Practical tips to increase your internet speed

Whether you’re using mobile or fixed-line broadband, fast internet is available to just about everyone these days. The UK’s broadband regulator, Ofcom, gives you the right to demand a “decent broadband service” – though their minimum promise is rather pedestrian by modern standards.

In practice, we know that you often don’t get the speeds you expect, or your broadband speeds are inconsistent. Trying to determine why your internet just isn’t as fast as you expect it to be can be infuriating, and perhaps you’ve already spent time on the phone with your service provider, who just says that there’s nothing wrong from their end of the connection.

We’re here to help. Slow internet can affect anyone, but we’ve battled this particular boss often and with great success.

The likeliest reasons your broadband is slow

The good news is that more often than not, internet speed issues are something you can address yourself, but first, it’s good to understand some common reasons why your web connection feels like wading through treacle.

It’s your Wi-Fi

Your internet is only as fast as the slowest link in the chain. So your router may be getting a blazing-fast connection from your service provider, but your Wi-Fi setup isn’t up to it for any number of reasons, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Something (or someone) is using bandwidth in the background

The bandwidth you pay for is shared by all the internet-connected devices in your home. So the more people or gadgets that try to share the pie, the less speed is left over for your needs. If your console suddenly decides to download a 100GB Call of Duty patch while you’re trying to watch Netflix, it might simply be too much.

Your ISP is slowing things down

Sometimes it’s not you, it’s your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your ISP is in charge of your connection and can deliberately slow it down. ISPs do this either as part of the service policy for your broadband package or to ensure that everyone gets a fair share of the bandwidth when there’s lots of network congestion.

Your gear is limiting you

If you’ve upgraded your internet speeds but haven’t upgraded your other network gear in many years, there’s a good chance that’s what’s slowing things down. Newer network cards and Wi-Fi adapters are capable of much higher speeds and more modern routers with faster processors are also better at handling traffic for lots of connected devices. After all, it’s common nowadays for each person in your home to have multiple devices that use the internet.

It’s your location

In the case of mobile broadband on your phone, your internet speeds are heavily dependent on where you are at a given time. Mobile internet works by connecting your handset to the nearest mobile network mast, or at least the mast with the best signal. Depending on how far you are from the nearest tower or whether there are lots of other people using the same local cell network, you’ll see variable speeds. Factors like weather also play a role, and of course, if you’re out in the country the density of mobile masts, and in turn coverage, goes down compared to urban areas with high population density.

READ NEXT: Best Wi-Fi router

Here’s how to speed up your broadband

As you can see, there are many varied reasons why your broadband speeds might be slow, and certainly there are more beyond this short list, but outlining a problem without a solution isn’t much use. So here are a few practical tips that more often than not lead to better internet speeds.

Check your internet speeds thoroughly

It’s crucial to get an accurate idea of how much speed you’re getting directly from your ISP. The best way to do this is by running an internet speed test. You can do this by accessing a site like fast.com or speedtest.net from a device connected to your network. However, you should do this using a computer connected directly to your router using an Ethernet cable. This ensures that you’re getting the best-case scenario.

Some modern routers even have a speed testing function built in. This is ideal since you’re seeing the exact speed from your ISP to your home.

Change your router password

To make sure that your speeds aren’t being syphoned by your neighbours or random passersby, change the Wi-Fi password. Yes, this is a bit of an inconvenience, because it means you have to reconnect all of your own devices, but it’s a simple way to boot out any internet parasites, and it’s a good privacy practice to change your Wi-Fi password at regular intervals anyway.

Eliminate bottlenecks

Double-check that you don’t have some part of your network that’s choking your bandwidth. For example, there might be one old Ethernet cable rated for 10Mbps or 100Mbps in your network slowing things down for devices that use it. So replace it with a 1Gbps cable at a minimum.

Likewise, if you’re using a Wi-Fi repeater, you’re halving the potential speeds you can achieve by virtue of how repeaters work.

All of the components in your network should be rated for at least the connection speed that’s being delivered to your home if you want to avoid having chokepoints.

Check for interference or poor Wi-Fi placement

In the case of Wi-Fi specifically, there’s plenty that can reduce speeds or even cause connection issues. Any Wi-Fi device should have good signal strength to your router or devices that extend your router’s Wi-Fi range.

You can also experiment with moving your router to a more central location or angling its antennas in different ways to get the right signal spread for your home. Certain appliances can cause radio interference, so switching them off or moving them to another location is another potential solution.

Switch to Ethernet cables

While Wi-Fi is convenient, Ethernet cables are the gold standard in home networking for speed and reliability. They also improve latency, so if you’re doing something like online gaming, a wired connection is the best.

If you don’t want the hassle of laying an Ethernet cable throughout your home, you have the option of using Powerline Ethernet technology, where network signals are sent over the copper power lines in your home. As long as the wiring in your house is amenable, this can be a good solution for devices like smart TVs or desktop computers in far-flung corners of your home.

Use mesh Wi-Fi

Although it’s a significantly more expensive option, mesh Wi-Fi router systems are a great way to get excellent speeds and eliminate any Wi-Fi dead zones in your home. This is essentially a network of small routers that act as one large router. The mesh units communicate with each other using a backchannel, and as you move through your home, devices will seamlessly move between mesh nodes. We’ve tested loads of mesh routers at Expert Reviews, and we’ve compiled a roundup of the best mesh Wi-Fi Routers to make your buying decision much easier.

Use a VPN

Some ISPs will limit the speeds of certain types of traffic in a practice known as “shaping”, where specific types of traffic get less bandwidth than others. For example, you might get great speeds for streaming video, but large video game downloads might slow to a crawl.

One way to get around this, or at least diagnose if shaping is the issue, is to use a VPN. When the VPN is active, your ISP can’t tell what you’re doing on the internet, other than you’re using a VPN. Unless they also throttle the speeds of VPN services, you should see a performance increase compared to those without a VPN.

We wouldn’t suggest this as a permanent solution, but if it does seem like your ISP is throttling certain types of traffic, you may want to consider upgrading to a different package or even switching ISPs. If this is something you’re considering, then read our roundup of the best VPNs to find the one that’s right for you.

Tune your router’s settings

Routers are responsible for “quality of service” on your network. In other words, the router has to decide which clients on your home network get how much of the available bandwidth. So, for example, should game downloads from Steam be prioritised over working from home, streaming video or online gaming?

In modern routers, you can usually tell the router what things you want prioritised in its settings. How user-friendly this is depends on the age and type of the router, but there’s almost always a way to tell the router to give certain devices or specific services priority over everything else.

Don’t be afraid to switch providers

If nothing you do gets you better broadband speeds, then you always have the option to change to a different provider. Thanks to rules and reforms by Ofcom, you can switch to another provider with no penalty as long as certain conditions are met. Relative to speeds, there should be a minimum guaranteed speed in the contract you signed with your provider, and if the ISP can’t get your speeds up to or above that minimum, you can freely look somewhere else.

If you are in the market for a new ISP, we’ve tested and reviewed all the major providers in the UK and found the best broadband providers, so you don’t have to.