How to troubleshoot BT internet speed problems

Before starting to troubleshoot the speed of your BT broadband connection, we recommend that you run a BT Internet Speedtest to confirm your current connection speed.

You may also want to confirm the guaranteed minimum download speed you on your broadband package from BT.

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

Common causes of BT’s slow broadband performance

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

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

The speed problem may be due to over-utilization of your device’s resources i.e Memory/CPU and not an issue with BT’s internet connection.

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

On any other device, you could try restarting the device which hopefully will terminate all apps that may be using up your systems resources.

Re-run the BT Speed test on your computer and your mobile phone to see how the speed test results differ between the two devices.

This should hopefully provide you with more information to work with in terms of whether the problem is with your device or the BT broadband connection.

• What exactly does the BT download and upload speed mean?
• Who is the best Internet Service Provider in the UK?
• 5 tips to speed up your BT Internet speed
• Simple DNS tip to improve internet browsing speed on BT

Is the wireless the cause of the performance issue?

The root cause of the performance problem may be your Wi-Fi network as opposed to the BT broadband connection.

You could rule out the Wi-Fi network by simply connecting your computer directly to the BT broadband router using a network cable and run the BT Speed checker again.

If the speed test result is better when you’re connected by an ethernet cable, this indicates that the issue may be with the wireless network.

Possible things to check:

• Are the WiFi channels that you are using for your wireless network network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbours?
• Is your wireless signal from the wireless router obstructed?
• Does your speed get better when you’re standing right infront of the BT broadband router?

Who is connected to my wireless network?

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

Neighbours could be using your wireless network and using up all the BT bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or video 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 analyse your Wifi network to see who is connected:

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

The above applications analyse your Wifi network and show you a list of the connected devices.

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

Should I get a wireless booster for my BT broadband?

You may discover that there are Wi-Fi coverage gaps at your property, a Wifi extender also known as a Wi-Fi Booster is the best fix to increase your Wifi signal to cover any coverage gaps.

• Cheapest Wi-Fi Signal Extenders

The wireless extender picks up your existing Wifi network signal as it is starting to become weaker and re-transmits the Wi-Fi network signal to extend it’s reach.

Place the wireless network booster/extender where your Wifi network signal from the BT internet router is starting to become weaker.

Position it approximately where your wireless network signal drops down to 2 signal bars. Walk around your property with a mobile phone to determine where this is.

When did you last upgrade the BT broadband router?

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

The majority of BT broadband routers will allow you to perform the software update by logging into the BT broadband router and simply clicking on a button to do the update.

If you cannot do this, get in touch with BT and they will do this for you or guide you through performing the upgrade yourself.

As well as upgrading the software, if you have had the same hardware for a long time, it’s probably worth talking to BT to request for a hardware upgrade.

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

This is probably the most common cause for BT broadband performance issues in your area and is more common for broadband connections that are delivered using copper phone lines.

If you are not sure if this is relevant in your case, you should contact BT who should be able to run the relevant connection tests to check if there is a fault on the BT internet line.

Is it due to BT Internet congestion?

If you are finding that the BT broadband connection speed in your area is slows down during certain times e.g over weekends and during the evening, it may be because of congestion during peak hours.

• What is Broadband Contention Ratio and does BT have contention?

You should contact BT to find out your minimum speed.

Find Best Alternatives to BT Broadband

 

Test your BT broadband connection

After the issue has been fixed either by yourself or BT, re-test the internet connection using  at least 2 independent Speedtests to ensure the fault is fixed:

• • 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 broadband speed checker
  • • 0845UK Broadband Speedtest and troubleshooting