You’ve been promised a certain amount of megabits per second by your internet service provider (ISP) that sounds tantalizing fast. Yet, your internet connection is still lousy. What could possibly be the case?
Improperly configured router
Your router can have something to do with your slow internet connection, especially if it is not configured properly. One of the settings you have to look into is the MTU because it can affect performance depending on whether it was set low or high.
Before you make changes, take a look your router’s documentation and check the recommendations of your ISP. Record any changes you make so that you can revert back to the original setting once you’re done tinkering to see what fixes the issue.
Signal interference
Several things can affect the performance of your internet connection, including household appliances and even a nearby wireless network. You can try changing the position of your router to see if it improves performance at all or you can change the WiFi channel number. Distance from the device also matters: the further away you are, the less likely you’ll get a decent performance.
Malware and other malicious programs
You must have heard about the VPNFilter malware by now. The malware, first reported in May of this year, infected certain router models in more than 500,000 homes and offices around the world.
The malware is capable of collecting communications, destroying devices, and launching attacks no others. One of the worst things about it is it can survive a reboot and the fact that you really can’t determine whether your router has been infected or not.
When reports like this pop out, it’s best to reboot your router (it apparently doesn’t work for this case) or better yet, restore it to its factory defaults. After that, you can flash it with the latest firmware (without requiring the internet preferably.
Understandably, this could be an inconvenience but it is necessary if you want to remain safe on the internet. This also stresses the importance of always keeping devices up-to-date to ensure they are protected from malicious attacks.
Resource hungry applications
You may be running only a word processor and a web browser right now, but are you aware of the applications running in the background? Although they are not in front of your face, they are still consuming much-needed network resources.
So if you’re having a slow internet day, make sure to check the applications running in the background and close them if you have no need for them while working on your current task.
Get in touch with your ISP
If you’ve tried everything but nothing has solved your internet connection woes, then maybe it’s time to call your ISP. Sometimes, they might be the ones having some trouble.
So before you do anything drastic, getting in touch with them might provide you with the answers you’re looking for. Keep in mind that a promised 10Mbps internet speed is rather fast, but if yours is particularly lousy, you deserve to know why.
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