How to speed up internet speed

10 Easy Ways to Speed Up Your Internet Connection

Slow internet got you down? Follow our tips to speed up your connection, or compare internet providers if you think it’s time to switch.

We’ve rounded up 10 easy, cheap, and practical tips to get you a faster internet connection and stop waiting for Netflix to buffer.

Everybody wants faster internet and Wi-Fi. But there’s a lot of info out there and a lot of potential solutions you can try, and not all of them work. Some tips are straight-up fake and others are really technical and/or expensive.

We’re here to help you speed up your Wi-Fi and internet on the cheap, and without having to spend a million hours figuring out how your router works. We looked at everything from your router, device, to your browser, and even your internet provider. Let’s dig in.

Want to troubleshoot your current setup to increase your internet speed? Read on below.

Already know you need to swap plans to get faster internet speed? Take look at our top recommended internet service providers.

1. Consider your data cap

Data caps are one of the biggest culprits of slow internet speed out there. ISPs don’t advertise their data caps for obvious reasons, but they can seriously mess with your connection.

A data cap means you can use a certain amount of data every month—anything from a couple hundred megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes. If you exceed your data limit, your ISP will seriously restrict your internet speeds. And you’ll notice.

If you don’t know whether or not you have a data cap, check your bill. Chances are you do, and it will be outlined in the fine print. If you keep exceeding your data cap every month, talk to your provider about an internet plan with a higher data limit.

Thinking of swapping to a new internet provider? It’s worth checking out its data policy. We’ve got a list of which ISPs offer unlimited data versus which ones cap your data each month.

2. Give your router a break

Reset your router every month or so to give the device a break and refresh your internet connection. If you experience serious upload and download speed issues, you might consider resetting your router every day.

If you have a modem separate from your router, reset that too. Resetting the modem stimulates your connection to your ISP, and that’s what turning it on and off again is all about.

Don’t want to add another task to your to-do list? Easy, get an outlet timer like Century’s programmable timer. You can plug your modem and router into a timer that will turn the system on and off for you. Set the timer to restart the system every night while you’re in bed. That way, you can wake up to that fresh internet feeling every morning.

Keep in mind resetting your router and modem won’t magically turn your snail of a connection into a cheetah. But it will help—and it’s a super easy fix.

3. Reposition your router

This is a quick one—is your router in some remote corner of your house? If so, move it.

If the Wi-Fi signal from the router can’t reach you, your internet connection speed will suffer. Position your router toward the middle of your house, preferably on whichever floor you hang out on the most. If you spend all your time in the living room on the first floor, put your router on that same level.

4. Embrace ethernet

Everybody uses Wi-Fi these days, which is great. Wireless connections are awesome and convenient, but they’re not always fast. Cabled connections like ethernet, will always be faster and more reliable than wireless ones. The cable gets the signal directly to your connected device rather than relying on over-the-air transmissions.

If you can, connect your most important devices to the internet via an ethernet cable.

You can connect these multiple devices to ethernet:

Especially if you tend to watch data-heavy media like videos on your TV, cable connections are best.

Oh, and there’s a bonus: ethernet is automatically more secure than Wi-Fi. If you want to keep your banking information absolutely private, ethernet is a better way to go.

5. Block those ads

Almost every content provider displays advertisements. Everywhere you go online there are endless ads, pictures, GIFs, and auto-played videos.

Even if you don’t mind watching/seeing advertisements, your internet connection speed does. Ad media slows down your internet connection, so sometimes it’s easiest to just block them. Install an ad-blocking plugin that will shut down those data-heavy auto-play videos, and you’ll free up some breathing room for your connection.

Our recommended ad-blocking plugin is Adblock Plus. It’s free and works on most web browsers. Some VPNs also offer ad blockers, like NordVPN, Surfshark, and CyberGhost.

6. Use a streamlined browser

If you’re anything like us, you routinely keep dozens of tabs and windows open on your browser. (You really are going to read that Buzzfeed listicle from 2014. We know.) But all that open media can cause slow internet connection speed, which is why we recommended having a backup browser like Opera.

Opera streamlines all the data on web pages to give you a faster browsing experience. We wouldn’t recommend using Opera on a daily basis, but if you really need to look something up and your Wi-Fi connection is particularly terrible, you can switch to Opera without disturbing your tab ecosystem.

