There are few things more annoying than a slow internet connection. But before you start looking for a faster broadband package, use our tips to get the most out of your existing plan.
Whether it’s staring at a buffering icon every two seconds or waiting for a term paper to load, a slow WiFi connection is the bane of every student’s life.
To ease the pain, you might be tempted to grit your teeth and upgrade your contract. But even the speeds you can get with the best student broadband packages will suffer if you don’t have everything set up correctly.
Read on to find out how to improve your WiFi speed and what to do if it’s still very slow.
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Table of Contents
How to increase your broadband speed
These are the best ways to increase your internet speed:
1. First, check your internet speed
Your internet connection may seem slow, but you might get what you paid for. So before you do anything else, it’s a good idea to run a speed test to see if paying for extra bandwidth is the right solution.
For more reliable results, use some of these tools to measure your WiFi speed:
- Broadband Genius
- Broadband Speed Checker
- Fast. com
- speed test
We also recommend running multiple tests at different times of the day and on different devices. A one-time test could be misleading because it could be that your device is having problems or that you have chosen a peak time for the test.
If it turns out you’re getting the speed you signed up for, you might want to switch to a faster package. There are often fees associated with terminating a contract early, but you can avoid these by upgrading from your current provider. And whatever you do, take a look at our guide to the best broadband deals for students to make sure you don’t get ripped off!
If your speed test indicates that the internet is slower than it should be, it’s time to try the following suggestions. It could also be that the devices provided by your provider are faulty.
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2. Use an Ethernet cable
WiFi can be fast. But no matter how fast it is, it still won’t be as fast as an Ethernet cable.
Although your phone can’t do this, most gaming consoles have an Ethernet port, as do many laptops and smart TVs.
All you have to do is take an Ethernet cable and plug one end into the router port and the other end into the device you are using. It is really that easy.
If you don’t have an Ethernet cable handy, just check the box your router came in. Chances are your broadband provider has at least one such service included in their package. If not, you can buy one for less than £10.
3. Disable WiFi on devices you are not using
Think of Internet speed like the water pressure in your home. When you turn on a faucet, you get a powerful stream of water. However, if you turn on multiple faucets, run the shower, or flush the toilet, you will find that the water pressure decreases.
The same principle applies to Wi-Fi. The more devices you have connected and using the Internet, the slower it gets on each of them.
People seem to be divided on whether a device actually needs to do anything to affect the speed of WiFi. But even if your phone or tablet appears to be idle, it’s not. It continues to check for updates, sync messages, and handle all other tasks in the background. And all of this requires the use of the internet.
Of course, it is useful if the phone is always connected to WiFi to check messages. But very few people need to have their iPad turned on all the time. So play it safe and turn off the WiFi on the devices you are not using. Or you can turn them off altogether.
4. Change your WiFi bandwidth
Tune in for a tech lesson.
WiFi is typically transmitted on one of two bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.
Both bands have their strengths and weaknesses. 2.4GHz can reach further and overcome more obstacles than 5GHz, but the overall speed is worse. 5 GHz, on the other hand, is faster but doesn’t go as far.
Of course, what is best depends entirely on your situation. If you’re in a small apartment, the 5GHz band is probably best. However, in a larger house or in a house with particularly thick walls, 2.4 GHz might be a better choice.
Conveniently, WiFi routers and extenders are able to transmit at 2.4GHz and 5GHz simultaneously. That means you can choose which device to use based on where you are in the house.
In some cases, the two are accessible as separate WiFi networks, allowing you to manually switch from one to the other. If it doesn’t, you can change your laptop’s settings to favor one of the two options.
This handy guide tells you everything you need to do and how to check if your laptop is 5GHz compatible (some older devices aren’t).
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5. Update or clean your browser
If the Internet is slow only on your laptop, your connection may not be a problem at all. The problem could be in your web browser.
Newer browsers tend to be much faster and more secure than older versions. The upgrade is free and can do a lot, so look for an option in your settings.
And even if you’re using the latest version, there are a few steps you can take to speed things up. If you have a lot of tabs open or run a lot of unnecessary extensions, your browser will slow down. In other words, what you think is a slow WiFi connection might actually just be a slow browser.
6. Optimize your laptop or phone
So you’ve checked your browser and it’s running like clockwork. Now it’s time to do the same for the rest of your device.
Start with your browser’s cache. In general, the cache will make web pages load faster. But when the cache gets too full, it can slow down the work.
Luckily, clearing the cache is very easy. These guides explain how to do this for all major browsers:
- Google Chrome (all devices)
- Firefox
- Safari (iOS)
- Safari (macOS).
Other software that weakens the Internet can interfere with your computer’s connection.
Applications like Dropbox and OneDrive can often run in the background without your knowledge, especially if they’re set to run at startup. If you don’t need them all the time (or at all), you can use this guide to prevent them from starting when you turn on your laptop.
If you want these background apps to keep running, you can limit their internet usage so they don’t slow you down as much.
This guide shows how to limit the bandwidth used by OneDrive and Dropbox, which are probably two of the biggest culprits. However, if you suspect another program is the culprit, you can do the same thing: check Google.
