How to troubleshoot C4L internet speed problems

Before you begin troubleshooting the speed of your C4L internet connection, we recommend that you run a C4L Internet Speed Test to benchmark your current connection speed.

It is also a good idea confirm the guaranteed minimum download speed you have subscribed to from C4L.

You can get this information by checking your C4L broadband bill, your C4L contract or by contacting C4L.

Potential causes of C4L’s slow internet performance

Is it the C4L internet connection that is running slow or could it be your device (PC/laptop/phone)?

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

The speed issue may be due to over-utilization of your device’s resources e.g RAM/memory/CPU and not a problem with C4L’s broadband connection.

If you are on a laptop then you may use the task manager to check your Processor and RAM utilisation.

On any other device, you could try rebooting the device which hopefully should terminate all programs that may have been hogging your systems resources.

Run the C4L Speed test on your computer and your mobile to see how the results differ between the 2 devices.

Hopefully this should give you more information to work with in terms of whether the issue is with your PC/Smartphone or the C4L internet connection.

• What exactly does the C4L download and upload speed mean?
• Who’s the best Broadband Service Provider in the UK?
• 5 ways to speed up your C4L broadband performance
• DNS tip to improve internet browsing speed on C4L

Is your Wifi network the reason for the issues?

The root cause of the performance issue could be your Wifi as opposed to the C4L broadband connection.

You can rule out the Wifi by connecting your computer directly into the C4L broadband router using a network cable and then run the C4L Speed test again.

If the speed is better when you’re connected using a network cable, this shows that the issue may be with your internal wireless network.

A number of things to look further into:

• Are the Wireless channels that you’re using for your wireless network network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbours?
• Is the Wifi network signal from the wireless router obstructed?
• Does your performance get better when you’re standing right infront of the C4L wireless router?

Exactly who’s connected to my wireless network?

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

Others could be using your wireless network and eating up all your C4L speed by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos over your C4L internet connection! Worse still, they may be conducting illegal activities over your C4L internet connection.

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

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

The above software analyse your Wifi network and produce a list of the devices connected.

• How to see who is on your C4L Wifi network

Should I get a wireless network booster for my C4L broadband?

You may discover that you have Wi-Fi coverage holes in your property, a wireless network extender aka a Wifi Booster is the best solution to strengthen your Wifi signal to cover any black spots.

• Best Wireless Signal Extenders

The Wifi booster simply picks up the existing Wifi network signal just as it is becoming weaker and re-transmits the Wifi network signal to increase it’s coverage.

Place the Wifi network booster where your wireless network signal from the C4L broadband router is starting to become weaker.

Position it approximately where your wireless signal is dropping down to less than 2 bars. Walk around your house with a tablet to determine where this location is.

When did you last upgrade the C4L broadband router?

The C4L and broadband infrastructure, in general, are frequently updated to support new features and improve reliability as technology evolves.  Always ensure that the C4L broadband internet router is running the most up-to-date software.

Most C4L broadband routers allow you to perform the software upgrade by simply logging on the C4L broadband router and simply clicking a button to do the upgrade.

If you can’t do this, get in touch with C4L and they will perform the upgrade for you or talk you through performing the upgrade yourself.

As well as upgrading the software, if you have had the same hardware for a long period, it’s probably worth talking to C4L to ask for a hardware upgrade.

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

This is probably the most common cause for C4L broadband performance problems 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 C4L who should be able to conduct the appropriate line tests to see if there is a issue on the C4L internet line.

Is the performance issue due to C4L broadband congestion?

If you are finding that the C4L internet connection speed in your area is slow during certain periods i.e. weekends or evenings, it may be due to congestion during peak times.

• What’s Broadband Contention Ratio and does C4L have contention?

You should contact C4L to check your minimum speed.

Re-testing your C4L internet connection

After the problem has been fixed either by yourself or C4L, re-test your internet connection using  at least 2 separate Speedtests to ensure the problem is fixed:

• • Use the ookla internet broadband speed checker to test your C4L broadband
  • Check your C4L connection speed using Ookla Offical Speed Test
  • Test your C4L internet connectionspeed using fast.com speed test
  • Check My Broadband Speed Checker C4L broadband speed checker
  • • 0845UK Broadband Speed Checker and troubleshooting