Why Your Home's Internet Isn't As Fast As it Should Be

Creating the perfect home environment isn’t just about interior decoration and getting the right look or vibe. It’s about ensuring that the home is able to meet your practical needs and, for a lot of us, the use of the internet is very much a need. If you’re paying for high-speed internet, then you want to make sure that this is precisely what you’re getting. Here, we’ll look at some of the reasons that your net isn’t as fast or reliable as it needs to be, and what you can do about it.

Picture Source - Pixabay License

You’re blocking the signals
The physical environment surrounding your internet equipment can play a bigger role than you might think. The further away any PC or digital device is from the router and the more physical objects in the way, the more it can interrupt the wifi signal. There are some things in particular that can get particularly interruptive. Keeping your wifi router next to other electronics, and having it near the glass, especially mirrors and metal can all get in the way.

You’re in a wifi deadspot
Some parts of the home simply are not going to get the signal that they should, and trying to move those interrupting materials out of the way isn’t going to be good enough. When your signal isn’t strong enough, then you need to look at how you can strengthen it, instead. Powerline adapters can help you use ethernet cables through your home’s power supply, but a cheap wifi repeater might be the easiest option. They’re also better for larger homes where there are multiple rooms in the “wifi dead zone.”

Run an antivirus
Aside from the physical issues that might interrupt your signals, you also need to look at whether or not there are specific issues with the device you’re using. This is especially true if slow internet is just affecting one device. Aside from keeping it updated, especially the operating system, you should run anti-malware software and check it for any viruses. Amongst the various ways, they can make life a little or a lot worse, viruses and other malware are notorious for making your internet connection a lot slower.

Check your bandwidth
It might not be the case that anything malicious is preventing you from getting the speeds that you expect. It could simply be that your home is already using a lot of internet. Your bandwidth is much like a highway, if there’s a lot of usage, then it can get clogged up, and you won’t get where you want to go quite as quickly. You can monitor your bandwidth to see which devices are using up more of it. You can then check those devices (with tools like Task Manager) to see if any programs, in particular, are using more of your network data than they should be.

With the tips above, you can make sure that you’re doing everything on your side to get the kind of internet speed that you’re supposed to. If there are any other problems, it might be time to get the provider involved.