Guide For Troubleshooting Your Broadband Connection

Updated October 6, 2023
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If you’re having problems with your home broadband service, there are several things you can try before turning to the support team from your broadband provider. Following these simple checks could mean you avoid an embarrassing phone call or even a charge if an engineer is called out to your home, only to find you’ve overlooked a basic error. Some of these may seem obvious, but you’ll feel foolish if they catch you out!

BroadBand Provider Tips

Slow Broadband

This can be caused by lots of things and may not be a fault, as such. First, multiple machines or users can cause large slowdowns of your broadband service. Make sure no one else is using your home broadband, especially for downloading large files, streaming television or online gaming, all of which can really hog your bandwidth. Also, make sure your own machine isn’t doing something sneaky in the background, such as patching the operating system.

Also, if possible, try plugging a wire into your machine directly if you’re using a wireless router. All kinds of things can affect Wi-Fi, from baby alarms to remote controls, so make sure it’s not a problem within your home, rather than in the service itself. If you’re still slow when connected directly to your modem/router with a cable, you can rule out wireless issues.

It’s also worth considering checking the traffic shaping rules of your broadband provider – or perhaps you’ve gone over your monthly limit and had your service slowed as a punishment? Also, remember services can be slow at certain times of day – do several speed checks throughout the day to see if it may be an issue that only occurs at peak periods. You can also check one of our article shared by a guest blogger about 5 ways to make wireless broadband internet faster.

Intermittent or No Broadband

This may well be a hardware issue, but may not be the fault of your broadband provider – or you may be able to solve the issue yourself.

First, check the microfilter – the small device that splits the signal out of the wall into one line for your home phone and one for your broadband. These can have a very short shelf life, so most broadband providers throw a few of them in the box with your wireless router – try a different one, as it may solve the problem. If you don’t have any more, most broadband suppliers will be happy to pop a few in the post to you.

Also, while you’re at the wall, make sure your internet is plugged into the telephone master socket of your home. This is the one that comes directly from the phone line outside and will be marked by having the telephone company logo on it. If you’re not connected directly to this point, you’re at the mercy of your internal wiring so be sure to check the fault isn’t here by plugging into the main socket for a trial run.

If you’ve checked all of these things and are still having problems, it’s time to call your service provider. Good luck!

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