7. Install virus and malware scanners

If you haven’t already done so, we highly recommend installing an antivirus- and malware-scanning software. It’s probably obvious that any viruses or malware lurking on your computer will put a major drag on your internet speed. Plus, you should have protection software installed as a general rule anyway.

Once you have some good software on board, set it to scan for viruses and malware automatically on a regular basis. If the software does find existing viruses or malware (hence your slow internet speeds), get it removed by a computer technician and get back to easy browsing.

8. Install a «clear cache» plugin

If you’ve never heard of a “cache” on your internet browser, now’s the time to find out what it is. As you visit websites and enter information, browsers collect little bits of information about you, often in the form of cookies. Marketers use your data to send you relevant ads for stuff you might want to buy based on your browsing behavior. If you’ve ever seen the same ad follow you around the internet, then you’re already familiar with this concept.

To get rid of all those cookies and trackers, you have to clear the “cache” on your browser. You can do this manually, but it’s easier to install a plugin like Clear Cache for Chrome so you can do it in one click. Make it a habit to clear your cache every day so all that accumulated data doesn’t affect your internet speeds.

9. Negotiate with your internet service provider

Even if there’s only one ISP in your town, it probably has multiple plans. If you don’t like your internet speed, your provider might offer a higher download and upload speed plan that would better serve you. Yeah, we know it’s no fun to pay more money every month, but if your internet is driving you crazy and there’s no better provider in sight, it might be the best option you have.

Call your provider and ask about alternative plans, or do some research online to find out what other users are paying for similar plans. You might also be able to find deals online the company won’t tell you about over the phone.

We’ve got your back. Try these three tips for calling your internet customer service. They’ll help you keep your cool and might even give you an edge when it comes to negotiating.

10. Get a different internet provider

Sometimes your internet provider is the biggest problem. We admit this tip isn’t necessarily easy or simple, but it is practical and might even be cheaper for you in the long run. If your internet provider is going to give you a slow internet connection no matter how many other tips you try, consider a swap.

Most areas have only a couple Internet Service Providers (ISPs) available, so it should be a pretty quick check to see if the other provider that serves your area has better prices for faster internet speeds. You can skim this roundup of best ISPs and check this month’s internet deals to figure out if an alternative provider might give you a better price.

Switching providers should be a last resort, but if you try the other tips on our list and your speed is still sluggish, it might be time to make a change. Especially if you’re using satellite internet and find out you can switch to cable or DSL. (DSL or cable will most likely get you faster speeds and more data than satellite internet.)

Check out our top recommended internet providers or use our zip finder below to see what your options are in your area.

Keep your speed up and keep surfing

We know slow internet speeds can feel physically painful, especially if you deal with a slow connection and high priorities every day. Use these ten tips to up your internet speed a bit without wading through overly technical server details, and don’t worry—you should be back to uninterrupted binging in no time.

But in case you aren’t. Here’s a few comparisons worth considering:

How to speed up your internet: A step-by-step guide

We help you to troubleshoot your internet problems, suggesting a combination of software and hardware options to speed up your internet.

Broken internet? Just go outside, read a book. Slow internet? Sit in front of your computer in an increasing rage as pages load, element by element. A slow internet connection is almost worse than one that doesn’t work at all.

This guide will help you work out what’s wrong with your connection, so you can decide whether it’s possible to fix the problem yourself for free, if you need to buy some new kit, or whether you simply need to have a moan at your ISP.

How fast is my internet connection?

Speeding up your internet connection is chiefly a question of experimenting and working out where the bottlenecks lie. The first step is to figure out if it’s your internet connection or your home network that’s causing the problem.

Speedtest.net (also available as a smartphone app) is the best way to evaluate the speed of your internet connection. First, run the Speedtest.net test in the areas from where you normally need to access the web. Make a note of the results.

Next, plug a laptop straight into your router with an Ethernet cable – or just stand a metre away from it, if you only have wireless devices – and run the test again to create a best-case speed. If the next-to-the-router speed is much quicker than that in other parts of your home, your network needs some troubleshooting. If not, the fault lies somewhere between you and your internet service provider (ISP).

