How to troubleshoot slow internet

Everyone’s home network is a little different, but there are some common themes that pop up when it comes to issues that slow down your internet. Let’s dive into some common problems, how to diagnose them, and—of course—how to solve them.

1. Home network traffic
2. ISP network congestion
3. Data caps
4. Weak Wi-Fi
5. Latency
6. Outdated devices
7. Throttling

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• How to fix internet slow speed

Home network traffic

If your internet works fine when it’s only you but slows down when too many other people in your home get online, your issue is probably too much data traffic for your internet connection.

 

troubleshoot slow internet speed

Your internet package gives you a certain amount of bandwidth, and if there’s more information trying to move around than there is bandwidth, you run into a traffic jam.

Think of your internet connection like a road directly to your house. One car’s worth of people (or internet data) can reach your house at a time. If there are three cars trying to get there, they have to line up to get to your house. And if more cars arrive as the others are waiting to reach your house, the line and the delays get longer.

The easiest way to clear up network traffic is by upgrading your internet plan to a higher bandwidth that can keep up with your household’s internet needs. We recommend checking out one of the fastest internet providers in the US. We’re online now more than ever, and the internet plan you signed up for a few years ago might not be enough anymore if your connection slows down every time multiple people use the internet.

If upgrading isn’t an option, you need to either get used to the slowdowns or manage your household’s internet use. Thankfully, there are some pretty easy ways of doing the latter that don’t include yelling at everyone to get off the internet so you can participate in your Zoom meeting.

Tips for managing a home network traffic

Use QoS settings

Many routers have quality of service (or QoS) features that allow you to control how your network prioritizes certain types of data. That way, you can make sure your streaming data always gets first access to available bandwidth for smooth playback.

Not all routers have adjustable QoS, but if your router does have them, you’ll find the controls in your router’s user interface.

Prune your internet connections

There may be some devices connected to your network that you’ve forgotten about. For example, maybe you gave your neighbor your Wi-Fi password once, and their phone sometimes auto-connects to your network.

One simple way to take stock of all the devices using your network is to change your Wi-Fi password. After this, you’ll have to manually reconnect every device you want to use your internet.

Some routers or gateways also have a handy companion app that lets you see everything on your network without having to reset anything. That way you can identify devices that don’t need to be connected and disconnect them individually.

troubleshoot slow internet connection

Stagger bandwidth-hogging activities

If your connection can’t handle everyone online at once, stagger your internet activities so everyone gets a chance at an uninterrupted connection.

Also, make sure to schedule big downloads (like computer updates or game downloads) during times when other people won’t be online.

Put visitors (and children) on a guest network

There are some people who you want to have access to Wi-Fi in your home, but you may not want to give them the run of your whole home network. That’s why there are guest networks.

You can set up a guest network in your router’s user interface or mobile app. And here’s the best part: you can limit how much bandwidth the guest network can access.

Guest networks are (obviously) intended for guests, but they’re also useful if you have children in your home. Say you want to let your kids get online to do homework but don’t want them hogging all the bandwidth with TikTok and YouTube—you can set a cap on how much of your internet speed the guest network can use.

ISP network congestion

Internet service provider (ISP) network congestion happens when you and all of your neighbors use the same internet provider and all get online at the same time. It’s a similar situation to traffic on your home network but on a larger scale. In this instance, you and all your neighbors would be competing for the same bandwidth.

If the congestion gets particularly bad, your ISP might even throttle internet speeds in your area to make less traffic for the network.

Unfortunately, you can’t necessarily control when or how often people in the same part of your ISP’s network use the internet (we don’t advise asking your neighbors to log off so you can Zoom in peace). But there are a few tricks to circumventing the issue.

Try downloading game and media files during off-peak hours, like in the middle of the night (you can schedule the downloads; you don’t have to stay up all night). You could also switch to another provider that doesn’t have as many subscribers around you, though that could be difficult to figure out.

The only type of internet that isn’t much affected by network congestion is fiber internet. Fiber infrastructure is capable of carrying much more information than other types, so having a ton of traffic at the same time doesn’t slow down individual customers.

