How to Speed up your Broadband Connection

The marketing of internet service providers is an incredible array of far reaching promises, most notably now companies have begun offering the option of 'infinite broadband', conjuring images of endless streaming, instant downloads and more videos of baby monkeys riding backwards on pigs than you can shake a stick at.

But are these promises being delivered? When companies offer 20 megabytes per second they are smuggling in the stipulation of 'as much as'.

Most providers will operate a 'fair usage policy' which allows them to manage traffic, it means when customers start using too much the company can slow down their connection to give room for everyone else. Basically as so many customers are demanding ever increasing use of the internet, the information gets caught up just like traffic jams as too many cars try driving on one stretch.

Older networks work less efficiently too, the copper cables laid out years ago are not very effective at tranferring information. Unlike new, super efficient fibre cables, copper cables are unreliable and, over longer streches, are more likely to lose information, requiring it be sent all over again and therefore taking much longer to communicate.

So all these technical factors contribute to the fact that the speeds offered by companies will often not actually transfer to your personal computer.

Contacting your service provider, consulting broadband guides or even asking friends can all help you get advice you need.

You may often find that internet speeds are slowed at particular times of day when there is the most traffic demanding the network, there is not much you can do in these situations. But remembering when the service is slowest and avoid those times will help you enjoy faster connection speed.

Switching your internet service provider might help, some provide faster services to different areas, taking advantage of a broadband speed tester can help you understand what services can provide the fastest internet to your area. Updating to a better service can also help you take advantage of new technologies like super-fast fibre broadband, price comparison websites can give you all the detailed information you need to understand which companies provide the most efficient services for you area. The other advantage of consulting a price comparison website is that they also collate user reviews, these allow a more detailed, personal understanding of the service, providing any warning to major bugbears that might put you off.

In the end, such vast demand on broadband networks means your speeds might never be quite as fast as you'd like, but by doing some research you might find the most efficient provider for your money.