We all know that the stated speed on your broadband package is a theoretical maximum, and that most of us would be lucky to get anywhere near the claimed speeds. What’s trickier is knowing whether you’re getting the best possible speed for your area; you can complain to your ISP all you want, but if you’re just too far away from the network cabinet then you’re never going to see decent speeds.

The best way to determine whether your internet connection is performing as it should is to check out overall connections in your area. You don’t have to knock on doors to do this, however. Sites such as Broadband Speed Checker will let you test your connection speed, and also show you the results of those around you.

By looking at the average speeds reported, you’ll be able to work out which of the results shown share your connection type, such as ADSL (often just called “broadband” by ISPs), fibre or cable. If your ADSL connection is coming in at 5Mbits/sec, and next door has a 12Mbits/sec connection, it’s time to get your ISP to look into your connection.

Sometimes, it may be necessary to change your connection type entirely to achieve decent internet speeds. In this part of suburban London, we couldn’t get more than 5Mbits/sec of a possible 17Mbits/sec on ADSL, but fibre comes in at 36Mbite/sec out of a maximum 38Mbit/sec. This is well worth paying the extra fiver a month.

Check your uploads

Most home internet connections are asymmetric: they have much faster download than upload speeds. For example, this 38Mbits/sec connection has a measured upload speed of just under 6Mbits/sec. If your upload speed is saturated, web browsing can slow to a crawl, since the requests from your computer for each element of a page to load become stuck in the upload queue.

The main applications that can hammer your upload are torrent programs and file backup and synchronisation software. If you’ve recently downloaded a torrent, such as a Linux distro, it will automatically sit there uploading to others until you remove it manually. And if you’ve recently put a bunch of home videos into Dropbox, they’ll put a strain on your upstream for quite a while.

The best way to deal with this is to set upload caps within the individual applications. Check your upload speed with speedtest.net, then set a cap for about half the reported figure.

Speed up your Wi-Fi

If your speed tests show that your internet connection is fine next to the router but poor elsewhere, it’s time to start troubleshooting your wireless network.

Wi-Fi is a wonderful technology that has come on in leaps and bounds in the past ten years, but it still can’t compare to an Ethernet cable when it comes to reliability. Router position, interference from other networks, and even your home’s construction can all make a difference to your Wi-Fi signal’s strength, and therefore your network speed.

First, you’ll need a better way to measure your Wi-Fi signal strength than squinting at the signal bar next to your computer’s clock. There are many different Wi-Fi scanning applications out there. Two of our favourites are Lizard Systems‘ Wi-Fi Scanner for Windows, and WiFiAnalyzer (open-source) for Android. These applications scan the Wi-Fi spectrum around you and display information about the networks they find, such as signal strength and wireless channel (more on channels below).

You can also try repositioning your router. This isn’t always easy, since they usually need to be near a phone socket. But even something as simple as moving the router from the floor to a stool can make a difference. We saw a huge signal jump by moving out the router from behind the TV to sit on top of a speaker next to it.

Wi-Fi interference

Once you’ve eliminated potential positioning problems, it’s time to worry about Wi-Fi interference. There’s only a limited amount of radio spectrum available for Wi-Fi, so if you live in a densely populated area then you may find many wireless networks transmitting on the same or similar frequencies. This can cause interference and slow down your network.

How much of a problem this is depends on whether you’re using a 2.4GHz or a 5GHz network. As well as being far more congested (anything from cordless phones to baby monitors to microwaves produce 2.4GHz signals), the 2.4GHz network doesn’t have many channels designed for Wi-Fi use. The 2.4GHz band runs between 2.4GHz and 2.5GHz, so is 100MHz wide, and there are 14 channels.

However, each Wi-Fi channel is 22MHz wide; 14×22 doesn’t go into 100, so the channels overlap and interfere with one another. In fact, there are only three channels – 1, 6 and 11 – that don’t overlap with any others. If you want the best chance of avoiding interference from your neighbours and their network, you need to set your router to one of these three channels.

But how to tell which channel is best? Time to reach for your Wi-Fi scanning program again. Most such applications have a graph function that plots wireless channels on the X axis and signal strength on the Y. This lets you see easily if your network is clashing with any others, and if it is, how strong the interfering signal is. The stronger the signal, the more it may affect your network speed.

