How to troubleshoot BT broadband performance problems

Before starting to troubleshoot the performance of your BT internet connection, we suggest that you run a BT Internet Speedtest to benchmark your current connection speed.

You may also want to find out the minimum download speed that you are paying for from BT.

You can get this information by checking your BT broadband bill, your BT contract or by contacting BT.

Potential causes of BT’s slow broadband performance

Is it your BT internet connection that is slow or is it your device (laptop/smartphone/PC)?

You may need to consider how many applications are running on your device.

The speed problem may be due to over-utilisation of your system resources e.g RAM/CPU Processor and not an issue with BT’s broadband connection.

If you are on a PC then you may use the task manager to see your CPU and RAM usage.

On other device, you could try rebooting the device which should hopefully kill all programs that may have been hogging system resources.

Run the BT Speedtest on your PC and your phone to see how the speedtest results compare between the two devices.

This should hopefully give you more info to help determine if the issue lies with your device or the BT internet connection.

• What exactly does the BT download and upload speed mean?
• Who’s the best Broadband Service Provider in the UK?
• 5 methods to speed up your BT broadband performance
• DNS hack to improve internet browsing speed on BT

Is the Wifi network the problem?

The cause of the performance issue may be your wireless and not the BT broadband connection.

You can rule out the wireless by simply connecting your PC directly to the BT broadband router using an ethernet cable and then run the BT Speed test again.

If the performance improves when you are connected using an ethernet cable, this indicates that the issue could be with the internal wireless network.

Possible things to check:

• Are the Wireless channels that you’re using for your Wifi network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbours?
• Is your Wifi signal from the wireless router obstructed?
• Does your performance get better when your are stood directly infront of the BT broadband router?

Who’s connected to my Wi-Fi network?

Have you checked that your Wi-Fi network password has not been compromised? Do you have an open Wi-Fi network? How complex is your Wifi network password? It could be time to change it.

Others could be on your Wifi network and eating up all your BT bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos over your BT broadband connection! Worse still, they could be conducting illegal activities on your BT broadband connection.

There are three apps that you can potentially use to analyze your Wifi network to see who’s connected:

• Microsoft users can use Wireless network watcher
• Apple users can use whoFi (who is on my Wifi)
• WiFi troubleshooting application WiFi Analyzer

The above software will scan your wireless network and show you a list of the everything on your wifi.

• How to see who is on your BT Wi-Fi network

Do I need a wireless booster for my BT broadband?

You may find that there are Wi-Fi coverage gaps in your home, a Wifi extender aka a wireless Booster may be the best solution to strengthen your Wifi signal to cover any coverage gaps.

• Best Wifi Signal Extenders

The wireless booster picks up your existing Wi-Fi network signal just as it is becoming weaker and re-transmits the Wi-Fi network signal to extend it’s coverage.

Position the wireless extender near the position where your wireless signal from the BT internet router is starting to become weaker.

Position it approximately where your wireless network signal is dropping down to two bars. Walk around your home with a smartphone to find where this is.

When did you last upgrade the BT broadband router?

The BT and broadband infrastructure, in general, are constantly upgraded to provide new features and improve performance as technology evolves.  Ensure that your BT broadband router is running on the most up to date software.

Most BT broadband routers allow you to perform the software update by simply logging into the BT broadband router and simply clicking a button to perform the update.

If you can’t do this, get in touch with BT and they will do this for you or guide you through the process.

In addition to updating the software, if you have had the same router for a long period, it may be worth talking to BT to ask for a router upgrade.

Is the issue outside your property (at the exchange)?

This is probably the most likely reason for BT broadband performance problems in your area and it’s more common for internet broadband connections that are delivered through copper phone lines.

If you’re not sure if this is relevant in your case, you should contact BT who will be able to carry out the relevant connection checks to check if there is a problem on the BT internet connection.

Is the performance issue because of BT Internet congestion?

If you are finding that the BT internet connection speed in your area is slows down during certain times e.g over weekends or evenings, then it may be because of congestion during peak times.

• What’s Broadband Contention Ratio and does BT have contention?

You should speak to BT to find out your guaranteed speed.

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Re-testing your BT internet connection

After the issue has been fixed either by yourself or BT, re-test the internet connection using  at least two separate Speedtests to ensure the issue is resolved:

• • Use the ookla internet broadband speed test to test your BT broadband
  • Test your BT broadband speed using Ookla Offical Speed Test
  • Test your BT broadbandspeed using fast.com speed test
  • Check My Broadband Speed Checker BT internet speed checker
  • • 0845UK Internet Speed test and troubleshooting