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Five reasons your broadband could be slow

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Five reasons your broadband could be slow

Buffering wheels at the cliffhanger of the movie you're streaming, glitch face while you're in an important Zoom meeting or even documents that take forever to open... a slow internet experience can be incredibly frustrating.

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Here we’ve listed five common reasons for a slow internet connection and what you can do about it.

1. A busy time of the day

Ever wonder why your internet seems to slow down at certain times of the day, more than others? There are two easy fixes for this. For instance, when everyone in your house is online at night doing various activities - everyone's internet becomes slow.

1. Make sure you're on a fixed-line, dedicated broadband connection like fibre. This ensures you're not sharing the network with your neighbours and your internet won't get slow if everyone else in your suburb chooses to livestream an All Blacks final!

2. Make sure your fibre plan has plenty of bandwidth for your household. This is because even with a dedicated connection to your house, you still share your connection with your flatmates or family. If you have a fibre connection and it slows down when everyone's home, simply call your broadband provider and ask for faster fibre plan. (This means a plan with more bandwidth which should help with slow internet.)

2. Out-of-date devices and software

You might be attached to your MacBook that’s been with you since uni, but in the world of tech, oldies aren’t necessarily goodies. Outdated computers, phones and tablets simply don’t have the capacity to support higher speeds and bigger data. In short, your connection may not be the culprit for your slow broadband. It could be your device.

Similarly, if you haven’t updated your device with the latest software, it may not be fully compatible with your broadband connection, so make sure to regularly check and complete updates. 

3. A weak wifi signal

Wifi wirelessly connects your devices to your modem and ultimately to the internet. If the signal isn’t strong it can impact your user experience and there are two main reasons it could be weak.

First, you may have too many devices connected to the internet at the same time. Or, the distance and number of obstructions between your modem and your device is too great. A good rule of thumb is if you can visually see your modem, your wifi performance should be good. The more walls between you and your modem, the weaker the signal.  

To boost your wifi signal throughout your home, consider investing in a wifi extender or mesh systems like Google Wifi, AmpliFi or Orbi. Mesh systems are pretty easy to use, often operating via an intuitive smartphone app. You can pick any of these up from your local electronics store at various price points.

4. Old modem 

Not all modems are created equal. The quality of your modem and its age play a part in your broadband performance. You should update your modem about every three years to make sure it’s compatible with your connection and not slowing you down. 

Should you buy your own modem?

5. You haven't plugged in your data hungry devices

For a better streaming experience, plug your TV or games consoles directly into an ethernet port in your modem. This means you’ll have an uninterrupted signal fed directly to your device for a faster, more seamless experience. 

If you’ve explored all of these issues and still aren’t getting the level of performance that you need from your broadband connection, it could be time to upgrade; your speed or data may not be enough for your consumption.

For the best experience, get on to an unlimited fibre plan, and upgrade to fibre if you can. 

 



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