See whether channels 1, 6 or 11 have the least – or weakest – interference, and set your router accordingly using the wireless settings in its web interface. To access this web interface you’ll need to type the router’s IP address into your web browser’s address bar. To find this IP address in Windows, press Windows key-R to bring up a Run box, then type ‘cmd /k ipconfig’. Your router’s IP address will be listed under Default Gateway.

When it comes to 5GHz networks, interference is less of an issue. 5GHz channels don’t overlap, so there are more to choose from, and the band is less congested anyway (no microwave ovens). It should be relatively simple to find a channel free of interference with your Wi-Fi scanner.

However, some high-performance routers combine 5GHz channels to get more throughput. Our Netgear router spreads its signal over channels 36 to 48, so there aren’t any more channels from which to choose. Channels above this, from 52 to 128, are prioritised for military and radar use, and aren’t actually detected by the Wi-Fi adaptor in this PC.

Modern routers also use fancy techniques such as beamforming to focus the Wi-Fi signal and make interference less of an issue. In short, if you have a 2.4GHz network then it’s worth fiddling about with wireless channels. If you have a modern 5GHz router, especially one that supports the AC standard, most of the time you can just set it to Auto and not worry about it.

Extenders to the rescue

If tweaking your network doesn’t fix things, you may just have to admit that your router isn’t up to the job – or your house is too big. If this is the case, you could upgrade your router. However, you could also consider using wireless extenders, powerline adapters or the latest mesh wireless networking technology.

Has that fixed your internet woes? Got any other good suggestions? Let us know on Twitter @TrustedReviews

How to Speed up Your Internet Connection: 10 Tips for Better Speed in 2022

The internet is a core part of modern life, and faster speeds have never hurt anyone. Although your ISP and the plan you’re on will limit your maximum speeds, there are many ways to get the most out of that limited bandwidth and speed up your internet connection.

We’ve all been there: you get home after a hard day of work and sit down to watch your favorite show, only to see constant buffering and drops in video quality. Then you take out your phone and run a speed test, confirming what you feared — a slow internet connection. However, there’s no need to worry: we’ll show you how to speed up internet connections.

Key Takeaways:

Speeding up your internet isn’t quite as simple as turning a dial, but these steps will help you. Whether you’re using streaming services, gaming online with your friends or just browsing the net on your smartphone, everyone can benefit from faster internet.

Many things can slow down your internet, but the three things you should check are your internet plan, the strength of your WiFi signal and where the data’s going. However, if you should be getting faster speeds and neither your connection nor your PC is the problem, you’ll probably need to speak to your ISP.

Maybe. There are many ways to speed up an internet connection, but they all rely on the speed your internet provider is giving you. Although using an ethernet connection and a better router or modem can help, if you’re getting less than 1 Mbps download speed from your provider, then you’re always going to have to deal with slow internet.

Yes. You can increase the strength of your WiFi signal by placing a range extender near your device and removing any other devices on the network. This is a good way to increase your internet speed if you can’t run a cable to the device.

How to Speed Up Your Internet: 10 Ways to Improve Internet Speed

Following these 10 tips can fix many speed issues, especially if you normally have a decent connection. Be sure to run internet speed tests between each tip, to check if you’ve resolved the issue and the connection is delivering good internet speed.

1. Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again?

Yes, this first piece of advice is rather cliché, but it really works. Errors and bugs affect all computers, and in a router, this means that data takes longer to go from point A to point B. So, if you normally have decent speeds, but they’ve recently dropped, try a quick reboot.

Although the best method does depend on your router, there are a few options. The easiest way is to just unplug it, but you can also press the power button or turn it off through your browser. Be sure to leave it off for about 10 seconds to ensure it fully shuts down.

2. Check Your Data Cap

Some internet providers will put data caps in your internet plan. Although most ISPs will simply charge you extra when you go past this limit, others will decrease your internet speeds until the end of the month.

There should be a website or phone number you can use to see if your internet plan has these limits. If you’re unsure, you can often find these on any official paperwork from your ISP or by going to their website.

3. Move Closer to Your Router

As you get further from your router, the quality of the signal will decrease. This means that more of the data packets will get lost, and your device won’t receive all the information the router tries to send it. Sending the data again takes time, so the overall speed decreases.

