Internet Works Slow: Problems You May Have and Solutions

The reasons for our connection to go slow can be many, but we are going to check the ones that most often affect connections, since there are many that are extremely strange, and, to tell the truth, they are always the same 3 or 4 reasons. that make our web page load not adequate.

First of all, we will see if the problem is ours, we have to check our Internet connection, see if the Internet connection is working properly, and if not, attack the problem to solve it. The first step is to verify the type of connection, are we connected by Wi-Fi or mobile data? Or on the contrary, do we have a wired connection?

Wireless connections: WiFi or mobile data

If we have a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection, we must check several things:

• Do we have the correct coverage?
• Is there a user on the network that is moving a large volume of data at the moment?
• Are there users on the network who shouldn’t be using it?

Wi-Fi coverage problems

To know if the correct Wi-Fi coverage is reaching us, it is as simple as observing the coverage indicator of the device we are using, whether it is a mobile phone (Android or iOS, it does not matter) or a desktop computer with a Wi-Fi card (internal with PCIe or USB, it is also indifferent), it will have a coverage indicator, it is the typical fan in the status bar which indicates the amount of incoming signal through the lines that it has complete. If we have 3 or 4 we should not have problems (4 is the maximum), it does not mean that below we have to have them, but it is more likely that the connection will not reach our team with complete fidelity.

If the equipment where we want to connect does not have sufficient coverage, the signal will not arrive with enough power so that the Internet connection is as fast and fluid as it should be, so we will experience slowness when doing whatever it requires. Internet connection, not just the browser, this is a clear indication that the browser is not to blame. If we try to access a website and it takes a long time to load it, it can be for various reasons as we have commented, but if the browser is slow, any application is slow, we try to load a video on YouTube or Netflix and we see that it stays hooked every moment , we surely have this problem.

There are several solutions for this problem, if possible, we will wire the connection between the router and the equipment we are using, if not, we will have to install an extra device to improve the Wi-Fi network, such as a Wi-Fi repeater. , a meshed Wi-Fi system, a Wi-Fi access point, or a Powerline PLC device.

Mobile data coverage problem

The problems are the same as the previous ones, the way to check it is different. In the case of the indicators, we will not look for the Wi-Fi range, we will look for the symbol of vertical bars that indicate the amount of signal that reaches us and, above all, the indicator that is next to them, since it will determine the what type of mobile network we are connected to, the indicators will be E, H, H +, 4G, 4G + and 5G, the bars tell us how much signal we get from the network to which we are connected, it has nothing to do with speed.

If we have a bar or two, we must bear in mind that the slowness problem can come from this, since we have the connection we have, if we do not get good coverage, our speed will be low or null. If, on the other hand, we have 3 or 4 bars (4 is the maximum for this indicator as well) we will have to check the network to which we are connected, if we are in an E or H network, even if we have 4 bars of coverage, if the page that we want to load it takes up too much and has a lot of content, it will take time to load, because network E is the slowest of all. If, on the other hand, we are connected to a 4G or 4G + network with 4 bars, if we experience slowness we will have to check if the slowness is from the browser or website, since coverage may not be the problem, and we will see it quickly if we try to connect to another site.

A solution as such for this problem does not exist, since there are mobile coverage extenders (3G and 4G) which, although they are quite expensive, work perfectly, but they are really designed for when we have coverage outside a building, but inside it does not reach us or it reaches us with a great deficit. If this is your case you can think about this solution, if on the contrary you do not receive coverage of any kind even outdoors, you can try to select another network that is not your operator through the network selector of your mobile, because if not , the alternative is a change of operator to one that has coverage in that area (in case it is your area of residence and that the change is worthwhile of course).

Problem with data movement

This is a common problem, regardless of the type of connection, if our connection is limited as in the case of ADSL, or if you are occupying a lot of bandwidth of the Wi-Fi channel to which you are connected, it is very possible that, if you start to move a high volume of data, such as, for example, downloading a game from an application like Steam, downloading something very large from a web, or watching HD content on Netflix (this, believe it or not, moves a large amount of data very quickly), you will notice that the connection slows down, as in the previous case, if it is for this reason, we will notice that the entire connection slows down, not just the browser.

The solution to this problem is quite obvious, if we have a limited connection, we will prioritize actions, that is, if we need a free connection right now, we will stop the rest of the actions that we are doing and the connection will be clean for full use by the browser, and with this we will notice that it goes much faster. If, on the other hand, we have a connection with a lot of bandwidth, it is probably a matter of the Wi-Fi connection, we will test channel changes to see if it improves, if not, we will try a band change to 5 GHz and with that everything should be solved.

Intruder problem on our network

We must check this from time to time, normally with having a solid password we should not have intrusion problems, but it does not hurt to check from time to time if we have this problem. There are many ways to detect these intruders, the first and most obvious of all, check the equipment connected to Wi-Fi from our router, we will enter the configuration of our router, whatever it is, through the gateway address In a browser for any router we have, once inside we will look for the Wi-Fi section and there should be a list of equipment connected to the network, comparing the IPs of our equipment with the IPs of the connected equipment, we should be able to isolate those that are not ours and deny them access.