Exceeding data caps

Many internet providers have data caps, and some slow your speeds to a crawl after you hit that cap. Providers like Xfinity give customers very high data caps—1.2 TB for this example—and shouldn’t cause too many issues for most households. But satellite internet providers including HughesNet and Viasat are less generous with their data allowances.

Satellite internet providers charge for internet use by data rather than by internet speed. It’s similar to how cell phone plans usually work. After you use up your data for the month, with these satellite providers, your internet connection can slow to a crawl.

HughesNet customers can see speeds drop to 1–3 Mbps. Viasat customers can expect all their internet traffic to be deprioritized, meaning that their data gets pushed to the back of the line of all Viasat customers’ data.

A lot of DSL, cable, and fiber internet companies are doing away with data caps, but there are still many ISPs that are holding on to the practice. Look to see if your internet service has a data cap in our guide to ISP data caps.

Weak Wi-Fi signals

Walls, distance, and even microwaves can interfere with your Wi-Fi signal. Weaker Wi-Fi signals mean worse internet performance.

You can tell if signal interference and weak Wi-Fi signals are your issue if your connection works well near your router but gets worse as you move to different areas of your house that are farther away.

To fix weak Wi-Fi, first, check your router’s placement. We mentioned moving your router to improve speeds earlier in the Quick Fixes section (jump to quick fixes section). But as a recap, you want to make sure your router is in a central location in your house and away from things that can affect your Wi-Fi signals (like walls, Bluetooth speakers, etc.).

If that doesn’t work, you might need to replace your router with one made for longer ranges or better coverage—or you can add an extender to your network to get Wi-Fi signals to reach a particular spot in your home.

Check out our guide to long-range routers if you need better Wi-Fi coverage. It goes over both mesh Wi-Fi systems and standalone routers to help you figure out how best to access the internet in every inch of your home.

See more: How to Troubleshoot Slow Internet Speed

High latency

Unlike most other causes of slow internet speeds, high latency doesn’t affect your bandwidth. It affects the actual speed at which your internet signals travel. Latency is the time it takes for your information to get from your computer to the destination internet server and back.

High latency causes lag between when you perform an action online and when you see the results. This can be particularly frustrating with online gaming or video calls.

It’s difficult to work around high latency. It depends partially on your physical distance from internet servers and your ISP’s infrastructure. Internet type can also play into latency as well.

the solution to slow internet

For example, satellite internet has high latency because all your data has to travel to space and back, both coming and going to your device. Newer types of internet, including fiber and 5G, has lower latency because it can handle faster signals.

If you’re looking to lower your latency for a better connection, check out our report on the fastest ISPs. It dives into which internet services have the best-tested speeds and lowest average latency.

Slow or outdated devices

The problem might not be with your internet connection—it might be with the device you’re using to access the internet. Your computer, tablet, phone, or gaming console could be outdated and not capable of processing today’s Wi-Fi speeds. If that’s the case, it might be time for an upgrade. It could also be that your device is just bogged down with too many applications.

If you have computer speed issues on a desktop or laptop, try restarting the device. We know we’ve already talked about turning things off and on again, but it really works for a ton of electronics.

Other things that could be slowing down your devices include too many open applications (or browser tabs), outdated software, or malware. Avoid overwhelming your computer’s processing power by closing applications and browser windows when you’re finished with them. Keep your device’s operating system up to date by allowing auto-updates, and consider installing antivirus software like NortonAntivirus Plus.

Throttling

Internet service providers can throttle your internet speeds, and sometimes your slow connection is caused by that tomfoolery. We’ll go over ISP throttling briefly here, but you can get a more in-depth look at the subject in our guide to network throttling.

We’ve already discussed a few circumstances where an ISP might throttle your speeds—like if you go over your data cap or if there’s too much congestion in the network. But your provider might also slow you down if it flags your internet activity as potentially illegal or if your provider generally doesn’t want you to do a specific type of activity (like torrenting).

You can figure out if your provider is throttling your internet speeds based on your internet activities by running a speed test normally and then running a speed test with a VPN. If your speeds improve with the VPN, congratulations! You’re being throttled.