How to troubleshoot Southern Electric internet performance issues

Before you begin troubleshooting the speed of your Southern Electric broadband connection, we recommend that you run a Southern Electric Broadband Speedtest to measure your current internet speed.

You may also want to find out the guaranteed minimum download speed that you on your broadband package from Southern Electric.

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

Common causes of Southern Electric’s slow internet speed

Is it the Southern Electric internet connection that is running slow or could it be your device (PC/laptop/phone)?

You may need to consider the number of apps are running on your device.

The performance issue could be due to over-utilization of your device’s resources e.g RAM/memory/CPU and as opposed to an issue with Southern Electric’s broadband connection.

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

On other device, you should try restarting the device which hopefully will shutdown all apps that may be hogging your device resources.

Run the Southern Electric Speedtest on your computer and your phone to see how the speedtest results compare between the two devices.

This should hopefully provide you with some information to help determine if the problem lies with your PC/Smartphone or the Southern Electric internet connection.

• What exactly does the Southern Electric download and upload speed mean?
• Who’s the best Broadband Service Provider in the UK?
• Five tips to improve your Southern Electric Internet speed
• DNS tip to improve internet browsing speed on Southern Electric

Is your wireless network the cause of the performance issue?

The root cause of the performance problem may be your Wifi network as opposed to the Southern Electric broadband connection.

You can rule out the Wifi by simply connecting your computer directly into the Southern Electric broadband router using a network cable and run the Southern Electric Speed checker again.

If the result is better when you are connected via a network cable, this indicates that the problem may be with the Wifi network.

A number of things to investigate:

• Are the WiFi channels that you’re using for your Wifi network (SSID) overlapping with your neighbours?
• Is your Wifi network signal from the broadband router obstructed?
• Does your speed get better when you’re standing right in-front of the Southern Electric internet router?

Who is connected to my Wi-Fi network?

Have you checked that your wireless network password has not been hacked? Do you have an open wireless network? How secure is your Wifi network password? It could be time to change it.

Others could be on your Wifi network and eating up all the Southern Electric bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or video on your Southern Electric internet connection! Worse still, they may be carrying out illegal activities on your Southern Electric internet connection.

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

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

The above software will scan your Wi-Fi network and display a list of the devices connected.

• How to check who’s on your Southern Electric Wi-Fi network

Should I get a Wifi network booster for my Southern Electric broadband?

You may discover that there are wireless coverage gaps in your home, a Wifi extender aka a Wifi Booster is the best fix to increase your wireless signal to cover any coverage holes.

• Best Wifi Signal Boosters

The wireless network booster simply picks up your existing wireless signal as it is becoming weaker and re-transmits the Wifi network signal to extend it’s reach.

Position the Wifi extender near the position where your Wi-Fi network signal from the Southern Electric broadband router is starting to become weaker.

Position it approximately where your wireless signal drops down to less than 2 bars. Walk around your house with a mobile phone to try and establish where this is.

When did you last upgrade the Southern Electric internet router?

The Southern Electric and broadband infrastructure, in general, are constantly updated to provide new features and improve reliability as technology evolves.  Always ensure that the Southern Electric broadband router is running the latest software.

The majority of Southern Electric internet routers will allow you to perform the software update by simply logging into the Southern Electric broadband router and simply clicking a button to start the upgrade.

If you cannot do this, get in touch with Southern Electric and they will be able to perform the upgrade for you or guide you through performing the upgrade yourself.

In addition to updating the software, if you have had the same hardware for a long period, it’s probably worth talking to Southern Electric to request for a router upgrade.

Is the root cause of the issue external to your home (at the exchange)?

This is probably the most likely cause for Southern Electric broadband performance issues in your area and it’s more common with broadband connections that are delivered through copper phone lines.

If you are unsure if this is relevant in your case, contact Southern Electric who should be able to carry out the relevant line tests to check if there is a fault on the Southern Electric internet line.

Is the performance issue because of Southern Electric broadband congestion?

If you are finding that the Southern Electric internet connection speed in your area is slows down during certain times e.g weekends and during the evening, it may be due to congestion during peak hours.

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

You should contact Southern Electric to find out your guaranteed speed.

Re-testing your Southern Electric broadband connection

After the fault has been resolved either by yourself or Southern Electric, re-test the internet connection using  at least 2 separate Speedtests to ensure the problem is fixed:

• • How to the ookla internet broadband speed test to test your Southern Electric broadband
  • Check your Southern Electric broadband speed using Ookla Offical Speed Test
  • Test your Southern Electric broadbandspeed using fast.com speed test
  • Check My Broadband Speed Checker Southern Electric internet speed checker
  • • 0845UK Broadband Speedtest and troubleshooting