Some Things That May Affect Your Internet Speed

Device Connection

How you connect your device to the internet could make a notable difference.  If you’re having problems with your wireless, try switching to a wired connection. Many routers can have fairly weak antennas and a limited range as a result, which means your connection will be worse if your’re several rooms away from the router. This problem will be exponentially worse in large houses with many devices all connected to the one router.  Consider buying a more powerful router.  DTC offers a Managed Wi-Fi Service for a low monthly fee that includes the latest router.

Test Your Speed

Faulty Devices

It’s not impossible that your slow internet speed might be because of your device, and there are two main reasons it could be so.  The first is that you’re working with an outdated or damaged device, or laptop or tablet you bought years ago.  Old devices may have an incredibly hard time keeping up with the websites of today, which feature more multimedia content than ever. What appears to be slow internet speeds may actually be slow processing speeds from your device.

Network Congestion

Just like how the sheer number of cars going to work in the morning will slow down traffic, large numbers of people using the internet simultaneously are going to slow down your connection. The same goes for some websites which don’t have large server capacities.  If large numbers of people visit the site, the number of requests and the amount of data required can become too much for the server to handle, resulting in a crash.  People who live in a household with multiple people using the internet at the same time – most commonly families with children – are more likely to experience slow speeds if everyone is streaming movies or playing online games, as the network becomes stressed.

Scan for viruses

The next thing you need to do is make sure that no virus itself is causing you to slow down.  Sometimes viruses can live on your computer and suck resources away from what you are doing thus slowing down your speeds.

Check for on-system interference

Sometimes your virus scanner or other programs such as backup programs can interfere with your internet speeds. This is really frustrating but you can figure out by simply switching things off one at a time and then running a speed test again.

Need Help?  Call 607-746-1500

DSL speeds are best effort and there are no guaranteed speeds.