A typical home router on the 2.4 GHz frequency will have a clear range of around 300 feet. However, the walls, doors and furniture in your house can easily drop this by half or more. Even if you’re in this area, fewer data packets will be lost if you’re closer to the router, so it’s worth trying this before you continue.

You can also try moving the router to a more central location, rather than, for example, the corner of your house, which decreases its effectiveness.

4. Disconnect Other Connected Devices From Your Network

Disconnecting other wireless devices — such as home security and smart home devices — from your network has the obvious benefit that they aren’t taking any of your precious bandwidth. It’s also easy to do by simply turning the device off, turning the WiFi connection on your device off entirely or connecting to a different network.

However, there is a secondary benefit to this. Every device connected has to send data to the router to stay on the network. This data can interfere with yours and degrade your signal quality, especially if you’re far away from the router. So, by disconnecting other devices, you’ll decrease the time spent resending data and increase your effective speeds.

5. Use an Ethernet Cable Instead of Wi-Fi

Although this can be a hassle, most computers and laptops have an ethernet port that you can use to create a physical connection with your router. A standard Cat 5e cable is capable of 1,000 Mbps, around double a 2.4 GHz connection in ideal conditions.

Not only are the speeds better, but using an ethernet cord is also a good way to get around network interference and distance limits. You can easily reach 300 feet with an ethernet cable without your speeds decreasing.

6. Clear Your Browser’s Cache

The browser cache is usually intended to make your browsing experience faster, but if it gets filled with unnecessary files, it can have the opposite effect. All internet browsers will have a way to do this, but it generally follows these three steps.

Click the three dots in the top-right corner to open a dropdown menu, then choose “more tools” and select “clear browsing data.”

In the “clear browsing data” window, make sure it’s clearing the cache and any cookies with the time range of “all time.”

You should now click the “clear data” button. This may take a few minutes but will delete everything you’ve selected.

7. Scan Your Computer for Viruses

Sometimes, your internet speed will slow down because something on your device is taking up all the bandwidth. This might be all right if it was an important update or a large download — which you can check inside Windows task manager — but it can be infuriating if it’s a virus.

Luckily, there’s plenty of good antivirus software out there. You can even get free antivirus software if you only want to check to see if there’s a major problem with your device. Simply install a reliable program and run a full system scan to find out if there’s a bug hiding somewhere.

8. Get a Better Router

This step might cost you some money, but it’s well worth it. Getting a better wireless router will give you more options, such as using a faster frequency band or WiFi protocol. You can even get routers that do other things, like hiding your location with VPN routers.

Getting a new router also lets you repurpose your existing one. You could use it as a switch for more ethernet ports, turn it into a separate dedicated modem or wire it up as a second wireless access point to expand your home network. Whatever you choose, your WiFi speed should increase.

9. Complain to Your Internet Provider

Although this one isn’t going to help immediately, internet service providers are companies like any other. If they start getting lots of complaints, there’s a chance that they’ll improve their service.

You may even find that there’s an upgrade available to your plan that will increase your download speeds. Just be sure to read the fine print so that you’re actually going to get faster internet speeds. Read our guide to learn how to use a VPN to solve some of the ISP-specific speed issues.

10. Get a New Internet Service Provider

If you’ve tried everything and you’re still experiencing slow internet speeds, then it may be time to shop around for a new ISP. Internet companies are always trying to one-up each other to get your business, so there may be a newer, faster service that’s now available to you.

Even if you live out in the middle of nowhere, and there’s only one traditional provider, there are other options. Unlimited mobile hotspot devices are getting faster and more reliable, and high-speed satellite internet options — such as Elon Musk’s Starlink — are starting to become available.

Final Thoughts

Given that barely half the U.S. population has internet speeds of over 25 Mbps — the FCC’s speed benchmark and the Netflix recommended speed for 4K streaming — it’s no surprise that internet speed issues are so common.

However, with these 10 tips, you should be able to get more out of your internet connection. So, reset your router, plug in your device and clear out your computer, then you can get back to whatever you were doing but hopefully without any buffering or lag.

Have you been having WiFi issues? Did these tips help? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Thanks for reading.

