Common Causes Of Slow Internet Connection That Might Surprise You

Admin Computer Tips

Common Causes Of Slow Internet Connection That Might Surprise You

 

Slow internet connection? Here are some of the things commonly found in a household that might be interfering with your Wi-Fi connection. Surprise, surprise!

Wireless Speakers and Console Controllers

They seem totally harmless but these devices might actually interfere with your Wi-Fi! According to studies form the Farpoint Group, any device can operate in the unlicensed band used by Wi-Fi. Cordless phones shouldn’t interfere with your Wi-Fi, though!

Microwaves

Research from the Farpoint Group suggests that data throughput can fall by 64% within 25ft of a microwave. However, unlike video senders, microwave interference should only occur when you’re actually using them. Better wait for that movie to download before you cook the popcorn!

Analogue Video Senders

Analogue Video Senders top the list when it comes to devices that interfere with your Wi-Fi. Analogue video senders, such as baby monitors and wireless security cameras, have a different spectrum profile to Wi-Fi that it comes to the point where they eliminate your Wi-Fi connection. No wonder your SSID keeps disappearing every now and then! Since these devices’ signal is always on even when no video is being sent, they are often hard to diagnose as a source of interference.

Bluetooth

New devices have already addressed this problem by jumping to different frequencies but, according to ABI Research analyst Michael Morgan, older gadgets can still be a bit problematic.

Christmas Lights

Ever wonder why your internet connection starts acting weird during the holiday season? According to TalkTalk, Christmas lights as well as other household lights can reduce your Wi-Fi’s performance up to 25%. Worse comes to worst when your Christmas lights are blinking. Apparently, fluorescent lighting can also degrade Wi-Fi signal but they have to be very close to notice an interference.

Building Materials

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, guess what? Your house itself could be blocking Wi-Fi! The worst culprit is chicken wire which is used to help plaster stick to the walls better. These are especially common in Victorian or Edwardian era homes. Modern homes constructed with lots of plaster board also use signal-bouncing foil coating in kitchens and bathrooms. Actually, any metal in walls can cause signal to degrade.

Power Cables

We already know that anything with metal can interfere with your Wi-Fi signal. However, cables add electricity to the mix and, in theory, electromagnetic radiation create radio frequency noise that interferes even more. Good thing the effect is likely to be unnoticeable.

Mirrors

Unfortunately, your full-length mirrors might be hurting your Wi-Fi signal as well. Large mirrors tend to reflect the Wi-Fi signal back.

Old Televisions

New gadgets aren’t the only culprits for your Wi-Fi’s decrease in performance. An ancient CRT television once knocked out wireless signal of a whole neighborhood. The ISP was forced to buy a new TV for the owner of the old TV.

Fish Tanks

You can still keep your fish but make sure the aquarium is nowhere near the gadgets that are connected to your Wi-Fi.

What Do I Do If My Internet Connections Is Slow?

70% of the time we go out to bring our services to our customer’s houses, their problem has to do with slow internet. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that computer users can actually do a lot of different things to make their internet connection faster. Sometimes, your slow internet connection isn’t even the Internet Service Provider’s fault but, instead, of your computer’s.

Here are some of the things you can try to speedup your connection at home:

  • Disable or delay Windows updates.

    Downloads running in the background can make your Internet connection a lot slower.

  • End tasks and programs

    that are running in the background.

  • Ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP) for a line test

    that will verify if you have a bad connection. They can sometimes tweak settings at their end.

  • Try plugging your PC or laptop directly to the modem.

    This will eliminate any wireless issues that you may have in your house.

  • For ADSL connections,

    make sure that every phone outlet in which you have a phone plugged in also has an ADSL splitter. This helps separate the frequencies that otherwise might be affecting your connection.

  • Observe how fast or slow your Internet connection is at different times of the day.

    For example, is your connection slower at 3pm when most kids are checking their Facebook accounts?

  • See if you are having Wi-Fi issues within the house.

    Click *insert link here* for a list of household items that actually interfere with your Wi-Fi connection.

  • Find out how far you are from the exchange.

    The further you are, the higher the chance that your Internet connection is going to be slow.

  • When you say your Internet connection is slow, what are you comparing it to? Are you comparing it to its previous speed or to someone else’s speed? Is it the speed of their home computer or their business computer? This helps identify if your Internet connection really is slow or if it’s just being compared to a faster connection.

If you have already hired a computer technician, you can ask them to communicate and coordinate with the technicians from your Internet Service Provider. Communication between two computer technicians can usually escalate the solution for the issue more quickly since technicians are well-trained and experienced to deal with stuff like this. They will be able to verify if the technician has eliminated the reasons for the slow connection.

According to this article, the average Internet speed in Australia is 4.7Mbps. This should serve as a basis to whether or not your Internet connection really is slow.

Most NBN packages have Internet speeds that can go up to 25Mbps, 50Mbps, and even 100Mbps. You can see from this that using fiber optics massively increases your computer speed.