How to Fix Slow WiFi

How to Fix Slow WiFi is a post by Craig Lloyd from Gotta Be Mobile.

If your WiFi at home is really slow all of a sudden, then there’s a problem somewhere that you can most likely fix yourself. Here’s how to fix slow WiFi.

We discussed earlier how you can deal with a slow WiFi connection that you can’t exactly fix, but what if your internet at home is experiencing performance problems? You can usually fix that since you have access to the router.

There are many reasons why your internet connection might be slow. Perhaps another user in the house is streaming Netflix or your router is clogged up a bit and just needs a simple reboot. There’s even the chance that your internet service provider could be experiencing problems of their own, in which case you’re pretty much out of luck. No matter the cause, slow WiFi can be more frustrating than not having WiFi at all.

With slow WiFi, loading websites can take forever, YouTube videos will lag and freeze, and forget about streaming any media. Slow WiFi is something that you never want to come across, especially if you’re working on something important or timely.

If you’re experiencing slow WiFi in your home, here are some ways to fix it.

Look for Bandwidth Hogs

The first thing you should do before really digging into the problem is to see if there are any bandwidth hogs on your network. If your little brother is watching Netflix down the hall on his computer, that might be a good reason as to why the WiFi slow everywhere else in the house. Kindly ask him to watch his shows later or wait for him to finish.

Furthermore, check your own computer for any unnoticed bandwidth hogs. It’s possible that Dropbox, Google Drive, or other cloud service is syncing files in the background, which could be taking up the bandwidth and making other WiFi connections slower.

Move Closer to Your Router

If you determine that there are no bandwidth hogs on your network, the next easy fix that you can try out is simply moving closer to your router.

WiFi signals can pass through walls and other obstacles, but the signal significantly diminishes when this happens, so if your router is downstairs and you’re upstairs trying to browse the web, that could be a good reason as to why your WiFi is slow.

Try to move to a place where you have a clear line of sight with your router, or at the very least try to be within a room from the router if you can’t be right next to it.

Reboot Your Device

If you’re experiencing slow WiFi, it’s always best to troubleshoot on the device that you’re having the problem on first, whether it’s a laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

To do this, simply reboot your device in order to reset the WiFi and hopefully fix the problem. Sometimes our laptops and other devices can get clogged up and even processes running in the background or even the foreground can affect the WiFi performance in some way.

Rebooting your laptop, tablet or smartphone can kill these processes and give your device a clean slate after it reboots. Try your WiFi after this and see if it’s any faster. If not, it’s time to move on to the router.

Reboot Your Router

If all else fails, perhaps the best fix that will remedy most WiFi problems is a simple reboot of your router.

It’s perhaps one of the most famous fixes in all of technology, and many jokes have been created from the popular fix that has you turn your router off and back on again to see if it solves the problem.

Then again, it’s famous and popular for a reason, because rebooting your router can work wonders, not just for fixing slow WiFi, but if you have other internet connectivity issues as well.

Some routers will have a rocker switch that you can flip to turn the router off and on, but even then I’d recommend completely unplugging it for at least 30 seconds. From there, plug it back in and turn it on, giving it a couple of minutes to fully power on before you try to access the internet again.

How to Fix Slow WiFi is a post by Craig Lloyd from Gotta Be Mobile.

How to Fix Slow WiFi