15 thoughts on “How to Speed up Your Internet Connection: 10 Tips for Better Speed in 2022”

My area with Telcom only has ADSL 2 and 4 mbps costing line and internet R600.00 pm uncapped but dead slow with plenty of reboots per day very frustrating (Pensioner)

thanks that was helpful

It never occurred to me that using an ethernet connection is better than a wifi connection because wifi can get overwhelmed by the number of users on a particular network. My wife and I are moving soon and we will be needed to find a new internet provider. We will keep these tips you shared in mind as we look for a reliable service to use.

Its impossible to speed up your internet connection if you are using PLDT DSL.

Great piece of information that has given me a vivid understanding of internet speeds, LAN wifi and frequencies(2.4GHZ & 5GHZ)

I’m on a fibre Telkom 20mbps unlimited package. However I rarely get more than 10mbps. I’m thinking about changing to their 10mbps package(which cost less). What speed can I expect to get?
Great article

I have 100Mbs now. When I had 10Mbs, the average speed I actually got was between 1 and 4Mbs. Download speeds were worse. never getting much higher than around 400Kbs.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news…

You make a great point about making sure that you block pop-ups as much as possible. I need to get a new DNS server installed with grid capacity. I’ll have to consider getting educated on how landlines connect to the city grid.

It’s taken the better part of a year to get my desktop set up to block the trash that tries to come through. Requires attention to connection, router settings, and, mainly, what browser you use and how you set it up.

I use Edge and Firefox, but have deep dived both to limit what they can look at or record as I surf. Neither can “phone home”. Additionally, all the websites I use have been scrubbed by hand to limit cookies and info collection. Depending on the website, this can mean being willing to take the time to go to maybe dozens of listed, affiliated websites )like Google), to change the local settings on THAT website that may pertain to the one you want to view. Most often, it is advertising subsidiaries, however. And that list can be as long as your arm. If you bootleg movies to stream, you know what I mean already.

However, if you are willing to take the time, and have, as i do, only about 30 or so main sites that you visit 95% of the time, you can get your system and your browser set up to block almost all the unwanted traffic that degrades your speed.

Nice Post. Thanks For sharing this Article.

From this article you will get to know about how to speed up your internet connection in detail. Before hitting on the other blogs give a try over here to get the best available content. I loved this article, thanks for producing such great content.

Great job. By your informations l had changed my modem now l have allready 1000 Mbps LAN wifi speed. Thank you indeed!

It’s taken the better part of a year to get my desktop set up to block the trash that tries to come through. Requires attention to connection, router settings, and, mainly, what browser you use and how you set it up.

I use Edge and Firefox, but have deep dived both to limit what they can look at or record as I surf. Neither can “phone home”. Additionally, all the websites I use have been scrubbed by hand to limit cookies and info collection. Depending on the website, this can mean being willing to take the time to go to maybe dozens of listed, affiliated websites )like Google), to change the local settings on THAT website that may pertain to the one you want to view. Most often, it is advertising subsidiaries, however. And that list can be as long as your arm. If you bootleg movies to stream, you know what I mean already.

However, if you are willing to take the time, and have, as i do, only about 30 or so main sites that you visit 95% of the time, you can get your system and your browser set up to block almost all the unwanted traffic that degrades your speed.

Not good. When I had 10Mbs through Xfinity, a few years back, actualyl speed was 1.5 to 4Mbs. Download speeds were much worse… only around 400, 450Kbs at best.

Stay at the 25, bro.

That is good.My internet speed was 800 mps and now 1000 mps

I didn’t even think about how there might be newer and faster internet services. I want to have the best internet possible. So I would like to get a new plan from a different company if needed so that I can get the best deal.

Tips on how to speed up Internet connection

This day and age we are used to life at its top speed thanks to various means of instant communication. That’s why there are very few things that are more frustrating than slow Internet that can basically turn your life into a nightmare. Sometimes speeding up Internet is a simple question of upgrading your plan or changing your service provider.

However, sometimes even users who are paying for high speed Internet access can experience surprisingly slow Internet connection. Fortunately, there are ways to speed up Internet without having to change your ISP or buying a more powerful computer. Here are some tips on how to speed up your computer Internet connection without too much hassle.

1. Talk to your provider

First of all, call your service provider and check whether they are doing their job properly and delivering the service you are paying for. Or perhaps your package is outdated and the company will upgrade you to a better one either for free or for a small upgrade fee.

