How to troubleshoot Littlebigone internet performance problems

Before you start troubleshooting the speed of your Littlebigone broadband connection, we recommend that you perform a Littlebigone Broadband Speed Test to measure your current internet speed.

It is also a good idea find out the minimum download speed that you are paying for from Littlebigone.

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

Potential causes of Littlebigone’s slow broadband speed

Is it your Littlebigone internet connection that is slow or could it be your device (laptop/smartphone/PC)?

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

The performance problem may be due to the over-utilisation of your device’s resources i.e RAM/memory/CPU and not an issue with Littlebigone’s internet connection.

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

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

Re-run the Littlebigone Speedtest on your computer and your phone to see how the results compare between the 2 devices.

Hopefully this should provide you with some information to work with in terms of whether the problem is with your PC/Smartphone or the Littlebigone broadband connection.

• What exactly does the Littlebigone download and upload speed mean?
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Is your wireless the cause of the issue?

The root cause of the performance problem could be your wireless network and not the Littlebigone broadband connection.

You can rule out the wireless by connecting your computer directly to the Littlebigone broadband router using an ethernet cable and then run the Littlebigone Speed checker again.

If the speed is better when you’re connected via a network cable, this suggests that the issue may be with the wireless network.

A number of things to investigate:

• Are the WiFi channels that you’re using for your Wifi network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbours?
• Is your Wifi network signal from the internet router obstructed?
• Does the speed improve when your are stood right infront of the Littlebigone broadband router?

Exactly who’s connected to my Wifi network?

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

Neighbours could be using your Wifi network and using up all your Littlebigone speed by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or video over your Littlebigone internet connection! Worse than that, they could be conducting illegal activities on your Littlebigone broadband connection.

Here are three applications that you can utlise to analyse your wireless network to see who is connected:

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

The above applications scan your Wi-Fi network and show you a list of the devices connected.

• How to see who is on your Littlebigone wireless network

Should I get a Wifi booster for my Littlebigone broadband?

You may find that there are Wifi black holes in your home, a wireless network extender also known as a Wi-Fi Booster may be the best fix to increase your Wifi signal to cover any black spots.

• Cheapest Wifi Signal Extenders

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

Place the Wi-Fi network extender near where your wireless signal from the Littlebigone broadband router is becoming weaker.

Place it near where your wireless network signal is dropping down to less than 2 bars. Walk around your property with a tablet to determine where this location is.

When was the last time you upgraded the Littlebigone broadband router?

The Littlebigone and broadband infrastructure, in general, are constantly upgraded to provide new features and improve performance as technology evolves.  Ensure that the Littlebigone broadband internet router is running the most up-to-date software.

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

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

In addition to updating the software, if you have had router for a long period, it’s probably worth talking to Littlebigone to ask for a router upgrade.

Is the cause of the problem outside your property (at the exchange)?

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

If you’re not sure if this is relevant in your case, contact Littlebigone who will be able to run the appropriate connection checks to see if there is a problem on the Littlebigone broadband connection.

Is it due to Littlebigone Internet congestion?

If you’re finding that the Littlebigone broadband connection speed in your area is slow during certain times e.g weekends and during the evening, it may be because of congestion during peak times.

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

You should speak to Littlebigone to check your minimum speed.

Re-testing your Littlebigone internet connection

After the fault has been resolved either by yourself or Littlebigone, re-test your internet connection using  at least 2 independent Speedtests to ensure the problem is resolved:

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