There’s an axiom that says no matter how much money someone makes, they’ll always be able to increase their spending to match it. Much in the same way, although the Internet has evolved far beyond the clunky whistling 1200 baud modem that hogged the phone lines, there’s so much stuff out there that even high-speed Internet sometimes doesn’t seem enough, and we experience the frustration of a slow Internet connection.
We can shake our fists and swear, or we can try a few tactics that can improve high speed Internet service. Perhaps we can do both. But since fist-shaking and swearing are fine arts that most of us have already mastered, here’s some options on improving that speed.
Try A Reboot
“When in doubt, power down and power up”, the second most common mantra uttered by IT people (the first being “RTFM”). It’s a quick, simple fix that will either correct the problem, or eliminate it as a cause, and believe it, it’s the first thing that customer service will tell you to do should you happen to call them! Get a jump on them if you find yourself having to call them (more on that later).
Check For Viruses And Malware
Viruses and malware can not only ruin your data or transfer all of your funds to a Nigerian prince, it can also run in the background and eat your bandwidth. And since we’re talking about threats that by their very nature are hard to detect unless you’re actively looking for them (and even then, it’s not always a given), you need to make sure your anti-virus software is up to date with the latest malware definitions, and that a recent scan has been done.
Are There Any Unnecessary Drains?
Even a laptop that’s sitting there idle is still passively accessing the Internet and again, who knows what sort of bandwidth-eating programs are running in the background? If there are extra devices around that people aren’t using, then shut them down. Or perhaps your wireless network has too many routers and/or switches in use. A device that comes between your computer and your modem can potentially slow upload speeds. Make sure your network has the most efficient configuration, without redundant or outright unnecessary devices.
Call Your Provider
Snickers candy bars used to have these commercials showing people stuck in situations where they wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while due to some unforeseen issue, with the implication being that they had time to grab a Snickers bar and enjoy it. Well, grab a hold of your favorite food and/or drink, settle in, and call your provider to see if there’s any ongoing issues that may be affecting your Internet performance. And since you naturally already did the first suggestion mentioned above, you can stop them in their tracks with an “I already did that!”, and have them try something else. Sometimes, they can do a fix on their end, like sending a refresher signal.
Upgrade Your Service
There’s a reason that a lot of Internet access plans are broken down between consumer/residential Internet access plans and small business high-speed Internet plans. Sad to say, sometimes the problem of a slow connection is that you’re not subscribing to a plan that’s designed to handle the demands of a business. Now as a rule, that means an added expense, since business-class Internet plans tend to cost more than consumer plans. But since that kind of plan is a tool for doing business, it’s possible that the cost is deductible as a business expense when you do your taxes, so you’d have that going for you.
A quick Google search will show you so many other possible reasons and fixes for improving high-speed Internet, but the above tips should handle the most common causes of frustration. Good luck!
