How to troubleshoot Sonic Internet internet performance problems

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

Also confirm the guaranteed minimum download speed you have subscribed to from Sonic Internet.

You can get this info by checking your Sonic Internet broadband bill, your Sonic Internet contract or by contacting Sonic Internet.

Probable causes of Sonic Internet’s slow broadband performance

Is it the Sonic Internet broadband that is slow or is it your device (PC/laptop/phone)?

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

The performance issue may be due to the over-utilization of your device’s resources i.e RAM/CPU and not a problem with Sonic Internet’s broadband connection.

If you’re on a laptop then you can use the task manager to see your Processor and RAM utilization.

On any other device, you could try restarting the device which hopefully will kill all apps that may have been hogging system resources.

Run the Sonic Internet Speedtest on your personal computer and your mobile to see how the speedtest results differ between the 2 devices.

This should hopefully provide you with more info to work with in terms of whether the problem lies with your PC/Smartphone or the Sonic Internet internet connection.

• What does the Sonic Internet download and upload speed mean?
• Who is the best Internet Service Provider in the UK?
• Five methods to improve your Sonic Internet Internet performance
• DNS hack to improve internet browsing speed on Sonic Internet

Is the Wifi the issue?

The root cause of the performance issue may be your internal Wifi network as opposed to the Sonic Internet broadband internet connection.

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

If the result improves when you are connected using an ethernet cable, this indicates that the problem may be with the Wifi network.

Possible things to check:

• Are the WiFi channels that you’re using for your Wifi network network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbours?
• Is your Wifi network signal from the broadband router obstructed?
• Does your speed get better when you’re stood directly in-front of the Sonic Internet wireless router?

Who’s connected to my Wifi network?

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

Others could be using your Wifi network and using up all the Sonic Internet bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos over your Sonic Internet internet connection! Worse still, they could be carrying out illegal activities using your Sonic Internet internet connection.

Here are three applications to use to scan your Wifi network to check who is connected:

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

The above software analyse your Wifi network and show you a list of the everything on your wifi.

• How to check who is on your Sonic Internet Wi-Fi network

Should I get a Wi-Fi network booster for my Sonic Internet broadband?

You may discover that there are Wifi coverage holes in your property, a wireless extender aka a Wi-Fi Booster may be the best fix to strengthen your Wifi signal to cover any coverage gaps.

• Cheapest Wi-Fi Signal Extenders

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

Place the Wifi network booster/extender where your Wifi signal from the Sonic Internet internet router is starting to become weaker.

Position it approximately where your Wi-Fi network signal is dropping down to two bars. Walk around your house with a tablet to find where this is.

When was the last time you upgraded the Sonic Internet broadband router?

The Sonic Internet and broadband infrastructure, in general, are constantly updated to support new features and improve performance as technology evolves.  Ensure that the Sonic Internet broadband internet router is running on the most up to date software.

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

If you can’t do this, contact Sonic Internet and they will do this for you or guide you through performing the upgrade yourself.

As well as updating the software, if you have had router for a long time, it may be worth talking to Sonic Internet to request for a router upgrade.

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

This is probably the most likely reason for Sonic Internet broadband performance issues in your area and is more common for internet broadband connections that are delivered via copper phone lines.

If you’re not sure if this is applicable to you, contact Sonic Internet who will be able to run the relevant line checks to check if there is a issue on the Sonic Internet internet line.

Is the performance issue because of Sonic Internet Internet congestion?

If you are finding that the Sonic Internet internet connection speed in your area is slow during certain periods e.g over weekends or evenings, then it may be due to congestion during peak hours.

• What is Broadband Contention Ratio and does Sonic Internet have contention?

You should contact Sonic Internet to check your minimum speed.

Re-testing your Sonic Internet broadband connection

After the fault has been resolved either by yourself or Sonic Internet, re-test the internet connection using  at least two independent Speedtests to ensure the problem is fixed:

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