Troubleshooting Pulse8 broadband speed issues

Before starting to troubleshoot the performance of your Pulse8 internet connection, we suggest that you perform a Pulse8 Internet Speedtest to measure your current internet speed.

Also confirm the guaranteed minimum download speed you are paying for from Pulse8.

You can get this information by checking a Pulse8 broadband bill, your Pulse8 contract or by contacting Pulse8.

Possible causes of Pulse8’s slow broadband performance

Is it the Pulse8 broadband that is running slow or could it be your device (laptop/smartphone/PC)?

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

The speed issue may be due to the over-utilization of your device’s resources i.e RAM/CPU and as opposed to a problem with Pulse8’s broadband connection.

If you’re on a PC then you may use the task manager to see your Processor and RAM utilisation.

On any other device, you could try restarting the device which hopefully will shutdown all programs that may be hogging your systems resources.

Re-run the Pulse8 Speed test on your personal computer and your mobile to check how the results differ between the 2 devices.

Hopefully this should give you more info to work with in terms of whether the problem lies with your device or the Pulse8 internet connection.

• What does the Pulse8 download and upload speed mean?
• Who is the best Broadband Service Provider in the UK?
• Five tips to improve your Pulse8 broadband performance
• DNS hack to improve internet browsing speed on Pulse8

Is the Wi-Fi network the problem?

The root cause of the performance issue could be your Wi-Fi network as opposed to the Pulse8 broadband connection.

You could rule out the wireless network by simply connecting your PC directly into the Pulse8 broadband router with an ethernet cable and then run the Pulse8 Speed checker again.

If the result improves when you are connected using a network cable, this shows that the problem could be with your Wifi.

A number of things to look further into:

• Are the Wireless channels that you are using for your wireless network (SSID) overlapping with your neighbours?
• Is your Wifi signal from the internet router obstructed?
• Does the speed get better when your are stood directly infront of the Pulse8 broadband router?

Who is connected to my Wifi network?

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

Neighbours could be using your Wi-Fi network and eating up all your Pulse8 bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos on your Pulse8 internet connection! Worse still, they may be carrying out illegal activities on your Pulse8 broadband connection.

There are 3 applications that you can potentially utlise to analyze your Wi-Fi network to check who is connected:

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

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

• How to see who’s on your Pulse8 wireless network

Should I get a Wifi network booster for my Pulse8 broadband?

If you find that there are Wifi coverage gaps at your property, a Wifi network extender aka a Wifi Booster may be the best fix to increase your wireless signal to cover any black holes.

• Best Wi-Fi Signal Extenders

The Wifi network extender picks up your existing wireless network signal as it is starting to become weaker and re-transmits the wireless network signal to increase it’s coverage.

Position the wireless network booster near the position where your Wifi network signal from the Pulse8 internet router is starting to become weaker.

Place it approximately where your Wifi signal drops down to less than two bars. Walk around your home with a tablet to determine where this location is.

When did you last upgrade the Pulse8 broadband router?

The Pulse8 and broadband infrastructure, in general, are constantly upgraded to support new features and improve reliability as technology evolves.  Ensure that your Pulse8 internet router is running on the latest software.

The majority of Pulse8 broadband routers allow you to carry out the software upgrade by logging into the Pulse8 broadband router and simply clicking a button to do the update.

If you can’t do this, contact Pulse8 and they will be able to do this for you or talk you through performing the upgrade yourself.

In addition to upgrading the software, if you have had router for a long time, it may be worth speaking to Pulse8 to ask for a router upgrade.

Is the fault outside your property (at the exchange)?

This is probably the most common cause for Pulse8 broadband performance issues in your home and it’s more common for internet broadband connections that are delivered using phone lines.

If you are not sure if this is relevant in your case, you should contact Pulse8 who will be able to run the appropriate line tests to check if there is a problem on the Pulse8 broadband line.

Is the performance issue due to Pulse8 Internet congestion?

If you’re finding that the Pulse8 broadband connection speed in your area is slow during certain times i.e. over weekends or evenings, then it may be due to congestion during peak times.

• What is Broadband Contention Ratio and does Pulse8 have contention?

You should speak to Pulse8 to check your guaranteed speed.

Test your Pulse8 broadband connection

After the fault has been fixed either by yourself or Pulse8, re-test the broadband connection using  at least 2 separate Speedtests to ensure the fault is resolved:

• • Use the ookla internet broadband speed checker to test your Pulse8 broadband
  • Test your Pulse8 broadband speed using Ookla Offical Speed Test
  • Test your Pulse8 broadbandspeed using fast.com speed test
  • Check My Broadband Speed Checker Pulse8 internet speed checker
  • • 0845UK Internet Speed Checker and troubleshooting