Troubleshooting Southern Electric internet speed issues

Before you start troubleshooting the speed of your Southern Electric internet connection, we recommend that you perform a Southern Electric Broadband Speedtest to benchmark your current broadband speed.

Also confirm the guaranteed minimum download speed that you are paying for from Southern Electric.

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

Probable causes of Southern Electric’s slow internet speed

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

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

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

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

On other device, you could try restarting the device which hopefully will shut down all apps that may have been hogging your device resources.

Run the Southern Electric Speed test on your personal computer and your mobile to check how the speed test results compare between the 2 devices.

Hopefully this should give you more information to work with in terms of whether the issue lies with your device or the Southern Electric internet connection.

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

Is the Wifi the cause of the issue?

The cause of the performance problem may be your wireless network as opposed to the Southern Electric broadband connection.

You could rule out the wireless network by simply connecting your PC directly to the Southern Electric broadband router using a network cable and then run the Southern Electric Speedtest again.

If the speed test result is better when you are connected by an ethernet cable, this indicates that the problem could be with the Wi-Fi network.

A few other things to investigate:

• Are the Wireless channels that you’re using for your Wi-Fi network network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbors?
• Is the wireless signal from the internet router obstructed?
• Does the speed improve when you’re stood right infront of the Southern Electric broadband router?

Exactly who’s connected to my Wifi network?

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

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

There are 3 apps that you can utlise to analyse your Wi-Fi network to check who’s connected:

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

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

• How to check who is on your Southern Electric Wifi network

Should I get a Wifi booster for my Southern Electric broadband?

If you discover that you have Wi-Fi black holes in your property, a wireless network extender aka a Wifi Booster may be the best solution to strengthen your Wifi signal to cover any coverage holes.

• Cheapest Wireless Signal Boosters

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

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

Position it approximately where your Wi-Fi network signal is dropping down to less than 2 signal bars. Walk around your home with a smartphone to determine where this location is.

When did you last upgrade the Southern Electric internet router?

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

Most Southern Electric broadband routers will allow you to carry out the software upgrade by logging into the Southern Electric broadband router and simply clicking on a button to do the upgrade.

If you can’t do this, contact Southern Electric and they will perform the upgrade for you or guide you through the process.

As well as upgrading the software, if you have had the same hardware for a long time, it is worth speaking to Southern Electric to request for a router upgrade.

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

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

If you are not sure if this is applicable to you, you should contact Southern Electric who will be able to run the appropriate line tests to check if there is a fault on the Southern Electric internet connection.

Is the issue due to Southern Electric Internet congestion?

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

• What is Broadband Contention Ratio and does Southern Electric have contention?

You should contact Southern Electric to check your minimum speed.

Test your Southern Electric broadband connection

After the issue has been fixed either by yourself or Southern Electric, re-test the broadband connection using  at least 2 separate Speedtests to ensure the problem is fixed:

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