Home How to optimize your internet for the best speed
AFP News

How to optimize your internet for the best speed

Contributors

While it has only been around in its present incarnation for about 30 years, the internet has changed the way that the world works and has made us a lot more connected as a society. There have been countless articles written about whether this is a good or bad thing, so we’ll focus on something a little more practical.

website online
Credit: sweetym

Today, we’re going to discuss how you can optimize the speed of your internet so that you can get the best performance out of it. Whether you’re gaming, streaming, or if you want to download large files without any hitches in your connection, then these tips should be able to help.

Make Sure to Use a Wired Connection

The main mistake that people make when they’re trying to get more consistent speeds is using wifi. While modems and routers have improved immensely over the course of the past few years, they still aren’t reliable enough to compare to the consistency that you’ll get out of a wired connection.

Keep in mind that it will be a little more challenging to use a wired connection if you’re further away from your router, but it’s still possible. The only thing that you’ll have to do is get a longer ethernet cable and then find a way to run it from the router to your computer without it getting in the way.

Do a Speed Test

Doing a speed test will allow you to figure out how your internet is performing so that you can decide your next step. First, you’ll want to know the advertised speed of your internet package so that you can figure out whether or not you’re getting the rate that you paid for.

Performing an internet test once you have this data will allow you to see whether or not there is another issue with your internet that is preventing you from getting full speed. If you’re still facing an unreliable connection, even over ethernet, then you may want to call your provider’s customer service.

Upgrade Your Plan

On the other hand, you may not be getting quick enough internet speeds because your plan doesn’t support them. In that case, you’ll want to consider how frequently you’ll use speedier internet speeds and whether or not they’ll be worth the extra money that you pay each month.

Depending on where you live, your provider will be able to offer various plans, all of which will be suitable for certain download and upload speeds. You’ll also want to account for the data cap on your plan, as some providers will charge you extra or will even throttle your speed if you exceed it.

Conclusion

These three tips are some of the guaranteed ways that you can improve your internet speed, or at least ensure that you’re getting what you paid for. We hope that we’ve been able to help you troubleshoot your network without needing a network mapping tool or advanced software.

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.