With all the modern tech we have access to today, it’s pretty hard to remember just how young the internet is. The first web page was published in 1991, and although it’s come a long way since then, we’re still experiencing the internet’s infancy. Though this is a cool thought in some ways, one of the downsides is that we still have to deal with slow and unreliable connections. If you’re close to putting your fist through your monitor, here are some of the reasons why your internet may be slow.
Sometimes, there’s nothing technically wrong with your internet connection; you’re just paying for a slow plan. Yes, despite all their emphasis on customer service, some internet providers are evil enough to connections which operate at a snail’s pace! Call up your provider or log onto their website, and check out the plan you’re currently using. Then, visit an internet speed test and run it. If the numbers it comes up with match the ones on your plan, then there’s nothing wrong with your network, and you’re simply on a slow plan. From there, you have one of two options. You can either pay more money and have your provider upgrade you to a faster plan, or look for a completely new provider who offers more value. Since you first chose your provider, there may have been a lot of other companies popping up with more of an emphasis on speed. http://frontierinternet.org/ is one example.
If you find that your internet speed doesn’t match up with the service you’re supposed to be getting, then your next step should be checking for issues with your hardware. I know it’s a well-known solution to turn your router off and on again, but there’s a reason for that! Next, check your computer or device’s speed against some of the others on the house. If the others are loading pages instantly and yours is still lagging behind, then the issue is with your computer, not the network. If you establish that the issue is with the hardware, then you may have to take it into a repair shop and have the wizards take a closer look. Once you fix or replace the affected hardware, you should be browsing much faster. You can read up on some common hardware issues at http://www.technologynext.org/.
Finally, look through some of the apps and plugins you’re using, and turn off any of them which are hogging your bandwidth. Many people aren’t aware of it, but there are many common programs which can hog an internet connection and make regular browsing slow to a crawl. For example, if you’re using a program like BitTorrent to download files in the background, it’s going to slow down your browser. Even simple animations and ads can hog the bandwidth and slow down other things which hinge on your connection. You may be able to fix this by installing extensions such as AdBlock and FlashBlock. If your connection’s intolerably slow, this probably won’t solve all your problems, but you’ll certainly see an improvement.
Image from Pixabay