Keep in mind, though, that very few people are getting the top speed (remember the words “up to” in your contract?) because of distance exchange, congestion, and traffic shaping.

2. Find the browser that works for you

Most people still use Internet Explorer, even though it’s not the fastest browser out there. If you are an active Internet user, it would be a good idea to check out different browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, and Opera to see which one works best for your connection type and your hardware configuration. For example, Chrome is particularly good for computers that are low on RAM, as it’s not as memory hungry as Firefox and IE.

3. Tweak your router

If you are using a router, you can probably speed up Internet by adjusting the router settings. There are too many routers to give specific advice, but most routers can be tweaked to open up ports and boost your Internet speed. Just check the manual for things that can be done to improve performance or use Google to find answers for your particular router.

Before you do any tweaking, check whether you are close enough to the router when you use the Internet. Being too far away from it can make the connection really slow and unstable.

Another thing you should try before changing any settings is to restart your router. Sometimes this simple action can dramatically speed up your Internet connection.

4. Prevent unauthorized access

If you are using wireless Internet connection, make sure that you are not sharing it with the whole neighbourhood. The more people use your connection, the slower it is for you. So at the very least set up a WEP password to stop unauthorised users from using your Internet connection. Or if your hardware is compatible, set up WPA encryption.

5. Control your bandwidth usage

There are many applications that will use your bandwidth in the background, like Windows Update, Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Real player, Adobe Reader updates, and other similar software. Most of them usually start automatically when you log on to Windows and connect to the Internet as soon as there is a connection. This means that these programs use your bandwidth when you are not actually using them.

Most of these applications can be configured not to start on Windows log-on or to at least ask permission to connect to the Internet. If you are not sure which programs are secretly using your bandwidth, you can use a free tool called Auslogics Task Manager. With the help of this program you can track which applications and processes are consuming your network traffic.

If your Internet connection speed dropped all of a sudden for no apparent reason, check your computer for malware and spyware. Malicious software often uses your Internet connection to send information to its developers.

6. Perform some basic PC maintenance

If your computer is slow, it doesn’t matter how fast your Internet connection is – everything will be slow because you computer can’t cope. The answer to that is to keep your computer in good shape and perform regular maintenance like disk cleanup and defrag, registry repair, and other tasks like monitoring your startup items and optimizing Windows services. This way you will not only speed up computer performance, but also speed up your Internet connection.

There are many tools that will help you do the job, from the Windows built-in ones to complete PC optimization suites like Auslogics BoostSpeed that offers one-click maintenance and advanced tools to improve computer performance even more. It also has a tool called Internet Optimizer that will help you optimize your Internet connection for maximum speed.

How to boost your internet speed at home in 8 ways, and make sure you’re not being overcharged for low speeds

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From YouTube videos and music to online gaming, it seems like everything we do happens online these days.

As such, if your internet connection seems sluggish, it can bring your whole life to a halt.

How to boost your internet speed

If you find your internet too slow to bear, there’s a variety of steps you can take to speed it up.

Make sure you’re getting the speeds you pay for

Use a website like Speedtest.net, or Google’s internet speed test, to see if you’re getting more or less the same speed your internet service provider promises in your service plan.

If you’re not, contact your ISP and see if there’s a problem at their end. If there isn’t a problem with them, they might be cheating you out of money for a subpar plan. Consider switching.

Upgrade your router

Let’s start here — if your router is more than five years old, replacing it with a new model can make a huge difference.

Be sure to get at least a dual-band router, or preferably a triple-band model, and use the 5GHz bands (as we’ll explain in a bit).

Position the router centrally

If at all possible, put the router in the middle of your home, equidistant from every corner you need Internet access.

Alternately, invest in a mesh network router, which uses multiple nodes you can position around the house rather than relying on a single router in the middle.

Change to a less crowded channel

Your router can transmit on a variety of different channels, each of which has its own bandwidth space.

If you’re having connectivity issues, open the router’s settings (usually through a mobile app or by typing your IP address into a web browser) and change the channel from «Auto» to one of the other channel options.

You might need to experiment to find a channel that’s not already crowded. Typically, channels 1, 6, or 11 will be your best choices in the 2.4 GHz band, and any of the 23 channels in the 5 GHz band should work.