7. Make sure your WiFi is password protected
If your WiFi connection is not password protected, we strongly advise you to change this as soon as possible.
Most routers provided by broadband providers are password protected by default. However, if yours somehow slipped through the net or you acquired it from a third party, you should set a password immediately.
First of all, you need to do this to protect yourself from hackers. Without a password, anyone outside your home could access your WiFi, giving them infinitely easy access to your personal information.
But apart from the security risks, an unsecured network can be used by any device within range. And as we have already explained, the more devices using your WiFi, the slower the connection will be.
While your cheeky neighbor isn’t a security threat, it can slow down your speed.
Check out this guide to adding a password to your router, or contact your broadband provider if they provided your router.
8. Update your router
For most people, the router provided by their broadband provider should work perfectly. But not always.
Many technology companies sell their own WiFi routers and boast numerous benefits. These alternatives often offer a faster and stronger WiFi signal, as well as better security features.
However, new routers can cost a fair amount of money – hundreds of pounds or more for the top-of-the-line models. So if you think your WiFi router is slowing you down, you should check with your broadband provider before you splurge.
They should be able to run some tests remotely so they can verify if the device is faulty in any way. If so, they might offer to replace it with a working model.
Even if the router works fine, your broadband provider may have a newer model. The latest edition might offer better speeds and again they can offer to replace or upgrade the device. Check if you have to pay for it though, as it might be cheaper to buy a new router yourself.
9. Place your router in the best spot
As you probably know, the further away you are from your WiFi router, the weaker the signal. And the weaker the signal, the slower your connection will be.
Because of this, it’s usually best to place the router as centrally as possible in the home, especially if it’s a larger home. This minimizes the risk of creating a black spot for the WiFi signal everywhere.
However, moving the router comes with some risks. Although the router can typically be plugged into any phone jack in the house, the main wall outlet provides the strongest broadband signal. This guide from BT aims to help you spot them.
Give it a try and find out which outlet works best for your router, both in terms of speed and range in your home.
And remember to put your router in an open and unobstructed place, preferably as high up as possible. In other words, don’t put it in a closet or between some books. You don’t want anything blocking that precious WiFi signal.
Also, try to keep the router away from other electrical devices. Lamps, speakers, lights, TVs, and anything that emits a wireless signal are known to interfere with WiFi. Although it’s difficult to put the router in a separate room, you should try to separate it from all of these things as much as possible.
Virgin Media broadband does not work over phone lines. If you are on Virgin you have a separate line that you can use. You will need to pay Virgin to move and you should get permission from your landlord beforehand.
You could also get a longer cable to place the router closer to the center of the house. However, remember that shorter cables provide the best connection.
10. Get a WiFi Booster
Can’t move the router? Or have you already tried it but still have black spots in your house? You could try a WiFi booster.
As the name suggests, WiFi boosters extend your WiFi signal over a greater distance. Even if the booster’s speed isn’t quite up to par with your router’s, you’ll suddenly find that you have a much stronger signal farther away.
Remember that location is everything. If you put it in the black spot, the booster will try to extend an already weak signal. And if you place the booster next to the router, it’s not close enough to the black spot to make a difference. Therefore, we recommend placing the booster halfway between the router and the house wall for the best results.
There are hundreds of WiFi boosters on the market. We have used this NETGEAR booster and can recommend it. It is among the best gadgets for students. But your needs may vary depending on the size of your home and what you do online, so google for more reviews!
How to complain about low internet speed
If you’ve tried all of these suggestions and are still not getting any success, maybe it’s time to complain.
The first thing to check is what broadband speeds you were promised when you signed up. You should be able to find this in the information your provider sent you after purchase. However, it is important that you are aware of how confident your broadband provider was about delivering a given speed.
The law requires broadband providers to advertise speeds that at least 50% of customers on a given package can get at peak times. Of course, up to 50% of customers still do not receive any information.
The guaranteed minimum speed is decisive. If your provider has subscribed to Ofcom’s voluntary code (which most have done) they must tell you this value when you buy a broadband package. If your speeds don’t reach this value, you should have good arguments.
In this case, contact your broadband provider and explain that you are not getting the speeds they promised.
Again, they are obliged to help you with your speed issues if they have subscribed to Ofcom’s voluntary code. If your speed stays below the minimum guaranteed amount, they will have you released from the contract without penalty or continue the contract at a lower rate.
And if after all that you’re still not satisfied, you can file a formal complaint. Ofcom is the regulator of broadband providers so you should take a look at their guide.
What is Good Broadband Speed?
A good internet speed is generally 11 Mbit/s and upwards. But what’s good for you is another question entirely: it depends on your individual needs.
If you constantly stream movies and TV shows or play a lot of online games, you need a faster internet connection. Particularly intense activities (like streaming 4K content or uploading lots of videos) also require a better connection, as does having multiple people in the house.
Cable.co.uk estimates you need around 10Mbps per person in the home and double that for each person playing online games or streaming 4K content.
Based on that, they’ve come up with a rough guide to the speed you’ll need based on the size of your household:
- One or two people: 10Mbps – 11Mbps
- Three or four people: 30Mbps – 60Mbps
- Five or more people: 60Mbps and above
- Player or streamer: 60Mbps and more.