Denying access to a computer or device is not always a final solution, since what is blocked is the IP, if the intruder has some knowledge about networks, he will change the IP and re-enter without any problem, if to this we add a password change better than better.

To detect this type of problem we can do it from the router, but if for whatever reason, we cannot access it, there are several options that will help us. We can use mobile applications such as Fing (only for Android), Net Scan (Android and iOS) or Network Scanner (Android and iOS), these applications will show us all the devices connected to our Wi-Fi network, they also tell us when it was connected for the last time each device and they will even allow us to block them.

Wired connections

Cable connections are much less susceptible to data transmission failures, so obviously, it is a physical medium, therefore, we rule out all kinds of coverage problems and focus on the few failures that a connection of this type can have. , some are shared with wireless connections.

If our connection is by cable, we must check these things on our equipment:

• Cables are in good condition and away from sources of interference if cables are not shielded.
• That our equipment is free of malicious programs such as viruses or malware.
• Port speed configuration in router.

Cable problems

Using poor quality cables can make your connection not perform enough, we may have a cable with a faulty pair, or that they do not have the adequate shielding (or that they do not directly have shielding) and are passed near a place that creates interference (Many times we pass the cables where it is best for us, and if we do not use well-protected cables it can give us problems, it is the case of passing cables through the same conduits as electrical cables, or near electrical appliances), this will lead to traffic problems such as packet loss or slow connection. This problem affects the entire connection, so we will rule out other more specific problems.

We will solve this problem by eliminating the cables that are in bad condition and making sure that we replace them with cables in perfect condition and shielded if possible. In turn, we will check that no cables are passing through areas with interference. If we have ruled out the rest of the problems, we can see if the installation is correct by doing a speed test and seeing if more than 95% of the connection speed reaches us. We must be careful with intermediate equipment, if we have 600 megabytes of speed, but between the router and the equipment there is a FastEthernet switch, the destination equipment will only reach 95 Mbps maximum.

Malicious software problems

The problem is very easy to detect, we will pass our antivirus which must be correctly updated. If we are affected by some software of this type, the same antivirus will detect it, catalog it and later eliminate it. To be covered by this part, it is best to program your antivirus to scan regularly. Taking a simple look at the task manager, we can see how the access to the hard disk or RAM is, if we see that it is triggered and we are not performing any task that gives that status as a result, it is very likely that we have this problem.

To solve this problem you have to take two steps, since if we have this problem it is because we have failed in one of the two. Or, we do not have an antivirus, so we must install one, there are highly recommended free options if we do not want to make an economic investment in this, even Windows 10 brings an antivirus as standard with it. And the other step is to update it, if we have outdated antivirus and are infected by a threat that is not cataloged, it is as if we do not have antivirus, so we always have to keep it updated if we want to avoid this problem.

Port speed setting problems

This is very simple and it will not take time to locate this type of problem. We will get into the configuration of our router through the gateway in the browser (192.168.1.1), depending on the router it can be in one place or another but normally it is in the advanced configuration, inside we will look for the information of the Ethernet ports and we can see the speed that has been selected for each port. The normal thing, and what comes by default, is that the port works at 1000 megabytes, but sometimes we will find it at 100 megabytes for some reason, if it is at 100 megabytes we will change it to 1000 megabytes and solved.

Problems beyond our reach and for any type of connection

There are several problems that we will not be able to solve, as much as we want, we can try alternatives that can make the loading of a website work better, but it is very possible that we still cannot do anything.

• The website we are trying to access has problems.
• Problems generated by the Internet provider.

Website problems

It is possible that the website in question that we are trying to access is experiencing some unforeseen problem. We can detect this in a simple way, we will try to access another website, regardless of what it is, to see if we experience the same problem or not. To be even more secure, we will test access to the site with another device, if possible outside the network, to locate the problem 100%, that is, if we have tested with our cable desktop equipment, we will test with our mobile phone through Mobile data. If the result is always the same, the website we want to access slowly, and the test website is fast, we will identify that the problem is clearly the website.

What can we do against this? We can only see if that website in question has a version hosted closer to your location because if not, we will have nothing more than another possibility that will only come from Android devices. In an Android device we can select in the web browser the so-called “basic mode” that will make the connection be made through Google servers, which can make the connection speed up, but this does not always work, we can call it “the last bullet ».

Operator generated problems

It is possible that we experience slowness when accessing a website and it is directly the fault of who provides the service, in that case, it will also be easy to locate the problem. We will follow the same strategy as before, although changing some steps. From our cable equipment, we will try to access a website through our equipment connected to the router, either by cable or Wi-Fi, if we experience slowness, we will try to access a couple more sites, if we continue with the problem we will change device within the same network, and if finally, we remain the same, we will launch a speed test to see the result that it gives us, surely we will be in deficit and the way to corroborate it is to try to access one of the three websites that we have tested outside the local network, that is, through mobile data, if we can access it quickly we will know that the problem is with the provider.

Here we have explained what the most common problems are, so that you can review your connection if you are slow, and so that, in case of a problem, you can solve it. We have also added some advice to keep the connections out of the scope of the problem of slowness, so that you can free yourself a little of this work, although we must always bear in mind that, from time to time, we must give our equipment a review and our network so that they are always in the best possible state.