Fix slow internet on wireless connections

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Are you having problems with slow internet at home? are you on fibre but still only getting a few megabytes download speeds when running a broadband speed test? a lot of people think that this is due to the actual internet connection (and to be fair – in some cases it probably is!), but there is something else that you can try to speed up your connection. Here is how to improve wifi signal.

Firstly, you need to identify where the problem actually is so there are a few things you should do to run some diagnostics.

Instructions

Disconnect all devices from the wireless and also any cabled devices from your router. Then, take a laptop and plug in a network cable between your router and the laptop so that only that laptop is connected to the router/internet. Also ensure that the wireless is turned off on your laptop.

Then, go to speedtest.net and run a test on your laptop. This will then return you information on your ping, download and upload speeds. If you upload and download speeds are around where you would expect, then great, we will move onto the next phase of diagnostics. If they are not, it would probably indicate that the problem is actually with your internet and its best to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

If the ping, download and upload speeds seem to be ok, then the next step is to disconnect from the router with the network cable and then reconnect your laptop to the wireless. Then, run the same broadband speed test again. If you now see a slower download and upload speed, you would probably see a lower ping also. The indicates that there is a potential issue with your wireless rather than your actual internet connection.

So what you should do now is to run a wireless test on some other devices like a mobile phone, iPad or another laptop if you have them to see if you can replicate the issue. If you cannot replicate the issue and it is only on your one laptop, the chances are is that your laptop is the problem and you may need to update your wireless network card drivers to help this. If you can replicate the issue, then you should move to the next part of the diagnostic process.

We now reach the part where the problem may be interference on your wireless network. Most times, this is caused by a neighbouring router being on the same wireless channel as your router, causing interference and slowing down your wireless connection to your gateway (router) and in turn, making it like your internet is slow.

So, what do you do…?

First of all, you should start up a command prompt and run it as an administrator so that it is elevated. (If you need to know how to do this, please post a comment at the bottom of this post and I’ll create a guide video if it is required).

When you have your command prompt up, you should run the following command:

netsh wlan show network bssid

This will return your own wireless network and all the neighbouring wireless networks that may be causing an interference and it will look something like this:

The part that we are interested in is the “Channel”. You are looking for any conflicts with neighbouring wireless networks by taking your own channel number and seeing whether any of your neighbouring routers have the same channel. If they do, then you should login to your routers web portal and change the channel number to one that is not being used by any other of the neighbouring routers. Then reboot your router.

Once your router has rebooted it should then be running on the wireless channel that you set which should no longer be conflicting with any other networks.

You should then run another broadband speed test and see whether your ping, download and upload speeds have increased.

Feedback

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