Troubleshooting ThinkingWISP broadband speed issues

Before you start troubleshooting the performance of your ThinkingWISP broadband connection, we suggest that you perform a ThinkingWISP Broadband Speedtest to measure your current broadband speed.

You may also want to confirm the minimum download speed that you on your broadband package from ThinkingWISP.

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

Likely causes of ThinkingWISP’s slow internet speed

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

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

The speed problem could be due to over-utilisation of your system resources i.e Memory/CPU Processor and not an issue with ThinkingWISP’s broadband connection.

If you’re on a PC then you can use the task manager to check your Processor and RAM usage.

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

Run the ThinkingWISP Speedtest on your computer and your mobile to see how the speed test 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 device or the ThinkingWISP broadband connection.

• What exactly does the ThinkingWISP download and upload speed mean?
• Who’s the best Internet Service Provider in the UK?
• 5 methods to improve your ThinkingWISP broadband speed
• DNS tip to improve internet browsing speed on ThinkingWISP

Is your Wifi the reason for the issues?

The cause of the performance issue could be your wireless network as opposed to the ThinkingWISP broadband internet connection.

You could rule out the Wi-Fi network by connecting your PC directly into the ThinkingWISP broadband router using an ethernet cable and run the ThinkingWISP Speedtest again.

If the performance improves when you’re connected using an ethernet cable, this proves that the problem may be with the Wifi network.

A few other things to look further into:

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

Who’s connected to my wireless network?

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

Others could be on your wireless network and eating up all the ThinkingWISP bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos over your ThinkingWISP internet connection! Worse than that, they could be conducting illegal activities over your ThinkingWISP internet connection.

Here are 3 applications to use to analyse your Wifi network to check who’s connected:

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

The above applications will scan your wireless network and show you a list of the everything on your wifi.

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

Should I get a wireless network booster for my ThinkingWISP broadband?

If you find that there are Wi-Fi black holes in your property, a Wifi network extender aka a Wi-Fi Booster may be the best solution to increase your Wi-Fi signal to cover any coverage gaps.

• Cheapest Wi-Fi Signal Boosters

The Wifi network booster picks up the existing wireless network signal as it is becoming weaker and re-transmits the Wi-Fi network signal to increase it’s reach.

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

Place it near where your Wifi network signal drops down to two bars. Walk around your property with a mobile phone to find where this is.

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

The ThinkingWISP and broadband infrastructure, in general, are frequently updated to provide new features and improve reliability as technology evolves.  Ensure that the ThinkingWISP broadband internet router is running the most up to date software.

The majority of ThinkingWISP internet routers will allow you to perform the software upgrade by logging on the ThinkingWISP broadband router and simply clicking on a button to do the upgrade.

If you cannot do this, get in touch with ThinkingWISP and they will perform the upgrade for you or alternatively, guide you through the process.

In addition to upgrading the software, if you have had the same router for a long period, it’s worth talking to ThinkingWISP to request for a hardware upgrade.

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

This is probably the most common cause for ThinkingWISP broadband performance issues in your area and is more common with broadband connections that are delivered using phone lines.

If you are unsure if this is relevant in your case, contact ThinkingWISP who will be able to run the relevant line tests to see if there is a fault on the ThinkingWISP internet line.

Is the performance issue due to ThinkingWISP broadband congestion?

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

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

You should speak to ThinkingWISP to check your guaranteed speed.

Re-testing your ThinkingWISP internet connection

After the problem has been resolved either by yourself or ThinkingWISP, re-test the broadband connection using  at least two independent Speedtests to ensure the issue is fixed:

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