join a high-speed ​broadband plan​.

While internet speed can depend on several variables depending on where you live, which provider you are using, as well as the type of internet connection you are using. You may be compelled to try a new provider and internet connection, which is why I recommend checking out some of these fixed wireless internet providers near you.