How to troubleshoot HiWiFi broadband performance problems

Before starting to troubleshoot the speed of your HiWiFi internet connection, we suggest that you perform a HiWiFi Internet Speed Test to confirm your current internet speed.

You may also want to confirm the guaranteed minimum download speed that you have subscribed to from HiWiFi.

You can get this info by checking a HiWiFi broadband bill, your HiWiFi contract or by contacting HiWiFi.

Probable causes of HiWiFi’s slow internet performance

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

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

The speed issue could be due to over-utilisation of your device’s resources i.e Memory/CPU and as opposed to an issue with HiWiFi’s internet connection.

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

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

Run the HiWiFi Speed test on your computer and your phone to check how the speedtest results differ between the 2 devices.

Hopefully this should give you some info to work with in terms of if the issue is with your device or the HiWiFi internet connection.

• What does the HiWiFi download and upload speed mean?
• Who’s the best Broadband Service Provider in the UK?
• Five methods to speed up your HiWiFi Internet performance
• DNS tip to speed up internet browsing speed on HiWiFi

Is the wireless the reason for the issues?

The cause of the performance issue may be your Wifi as opposed to the HiWiFi broadband connection.

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

If the speed test result improves when you’re connected via an ethernet cable, this proves that the issue could be with your wireless.

A number of things to check:

• Are the Wireless channels that you’re using for your wireless network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbours?
• Is your Wifi signal from the wireless router obstructed?
• Does your performance improve when you’re stood directly infront of the HiWiFi internet router?

Exactly who’s connected to my wireless network?

Have you checked that your Wi-Fi network password has not been compromised? Do you have an un-secured Wi-Fi network? How strong is your Wifi network password? It may be time to change it.

Neighbours could be on your Wifi network and eating up all the HiWiFi speed by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos on your HiWiFi broadband connection! Worse still, they could be conducting illegal activities using your HiWiFi internet connection.

Here are 3 applications that you can use to scan your wireless network to see who’s connected:

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

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

• How to check who is on your HiWiFi Wifi network

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

You may discover that there are wireless black holes at your property, a Wifi extender also known as a wireless Booster is the best solution to boost your wireless signal to cover any coverage holes.

• Cheapest Wireless Signal Extenders

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

Position the wireless booster/extender near the position where your Wifi network signal from your HiWiFi broadband router is starting to become weaker.

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

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

The HiWiFi and broadband infrastructure, in general, are constantly upgraded to provide new features and improve reliability as technology evolves.  Always ensure that the HiWiFi broadband router is running the most up-to-date software.

The majority of HiWiFi broadband routers will allow you to perform the software update by simply logging on the HiWiFi broadband router and simply clicking on a button to perform the update.

If you can’t do this, get in touch with HiWiFi and they will do this for you or talk you through the process.

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

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

This is probably the most likely cause for HiWiFi broadband performance problems in your area and it’s more common for internet broadband connections that are delivered through phone lines.

If you’re not sure if this is relevant in your case, contact HiWiFi who will be able to conduct the appropriate connection tests to see if there is a issue on the HiWiFi internet connection.

Is the performance issue because of HiWiFi Internet congestion?

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

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

You should speak to HiWiFi to check your minimum speed.

Re-testing your HiWiFi internet connection

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

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