Broadband Speed

Lots of factors can affect your broadband speed. Some you can control, others you can't. If your broadband seems slower than expected, it could be due to one of these.

Outside your home

How close you live to your local telephone exchange: The closer your phone line is to the exchange, the quicker the connection usually is. If you live further away your actual speed may be reduced to ensure quality of signal is maintained.

Time of day: Unsurprisingly, more people go online during the peak time of 6pm-11pm than any other, so you may find download speeds slower during these hours.

Phone line faults: If the local phone line in your area has been damaged, this can cause problems with your broadband. If you hear noise on your phone line or no dial tone then it’s likely you’ll have problems with your broadband too.

Bad weather: Adverse weather conditions like heavy rain, flooding and snow can damage cables and cause short circuits. Damage like this can slow your connection down or cut it out completely.

Busy websites: If a website is particularly busy and everyone is trying to view it at the same time, then you might find it loads slower than usual. There’s not much you can do about this except to keep trying or try again later.

Inside of your home

The length and quality of your home phone wiring: You'll usually get better broadband speeds if the wiring from the master socket to your router is shorter and of good quality.

Your master phone socket: Always connect your router to your master socket where your broadband connection is the strongest for the fastest possible speeds. The master socket is usually in your hallway and is the point where your phone line enters your home

If your Wi-Fi router is connected to one of your extension sockets instead of your master socket, your broadband signal will be forced to travel further and you'll likely get slower broadband speeds.

Wi-Fi router location:

Micro filters: these filter your phone line and allows your broadband and telephone to work at the same time. If they are not correctly installed you will not get optimal speeds and your connection may be intermittent.

Your devices: As a general rule, smaller, cheaper or older devices are less likely to deliver good broadband speeds.

How many people/devices use your broadband connection at once: If several devices use your broadband at once they can slow your connection. Try switching off any devices that don’t need to be used.

Electrical interference from other devices: Electrical equipment like mobile phones with Bluetooth, microwaves and cordless phones and baby monitors can interfere with your wireless signal.

Wireless and wired connection: Connecting to a router wirelessly will be slightly slower than connecting to it with a physical wire.

Your Wi-Fi router should be plugged into your master phone socket. You’ll usually find this master socket in your front room or hall, near where the phone line enters your house. If you can’t find it, try looking from outside where wires enter your house, and then look inside for the socket below that point.

A micro filter is a device that allows your broadband and telephone services to work at the same time –please follow the instructions that come with your Wi-Fi router and install these micro filters for the best performance.

Location is important. Place your Wi-Fi router as close as possible to where you will be using it. Obstacles like walls, doors and wardrobes can make a huge difference to your Wi-Fi speeds. Also try restarting your devices once in a while to help you get the best connection.

It’s also worth knowing that your broadband speed is shared with every user or device that is connected to your Wi-Fi router. If three devices are using the internet at the same time, they’ll get roughly a third of the available speed each. You should check if you need all these devices connected to your broadband at the time, and disconnect them if not.

If you keep switching your router on and off, your broadband looks like it’s disconnecting and your speed may be automatically reduced to make the line more reliable. It’s best to leave your Wi-Fi router switched on 24/7 - to get the best speeds and performance.

:Remember, smaller, cheaper or older devices are less likely to deliver great Wi-Fi. Devices like newer laptops and computers will probably have better Wi-Fi around your home than smaller phones and tablets.

Also, if you’re using an older slower computer running lots of different applications it could give the impression that your broadband service is slow. If your computer is generally running slow it might be worth getting it looked at or upgraded.

This may not be convenient for some people but a wired connection will be faster and more stable than a wireless connection. 

Try connecting to your router using the Yellow Ethernet cable that comes included with your Wi-Fi router to see if you can notice any improvements.
 

Similar to rush-hour traffic, the speed you’ll get depends on how many people are using our broadband network at one time.

During peak periods, usually between 8pm to 10pm, you may sometimes notice speeds reduce as more people are using the internet. You may also find that some specific websites are slow at busy periods. This is usually a fault of the website, not your broadband. Popular websites can sometimes have capacity issues so please wait a bit and then try again.