Having a good quality Internet connection at home is part of our day to day. Whether it’s for home office use or just streaming online, looking up a recipe, or shopping.
Therefore, if you notice any slowdown, if your series has transmission failures or if your video call drops, you get irritated. To try to prevent this from happening, Devolo has released 6 tips to speed up everything on your Internet again.
Weak internet – start by rebooting
If your home Internet connection is having problems, it will usually be obvious. Video calls drop, videos freeze, and downloads to your hard drive lag. Since there can be a wide variety of possible causes for these annoyances, we recommend the easiest step to get started: resetting your router. To do this, simply disconnect the device from the mains for 10-20 seconds, and then restart it. This can eliminate possible errors in memory, which are capable of affecting performance.
The second approach is the router’s configuration menu. Here, go to the status log and check if there are any underlying issues with your connection. You can also check if the “DHCP” setting is enabled. Ensures that the router automatically assigns IP addresses to all devices on the network. For private use, this option should be enabled in the vast majority of cases.
If it also finds no irregularities in the setup menus, troubleshooting (“troubleshooting”) is resumed.
Troubleshooting with the provider
When there are problems with the online connection, remember that the cause is not necessarily within your own four walls. Rather, there may be a fault with your provider’s facility. To find out, just do a quick search with a popular search engine. If there are already reports of a provider failure in your region, the troubleshooting process is complete. Alternatively, you can also ask your service provider directly to find out if there are any interruptions or how long it will take to restore service.
If your provider isn’t the cause of poor online performance, you still have a simpler solution: replace the cable. Your frozen online connection or no connection at all could simply be due to a faulty cable. So check all the cables connected to your router: the router’s Internet connection cable, as well as the Ethernet cables that feed the signal to your network. If you have the option, you can also replace the wires as a test.
measuring speed
If your online connection hasn’t completely failed you should use speed tests to get a more detailed picture of the actual quality loss. This involves tools and websites that can test the upload and download speed of your connection. What is particularly convenient about this is that these tools are free and do not require registration, so it is quite simple to try them out. Recommended examples of these tools include Ookla’s Speedtest.net.
However, to get the most accurate measurements possible, there are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Take several measurements at different times of the day.
- If possible, take measurements using end devices that are connected to the router via an Ethernet cable.
- If possible, turn off all online devices that are not used for the measurement.
If these measurements verify that the effective bandwidth you receive is significantly lower than the contracted one, you should try to contact the technical customer service of your provider.
Applications with high data usage
Also, it is worth looking at the list of devices that are connected to your router. You might notice a particularly data-hungry device that shouldn’t even be permanently connected. Maybe there are even unwanted guests breaking into your network and running out of bandwidth. But fortunately, this case is quite unlikely.
If you cannot find any potential sources of interference in the list of devices, you should check your endpoint devices for disruptive software. Utility programs aren’t the only ones consuming bandwidth. For example, if you recently used software to set up a VPN connection, be sure to check that the corresponding app is still active and is throttling your line.
Optimizing a wired connection
Permanently routed Ethernet lines are a rarity in most apartments and houses. Post routing is as expensive as it is complicated. Exposed wires are an inexpensive alternative, but they can also be a potential tripping hazard and aren’t pretty to look at. An excellent alternative is found in Powerline adapters, such as devolo’s Magic series of products.
These adapters use your existing power line as a data highway, turning any electrical outlet into an Internet access outlet. This works without structural modifications or special technical knowledge. An adapter is plugged in near the router and connected to it. Additional adapters can be installed in any outlet and connect automatically. This completes your professionally routed home network with access points that can be flexibly relocated at any time.
Optimizing Wi-Fi
For wireless connections, a critical starting point is the position of the router. He must…
- … positioned as centrally as possible to reach all rooms with Wi-Fi terminal devices of the same quality.
- …keep out of cabinets, if possible, and be in a free position. Furniture (and even pots filled with water) can also prevent Wi-Fi from connecting.
- … not be in the immediate vicinity of sources of interference, such as microwaves.
However, some obstacles to your Wi-Fi simply cannot be removed. Walls and ceilings, neighboring Wi-Fi networks, more and more wirelessly connected terminal devices… these and other factors are jeopardizing Wi-Fi bandwidth and increasingly pushing even the latest generation routers to its performance limits.
The only long-term solution in these cases is to “extend” the Wi-Fi signal. There are basically two options for this. One of them is the aforementioned Powerline adapters, which are also available on Wi-Fi models and act as additional Wi-Fi access points. The alternative is repeaters, such as devolo WiFi 6 repeaters, which amplify the router’s existing WiFi signal.
Which of the two solutions is correct depends on the individual conditions. Repeaters are brilliant in small to medium spaces on the same floor. Here, they reliably carry the Wi-Fi signal into rooms that the router has a hard time reaching from your location.
For apartments or large houses, on the other hand, we recommend using Powerline adapters. Their performance is not affected by ceilings or walls because they use the power line to communicate with each other and offer a flexible choice between Internet access via Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi at the destination.
Regardless of which option you choose, both Powerline adapters and repeaters are compatible with your router at work and help you get better performance from your Internet connection.