Troubleshooting FairBroadband broadband speed problems

Before starting to troubleshoot the performance of your FairBroadband internet connection, we suggest that you perform a FairBroadband Broadband Speedtest to confirm your current broadband speed.

You may also want to find out the guaranteed minimum download speed that you are paying for from FairBroadband.

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

Common causes of FairBroadband’s slow broadband performance

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

You need to check the number of applications are currently running on your device.

The performance issue may be due to the over-utilization of your system resources e.g RAM/CPU and as opposed to an issue with FairBroadband’s internet connection.

If you are on a PC then you can use the task manager to check your CPU and Memory usage.

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

Run the FairBroadband Speed test on your personal computer and your mobile phone to check how the speed test results compare between the two devices.

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

• What does the FairBroadband download and upload speed mean?
• Who’s the best Internet Service Provider in the UK?
• Five ways to improve your FairBroadband Internet speed
• Simple DNS hack to improve internet browsing speed on FairBroadband

Is your wireless network the cause of the performance issue?

The root cause of the performance problem may be your wireless as opposed to the FairBroadband broadband connection.

You could rule out the wireless network by simply connecting your computer directly to the FairBroadband broadband router with an ethernet cable and then run the FairBroadband Speed checker again.

If the performance improves when you’re connected via an ethernet cable, this suggests that the issue may be with the wireless.

A few other things to investigate:

• Are the Wireless channels that you are using for your Wifi network (SSID) overlapping with your neighbors?
• Is your wireless signal from the broadband router obstructed?
• Does the speed get better when you’re stood right in-front of the FairBroadband broadband router?

Who is connected to my Wi-Fi network?

Have you checked that your wireless network password has not been compromised? Do you have an un-secured wireless network? How complex is your Wifi network password? It could be time to update it.

Others could be on your Wifi network and using up all the FairBroadband bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos over your FairBroadband internet connection! Worse still, they may be conducting illegal activities over your FairBroadband broadband connection.

There are three apps that you can potentially use to analyze your wireless network to see who’s connected:

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

The above applications will scan your wireless network and produce a list of the devices connected.

• How to check who’s on your FairBroadband wireless network

Do I need a Wi-Fi network booster for my FairBroadband broadband?

You may discover that you have Wifi coverage gaps at your property, a Wi-Fi network extender also known as a wireless Booster is the best fix to boost your wireless signal to cover any coverage gaps.

• Cheapest Wireless Signal Extenders

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

Place the wireless network booster/extender near the position where your wireless signal from the FairBroadband internet router is starting to become weaker.

Position it approximately where your wireless network signal drops down to 2 bars. Walk around your property with a tablet to try and establish where this location is.

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

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

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

If you cannot do this, contact FairBroadband and they will be able to perform the upgrade for you or guide you through the process.

In addition to updating the software, if you have had hardware for a long time, it is worth speaking to FairBroadband to ask for a router upgrade.

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

This is probably the most likely reason for FairBroadband broadband performance issues in your home and is more common with internet broadband connections that are delivered through copper phone lines.

If you are unsure if this is relevant in your case, contact FairBroadband who will be able to carry out the appropriate line tests to see if there is a issue on the FairBroadband broadband line.

Is the performance issue due to FairBroadband Internet congestion?

If you are finding that the FairBroadband internet connection speed in your area is slows down during certain times i.e. weekends or evenings, then it may be because of congestion during peak hours.

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

You should speak to FairBroadband to check your guaranteed speed.

Find Best Alternatives to FairBroadband Broadband

 

Test your FairBroadband broadband connection

After the problem has been resolved either by yourself or FairBroadband, retest the internet connection using  at least 2 independent Speedtests to ensure the problem is resolved:

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