Why Internet is Slow?

Nowadays, the Internet is a necessity as it helps users to perform their work hassle-free whether personal or professional. But, there can be a time when your Internet doesn’t stand on your expectation and become relatively slow. This could be annoying. The consequences of slow internet can be you Netflix is always buffering, email is taking too much long time to load. A variety of factors could be the reason for your slow internet and it is difficult to detect also. Here, we will discuss the reasons for your slow internet and how to fix the slow internet.

1. Your router is not at the best spot: – The reason behind slow internet can be the placement of your router. Router placement is very important because of the different internet interference that are in your home. If your router is hidden in the basement, you are going to experience the slow internet.

How to fix the router placement problem?

• Check if your router is near your microwave or a radio-based device. If it is there, then that device can cause interference with your signal.
• Check if your router is too close to the dense walls or other signal-blocking structures in your home. If so, your signal will be weakened.
• Check if your router is placed on the floor where signals will travel along the floor.

The best place to put an internet router or Wi-Fi Gateway is the middle of your home in an elevated, clear spot where hindrances, such as walls and other devices are less likely to interfere with your connection.

2. Your router setting is slowing down the internet: – Slow data transfer to and from your connected device could be due to router settings. Here are some technical issues you can troubleshoot to make your internet faster:

• Your router is busy 2.4 GHz WiFi channel.
• Request To Send (RTS) threshold setting of your router is too low.
• Your router has data packet size settings that limit how much data can be sent or received at once.

Troubleshooting different router settings:

• Router WiFi channel: – Check whether your router uses the 2.4 GHz band. If it does, check what channel it uses. Overlapping of 2.4 GHz WiFi channels with other channels leads to interference. If other people are using overlapping channels, bandwidth gets eaten up and you face a slow internet connection problem. You can switch to channel 1, 6 or 11 as they don’t overlap with each other.
• RTS threshold: – Check the RTS threshold value in the configuration settings of your router. The maximum is 2346. If you have many users, you can adjust the threshold and it could help your network become more stable because it tells your router to send data packets more often. First, try to lower the RTS threshold to 2304 bytes since it is best to test small changes.
• Router packet sizes: – Too small MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) sizes could be breaking the sent data into lots of little data packets. As a result of which your connection slows down because it takes time to break up the packets. Default MTU setting for the most router is 1500, the maximum packet size for an Ethernet connection. You can try raising the MTU setting to 1500 if it is set lower.

3. Internet malware is affecting your internet speed: – There are various malware that can infect your computer’s hardware, software or applications. One such specific type of malware is internet malware that infects computer applications, such as web browsers. It can open the multiple browsers in the background without your knowledge and slows down your internet speeds.

How to remove internet malware?

For Windows:

• First, check for background applications on a Windows computer using ‘Ctrl + Alt + Delete’ to open your task manager.
• In the task manager, you can check for hidden programs by clicking on ‘Processes’.
• Next, view ‘Background processes’ to check for the hidden processes and right-click on any doubtful process to see their details.
• Here, if you think that it is an unwanted process, click ‘End process.’

For Mac:

• If you are using Mac, you can check by opening the ‘Activity Monitor.’
• To find it, press ‘Command + Spacebar’ and type ‘Activity.’
• Then, look at ‘All Processes’ to see if there are any questionable applications running.
• Here, if you can remove the unwanted process.

4. Your internet service provider is decreasing your speeds: – Many internet service providers decrease the internet speeds when you exceed your plan’s data limit. To deal with this problem, first, you can run the speed test, then you can contact your internet service provider only at Mycustomerservice.org.
5. Device network problems: – Your internet speed might get affected due to the device issues. Device issues that slow down the internet speed tend to be isolated to the computers. You might have reached out of your memory or your hard drive’s input/output. You can troubleshoot this problem very easily. You need to run a memory diagnostics test to see whether you are using up too much RAM and remove all unnecessary programs from your computer by using task manager.

Other issues could also be slowing down your internet speed, such as peak hour traffic, having old devices or need to get a long-range router that can broadcast WiFi through your home more effectively. You can start by troubleshooting the common problems that are listed above, and if needed, you can consider upgrading your devices or your internet plan to get the speeds you need.