How to troubleshoot Community Fibre broadband speed issues

Before starting to troubleshoot the speed of your Community Fibre broadband connection, we suggest that you perform a Community Fibre Internet Speedtest to confirm your current internet speed.

It is a good idea to also confirm the minimum download speed that you have subscribed to from Community Fibre.

You can find this info by checking your Community Fibre broadband bill, your Community Fibre contract or by contacting Community Fibre.

Possible causes of Community Fibre’s slow internet speed

Is it the Community Fibre broadband that is slow or is it your device (laptop/smartphone/PC)?

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

The speed issue may be due to the over-utilisation of your system resources i.e Memory/CPU Processor and not an issue with Community Fibre’s broadband connection.

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

On other device, you could try restarting the device which hopefully should shutdown all applications that may have been hogging system resources.

Run the Community Fibre Speedtest on your computer and your mobile phone to check how the results compare between the 2 devices.

Hopefully this should give you more info to help determine whether the issue is with your device or the Community Fibre broadband connection.

• What does the Community Fibre download and upload speed mean?
• Who’s the best Internet Service Provider in the UK?
• 5 tips to speed up your Community Fibre Internet performance
• Simple DNS tip to speed up internet browsing speed on Community Fibre

Is the wireless the problem?

The root cause of the performance problem may be your internal Wifi network as opposed to the Community Fibre broadband internet connection.

You can rule out the wireless by connecting your computer directly into the Community Fibre broadband router using an ethernet cable and then run the Community Fibre Speed test again.

If the speed checker result improves when you are connected using an ethernet cable, this indicates that the issue could be with your wireless.

A number of things to look further into:

• Are the WiFi channels that you are using for your Wifi network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbours?
• Is the wireless network signal from the wireless router obstructed?
• Does the performance get better when you’re stood directly in-front of the Community Fibre internet router?

Who is connected to my Wi-Fi network?

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

Neighbors could be using your Wi-Fi network and eating up all your Community Fibre speed by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos on your Community Fibre internet connection! Worse than that, they could be carrying out illegal activities on your Community Fibre internet connection.

Here are three applications to use to analyse your Wi-Fi network to see who’s connected:

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

The above software analyse your Wi-Fi network and produce a list of the connected devices.

• How to check who is on your Community Fibre Wifi network

Should I get a wireless booster for my Community Fibre broadband?

If you find that you have Wifi coverage holes at your house, a wireless network extender also known as a Wi-Fi Booster is the best solution to strengthen your wireless signal to cover any coverage gaps.

• Best Wi-Fi Signal Boosters

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

Place the Wi-Fi network extender near the position where your Wifi network signal from the Community Fibre internet router is becoming weaker.

Position it near where your Wifi signal is dropping down to 2 bars. Walk around your property with a mobile phone to find where this location is.

When was the last time you upgraded the Community Fibre broadband router?

The Community Fibre and broadband infrastructure, in general, are frequently updated to provide new features and improve performance as technology evolves.  Always ensure that your Community Fibre broadband router is running the most up to date software.

The majority of Community Fibre internet routers allow you to carry out the software upgrade by simply logging into the Community Fibre broadband router and simply clicking on a button to do the update.

If you can’t do this, contact Community Fibre and they will do this for you or alternatively, talk you through the process.

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

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

This is probably the most common cause for Community Fibre broadband performance problems in your property and is more common for internet broadband connections that are delivered using phone lines.

If you’re unsure if this is relevant in your case, you should contact Community Fibre who will be able to carry out the appropriate line checks to check if there is a problem on the Community Fibre broadband line.

Is the issue due to Community Fibre broadband congestion?

If you’re finding that the Community Fibre broadband connection speed in your area is slows down during certain periods i.e. weekends or during the evening, it may be because of congestion during peak hours.

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

You should contact Community Fibre to check your guaranteed speed.

Find Best Alternatives to Community Fibre Broadband

 

Test your Community Fibre internet connection

After the fault has been fixed either by yourself or Community Fibre, retest your internet connection using  at least two independent Speedtests to ensure the fault is resolved:

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