Why is my Internet Slow?

Slow internet can be incredibly frustrating!

It’s the last thing you want to deal with when faced with a busy day of work, study, or streaming a movie.

Your internet can be slow for many reasons.

It may be too slow for your needs, your modem or router may be out of date, your router may be on the fritz, or you may have too many people using your service at the same time.

The first step in diagnosing your internet service is conducting a speed test. Read on for an outline of the process from start to finish.

What exactly is a Speed Test?

An internet speed test is the process of analysing broadband connection parameters by sending files to and from your PC and a testing server, and measuring the time it takes to download and upload.

Along the way, parameters like jitter and packet loss can be calculated. Some speed test hosts also measure ping, which is the time for a message to make a round trip from the sender to its destination and back, by sending an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packet to the host.

An internet speed test is a website or web application that measures an user’s internet connection. It reports on upload and download speed, bandwidth, ping, jitter and packet loss.

However, these features are all dependent on the speed test host. Some hosts only report on some of these parameters, but speed and bandwidth are standard. Speed tests are usually measured in Mbps.

How do I perform an Internet Speed Test?

Perform your own internet speed test by following our recommended method:

Disconnect all devices from your network, apart from the one you will use to perform the test. Connect this device to your modem/router via an ethernet cable. Wi-Fi will give a less accurate result and should not be used.
Go to speedtest.net or your site of choice.
Select your server of choice, then start the test by clicking the GO button.
The test will then run, once complete it will show your results.

How do I perform a Wi-Fi speed test?

Perform your own Wi-Fi speed test by following our recommended method:

Disconnect all devices from your network, apart from the one you will use to perform the test. Connect this device to your network via Wi-Fi.
Go to speedtest.net or your site of choice.
Select your server of choice, then start the test by clicking the GO button. For best results, run the test while standing with your device next to your router.
The test will then run, once complete it will show your results.

Compare your results!

Compare results between the two tests. If you see a huge difference between the wired test and the Wi-Fi test, you may assume that the Wi-Fi is underperforming and not your internet service.

Why doesn't my internet speed match my plan?

The speeds advertised in your internet plan are the maximum speeds you can expect. Most of the time, your internet speeds will fluctuate within a small range of that maximum speed. What you see on the speed test is simply where your internet speeds are currently.

There are a host of variables that may prevent you from hitting that maximum speed, such as inconsistent wi-fi connections, faulty connections somewhere within the street cabling, using internet at peak times, or the site you are downloading from is experiencing high demand.

What to do if your internet speed is slower than expected

There are several reasons why your speed test results might not be as fast as you expected.

Try these tips to see if you can get a more accurate reading:

Perform a power cycle of your modem and router, and re-run the test.
Temporarily disable your firewall (but don’t forget to turn it back on afterwards), and re-run the test.
Unplug your router from the modem, plug a desktop or laptop into the modem’s ethernet port, and re-run the test.
If you have a wireless gateway rather than a separate modem and router, plug a desktop or laptop into one of the ethernet ports, and re-run the test.
If the server your are speed testing to or the website you are downloading from, is in high demand and slow, choose another server option to speed test to.

If you have a Click Access internet service, we can check the speed for you by running background diagnostics. Feel free to call us!