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Many of us find ourselves in a situation where we received an advertised rate from a broadband provider and we find that we’re getting nowhere near that speed when we do a speed test. There are many reasons for this and this article will look at some of the most common. Things will change a little in the future as marketing practices are becoming more transparent. New guidelines are already making an impact. However, always understand what you were actually sold. Broadband Marketing Messages Historically, when we’ve been sold broadband we’ve been sold an ‘up to’ speed. This speed in reality is qualified by the fact that the broadband provider must be able to offer this speed to 10% of their customers. This means if they offer up to 16MBps, they only actually have to be able to achieve this speed to 1 in 10 of their consumer base. Therefore, you are more likely than not one of the 9 out 10 unlucky ones that cannot achieve this speed and may actually receive far below it. Many people have noticed recently that their connection has apparently been dropped from 16 to 12 Mbps or 10 to 8 Mbps for example. In reality their connections have not been dropped but the way in which connetions are advertised has been changed somewhat. Hopefully this is the start of smoke and mirrors going out of the broadband advertising market. There are a number of factors that can cause your broadband to run slow so let’s have a look at some of them. Router Wi-Fi Signal Being Weak Many of us these days connect wirelessly in our homes. It’s the easiest way to connect but we don’t always consider the fact that wireless connectivity is slower than connecting via an ethernet cable. Lots of factors can impede the signal from the router to your device and these may include distance, density of walls and ceilings, and electrical and wireless signal interference, from electronic devices and other wireless networks respectively. It’s possible to boost your signal using certain devices if this is an issue. The Distance You Live from the Nearest Telephone Exchange Most broadband in the UK currently travels through the BT copper network. BT are upgrading their network running fibre cable over it but we still are largely on ADSL. Internet speeds slow down the further you are from a telephone exchange. This means that if you are 2000+ meters from the exchange, you’re likely to get a much lower speed than if you’re only a few hundred meters away. If you live in the country, you’re much more likely to be a greater distance from the local telephone exchange. The situation is going to get better with more fibre cable being laid, which does not loose speed over distance. But if you live a long way from telephone exchange then you will not be able to get the best internet connectivity on ADSL. Time of the Day You Surf There’s an internet phenomenon called ‘congestion’,which is caused by the number of people that are online at the same time. If you’re surfing during peak periods, it may be that your internet speed is naturally slower. In addition some companies use traffic management policies to ensure that everyone can get a fair level of internet connectivity by throttling speeds on upload and download during peak hours. Certain activities also get targeted, such as peer to peer file sharing, playing games, and sometimes streaming. Traffic Management and Fair Usage In addition, sometimes internet service providers will slow your connection if you are consuming too much data (in their eyes). Even unlimited packages sometimes come with fair usage policies that set data limits. For example, TalkTalk Broadband state that 40GB is their cap for unlimited broadband packages. This is far from unlimited and can cause throttling of your connection if you go above it. Virgin Broadband, even with their superfast broadband, has fairly restrictive consumption limits during peak hours. The Number of People on Your Connection If there are a number of people on the same connection streaming, browsing, downloading, and chatting, there will be a sharing of the bandwidth and then the necessary reduction in the average internet speed each receive. Xbox or high definition movies streaming will consume large amounts of data and will therefore slow the connection of other people using the same line. If you are particularly heavy users you’ll notice the effect of connection sharing. If you are on the wrong package then it may be worth having an upgrade to get more speed. The Age of Your House Older houses tend to have poor wiring and denser walls and ceilings. This can mean poor flow from the cabinet into your house and to your telephone socket, and also poor signal flow wirelessly around your house. It’s possible to upgrade your wiring to improve the situation. So the next time you do a house upgrade it may well be worth budgeting for a wiring upgrade too. Poor Router Wi-Fi Security If you’re using wireless broadband, and you haven’t secured the router properly with appropriate encryption, anyone can jump on your network and be consuming your data and your bandwidth. Make sure that your system is well set up to ensure that you get the maximum benefit from the connection coming into your home. Viruses and Malware There is software that is designed to infiltrate your computer and collect information about the activities that you engage in. These programmes can spread around your computer and often connect to the internet taking bandwidth and slowing your broadband connection. Make sure that you have the latest anti-virus protection to ensure that you are not subject to this type of attack. The Age and Specifications of Your Computer Your computer itself can cause issues with your browsing performance. An out of date web browser or poor computer specifications can cause sluggish behaviour. Make sure you clear your temporary internet files (or cache) and that you keep your computer free from viruses. If your computer can’t handle the speed of activities because your CPU or graphics card are not up to the job, then it may be worth an upgrade. The Broadband Provider Itself If you have all the settings correct on your router, you don’t have interference on you are wireless connection, and everything seems good, it may be that your broadband provider is just not providing the service that they are supposed to be providing. If this is the case, then give them a call and find out how they can improve the situation for you. Normally faults on the line are based on the last two weeks of internet performance. As soon as you notice a drop in service, then you should be talking to them about how to improve it. There are designated levels of fault thresholds that may well be appropriate to your provider, especially if they signed up for the 2010 Ofcom regulations in regards to this. Your broadband provider will be keen to improve your situation in order to keep you as a customer. Know your rights, but also know your contractual obligations. Make sure you don’t just drop a broadband provider and cancel the direct debit. You may end up with a CCJ or debt collector knocking on your door. Sam Jones discovered that he was trying to work too far away from his router when he was investigating why the service was so slow. He was concerned he would have to change his provider, but knew USwitch and similar sites could point him in the direction of a great deal.
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