The Internet is Slow

Feeling like your downloads, browsing, and streaming music and videos takes too long? Check that your slowness is Indeed, network related. Go to Speedtest.net and run a test to see if you are getting your package’s worth of speed or not.

Minimum speeds should be at least 50% of the ISP’s advertised speeds, and your ping should be under 100. If your results do not correspond with these, then something is hogging your bandwidth, or there’s a network problem. First, check to see that there aren’t any torrent clients running in the background. They will often minimize to the tray and continue downloading and uploading files, which uses a lot of bandwidth. Next, check that your network card’s drivers are up to date (if you haven’t updated your operating system, this might be the time). Next, try turning your modem off and on again. If it has no On/Off button, just unplug and plug it back in.

If none of this helped, call your ISP and tell them there’s a problem on their end, and let them fix it.