Troubleshooting Unicom broadband speed problems

Before you begin troubleshooting the speed of your Unicom internet connection, we suggest that you run a Unicom Broadband Speedtest to measure your current broadband speed.

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

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

Possible causes of Unicom’s slow internet performance

Is it the Unicom broadband that is slow or could it be your device (PC/laptop/phone)?

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

The performance issue may be due to the over-utilisation of your device’s resources e.g Memory/CPU and not an issue with Unicom’s internet connection.

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

On other device, you should try restarting the device which hopefully will shut down all applications that may have been hogging system resources.

Re-run the Unicom Speed checker on your PC and your mobile phone to see how the speedtest results compare between the 2 devices.

This should hopefully provide you with some info to help determine whether the issue is with your PC/Smartphone or the Unicom broadband connection.

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

Is the wireless network the cause of the slowness?

The root cause of the performance problem could be your internal Wifi network and not the Unicom internet connection.

You can rule out the Wifi by simply connecting your computer directly to the Unicom broadband router using an ethernet cable and then run the Unicom Speed test again.

If the result improves when you are connected via a network cable, this shows that the issue may be with the internal wireless network.

A few other things to investigate:

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

Who is connected to my wireless network?

Have you checked that your wireless network password has not been hacked? Do you have an open Wifi network? How strong is your wireless network password? It could be time to update it.

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

There are 3 applications that you can use to scan your Wifi network to see who’s connected:

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

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

• How to check who’s on your Unicom Wi-Fi network

Do I need a Wi-Fi network booster for my Unicom broadband?

You may find that you have Wi-Fi coverage gaps in your property, a Wi-Fi network extender aka a wireless Booster may be the best solution to strengthen your Wi-Fi signal to cover any coverage gaps.

• Cheapest Wifi Signal Extenders

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

Position the wireless booster near where your Wi-Fi network signal from your Unicom broadband router is starting to become weaker.

Place it approximately where your Wifi network signal is dropping down to less than two signal bars. Walk around your property with a smartphone to find where this location is.

When did you last upgrade the Unicom internet router?

The Unicom and broadband infrastructure, in general, are frequently upgraded to provide new features and improve reliability as technology evolves.  Ensure that the Unicom broadband router is running the latest software.

Most Unicom internet routers allow you to carry out the software update by simply logging into the Unicom broadband router and simply clicking on a button to start the update.

If you can’t do this, get in touch with Unicom and they will perform the upgrade for you or guide you through performing the upgrade yourself.

In addition to updating the software, if you have had the same router for a long period, it’s probably worth speaking to Unicom to request for a hardware upgrade.

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

This is probably the most common reason for Unicom broadband performance problems in your home and is more common with broadband connections that are delivered using phone lines.

If you’re not sure if this is applicable to you, you should contact Unicom who will be able to run the relevant connection checks to check if there is a fault on the Unicom internet connection.

Is the performance issue because of Unicom broadband congestion?

If you are finding that the Unicom broadband connection speed in your area is slow during certain periods i.e. weekends or during the evening, it may be due to congestion during peak hours.

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

You should speak to Unicom to find out your guaranteed speed.

Re-testing your Unicom internet connection

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

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