Troubleshooting ecominutes broadband performance problems

Before starting to troubleshoot the speed of your ecominutes broadband connection, we suggest that you run a ecominutes Broadband Speed Test to measure your current broadband speed.

Also confirm the guaranteed minimum download speed you have subscribed to from ecominutes.

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

Common causes of ecominutes’s slow broadband performance

Is it your ecominutes broadband that is running slow or is it your device (PC/laptop/phone)?

You need to consider how many apps are currently running on your device.

The speed problem could be due to over-utilization of your system resources e.g RAM/memory/CPU and not a problem with ecominutes’s broadband connection.

If you’re on a computer then you may use the task manager to check your Processor and Memory utilization.

On any other device, you could try rebooting the device which should hopefully shut down all applications that may have been using up your systems resources.

Re-run the ecominutes Speedtest on your personal computer and your mobile to see how the speed test results differ between the two devices.

Hopefully this should provide you with more info to work with in terms of if the problem lies with your PC/Smartphone or the ecominutes internet connection.

• What exactly does the ecominutes download and upload speed mean?
• Who is the best Broadband Service Provider in the UK?
• Five methods to speed up your ecominutes Internet speed
• Simple DNS hack to speed up internet browsing speed on ecominutes

Is the wireless the cause of the performance issue?

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

You could rule out the Wi-Fi network by simply connecting your PC directly into the ecominutes broadband router with an ethernet cable and then run the ecominutes Speed test again.

If the speed checker result improves when you’re connected using an ethernet cable, this suggests that the problem could be with the wireless.

Possible things to check:

• Are the Wireless channels that you are using for your Wifi network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbors?
• Is the wireless signal from the wireless router obstructed?
• Does the performance get better when you’re standing right infront of the ecominutes internet router?

Exactly who’s connected to my wireless network?

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

Neighbours could be on your Wifi network and using up all the ecominutes speed by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos over your ecominutes broadband connection! Worse than that, they could be carrying out illegal activities using your ecominutes internet connection.

Here are three apps that you can use to analyze your Wifi network to check who is connected:

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

The above software analyse your wireless network and show you a list of the connected devices.

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

Should I get a Wifi booster for my ecominutes broadband?

You may find that you have wireless black holes in your house, a Wifi network extender also known as a Wifi Booster may be the best solution to increase your Wi-Fi signal to cover any black spots.

• Cheapest Wi-Fi Signal Boosters

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

Position the wireless booster near where your Wifi signal from your ecominutes internet router is starting to become weaker.

Place it approximately where your wireless signal is dropping down to less than two signal bars. Walk around your house with a mobile phone to determine where this is.

When was the last time you upgraded the ecominutes internet router?

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

Most ecominutes internet routers will allow you to perform the software upgrade by logging into the ecominutes broadband router and simply clicking on a button to perform the update.

If you can’t do this, contact ecominutes and they will be able to do this for you or talk you through the process.

As well as upgrading the software, if you have had router for a long period, it is worth talking to ecominutes to request for a router upgrade.

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

This is probably the most common cause for ecominutes broadband performance issues in your property and it’s more common with broadband connections that are delivered via copper phone lines.

If you’re unsure if this is applicable to you, you should contact ecominutes who should be able to conduct the relevant line tests to see if there is a problem on the ecominutes broadband connection.

Is it due to ecominutes broadband congestion?

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

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

You should contact ecominutes to check your guaranteed speed.

Find Best Alternatives to ecominutes Broadband

 

Re-testing your ecominutes internet connection

After the problem has been resolved either by yourself or ecominutes, re-test your broadband connection using  at least two separate Speedtests to ensure the fault is resolved:

• • Use the ookla internet broadband speed checker to test your ecominutes connection
  • Test your ecominutes internet speed using Ookla Offical Speed Test
  • Test your ecominutes internet connectionspeed using fast.com speed test
  • Check My Broadband Speed Checker ecominutes broadband speed checker
  • • 0845UK Broadband Speedtest and troubleshooting