The importance that internet has in our lives simply cannot be stressed out enough. In the early 21st century, we turn to our browsers for guidance, Facebook and Instagram for social interactions and YouTube and Netflix for entertainment. To make things even more complicated, one in five people in the U.S. reported to be working from home, with most of the first world countries following in suit. When all of this is taken into consideration, it’s quite easy to try and guess what kind of trouble a setback in internet connection speed may represent. So, here are few tips and tricks that may help you deal with slow internet.
Check Your Speed
Your internet speed depends on numerous factors and there are so many things that may cause a disturbance. However, sometimes everything may be fine, but you might still feel like it’s underperforming. Just to make sure, you would do well to check it out. Luckily, you can easily find a free internet speed test that will allow you to either confirm or discredit your initial assumptions.
Make Sure Everything Is Plugged In
This may sound a bit silly, but you would be surprised just how many internet connection problems are caused by a loose plug or inadequately set up router. In most cases, this causes the complete absence of connection, but sometimes cables are not unplugged but just loose, which will make this issue more difficult to diagnose.
Resetting the Hardware
Sure, this is an advice that so far goes on everyone’s nerves, but it doesn’t hurt to try it one more time. Most of the connection problems occur either in router or in your computer, which means that restarting them both might fix the issue. Naturally, with more complex issues, this won’t be much help, but trying this out has literally no drawbacks.
Check What’s Siphoning Your Connection
A lot of people oversee that every single plugin, add-on and program they have turned on takes its toll in order to run. For example, if you have dozens of items downloading on your uTorrent, several toolbars and AdBlock operational, it should come as no surprise that your connection is a bit slower. Therefore, it might be worth your while to try and shut them all down before you look elsewhere for a solution.
Adapt to Slower
No one likes to settle for worse, but sometimes, you will simply have no other choice than to work with what you have. Most sites you will need to access have mobile or HTML versions which you can turn to and improve their performance. It might not be the same thing from visual standpoint, but the content will remain unchanged.
Avoid Multitasking
Some people simply cannot function without doing several things all at once. For instance, they might not be able to do math or write without some subtle instrumental music playing in the background. Unfortunately, those are all the privileges of people whose internet performs as it should, while those with connection issues need to avoid such practices.
Additional Devices
If you have roommates, family or a significant other living with you, it is not unlikely that their mobile device or computer will be slowing you down. For example, even though the aforementioned uTorrent downloading may be paused on your computer, your roommate might be in the middle of download of the latest Game of Thrones episode, or your sister might be using YouTube on her phone.
Change Your Password
Same as your roommates and family, strangers who managed to crack your password might be exploiting the connection as well. Needless to say, this will make internet significantly slower on your end which is something you should avoid. Luckily, all you need to do here is change your password and wait to see if there’s any difference.
Contact Your ISP
Finally, there’s always a chance that the problem might not be on your end and that you won’t be able to fix it on your own. This is where you might need to contact your ISP and tell them all about your problem. Sure, it might take some time until they are able to fix the issue, but what other choice do you have?
Look for a New Provider
If all else fails, it might be a good idea for you to find a new provider, one that offers a better service. In the beginning, we already mentioned just how important internet can be in our lives, which also means that for someone, it is a highly lucrative business. As you have probably guessed, this makes ADSL providers quite numerous in urban areas, which consequently makes their competitiveness work out quite well for users such as yourself.
Conclusion
As you can see, an internet connection is a fragile thing and can be threatened by many hidden hazards quite frequently. Still, even when things seem quite grim, don’t despair. By being thorough, systematic and persistent you will be able to deal with slow internet connection issues.
