The Internet. In addition to water and electricity, it is now part of the basic infrastructural needs of the people. Not only does it create jobs, but it also keeps us entertained.
Gamble, stream, and stay in touch with friends. And then comes what always has to happen – it gets “slow”. Today we want to give you a few tips on how to get it going again.
IMPORTANT TO-DOS
Before we start with the tips, we need to create a base. Which means it’s gotten slow. On the one hand, there is the speed promised by the Internet Service Provider, or ISP for short – be careful! These are always “up to” information. It is therefore important to examine what this means. Minimum speeds are usually defined in the contract. And on the other hand, we want to check the current speed using a speed test. There is one on Speedcheck.org – it is important to do tests over several days at different times and to record the results in an Excel sheet. And that brings us to the first trick.
TRICK 1: CONTACT ISP
Technologies change daily. Progress is unstoppable and offers many advantages. The downside: Due to contracts, we don’t benefit from it. So it may be that the Internet provider offers higher speeds to new customers and you look through your fingers here. Or new modems were shipped with the new contracts that are more reliable than the old ones. Therefore, contact your ISP and tell them the results of your tests (if they differ from the promised performance!) and try to find a solution together.
TRICK 2: CHANGE PROVIDERS
If you cannot find a solution with your provider, changing providers is always a good option. Most of the time you even benefit from better speeds and cheaper prices. Or you can threaten your current provider with termination and suddenly things can be done that were not possible before.
TRICK 3: CHECK YOUR OWN INFRASTRUCTURE
With the speed check, it is important to carry out the speeds via the LAN cable. Why? WLAN is prone to interference, especially in a city with a high density of people and many WLAN networks. Many networks interfere with each other and thus the speed can suffer massively. If the result is known via LAN cable, carry out the same test via WLAN. In this way, it can be checked whether it is due to poor wireless coverage in the house/apartment and/or the router. There are several factors here: Old router that does not use new technologies such as MU-MIMO. Basically poor WLAN performance of the router. An “overwhelmed” router that simply runs out of power when the WiFi network is used more, and so on.
TRICK 4: BUY A NEW ROUTER.
If you are still using an old router from the provider, we recommend switching it to the so-called “Bridge Mode” and buying a modern router that takes care of the WLAN. Good devices are available from €100 and offer many new technologies that significantly improve WiFi performance: Mesh is the magic word here. But also security features such as a hardware firewall or the option of opening ports for games or services such as Xbox Live. Many games require some settings within the router and with a modern device, these are super easy to do. Alternatively, these routers offer this as a standard and you don’t have to do anything.
TRICK 5: CONNECT IMPORTANT DEVICES TO ETHERNET
It doesn’t matter whether it’s the gaming or office PC, or the streaming box, like an Nvidia Shield. These devices need a fast and stable connection to the internet to offer the best experience. Unfortunately, there are apartments or houses where WLAN simply does not work properly, such as houses made of solid concrete. The rays are reflected in the room and do not arrive where they are supposed to. Whenever possible, we recommend connecting the really important devices with a LAN cable, because at the end of the day, the cable is always the best option to ensure a stable connection.
TRICK 6: DOES THE NEIGHBOR EAT WITH YOU?
If you now have a new, modern router, the ISP has done everything to guarantee the speed and the Internet is still slow, there can only be one culprit: the neighbors. Maybe he nibbles on your Internet access. Then it’s time to generate a new, secure WiFi password and activate your own guest network for guests.
CONCLUSION
Slow internet is annoying. Always. Sometimes we have to learn to live with it because unfortunately, it is not possible to get faster internet where we live. If you then have fast internet available, it is all the more annoying when it is slow. Here we could offer you 6 tips to at least speed this up a bit.
