Troubleshooting Vivaciti broadband speed problems

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

You may also want to find out the minimum download speed you are paying for from Vivaciti.

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

Possible causes of Vivaciti’s slow broadband performance

Is it your Vivaciti broadband that is running slow or is it your device (laptop/smartphone/PC)?

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

The performance problem could be due to over-utilisation of your device’s resources e.g RAM/CPU and not an issue with Vivaciti’s internet connection.

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

On any other device, you should try rebooting the device which should hopefully terminate all applications that may be hogging system resources.

Re-run the Vivaciti Speedtest on your computer and your mobile to check how the speedtest results compare between the two devices.

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

• What exactly does the Vivaciti download and upload speed mean?
• Who is the best Internet Service Provider in the UK?
• 5 methods to speed up your Vivaciti Internet speed
• DNS tip to speed up internet browsing speed on Vivaciti

Is the Wi-Fi network the reason for the issues?

The cause of the performance issue may be your wireless and not the Vivaciti internet connection.

You can rule out the Wifi network by connecting your PC directly to the Vivaciti broadband router using a network cable and run the Vivaciti Speed test again.

If the result is better when you are connected via an ethernet cable, this indicates that the issue could be with your Wifi network.

A few other things to investigate:

• Are the Wireless channels that you are using for your wireless network network (SSID) overlapping with the neighbours?
• Is the Wi-Fi network signal from the broadband router obstructed?
• Does your performance get better when your are standing directly in-front of the Vivaciti broadband router?

Exactly who’s connected to my Wifi network?

Have you checked that your Wi-Fi 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.

Neighbors could be using your Wi-Fi network and using up all your Vivaciti bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or video over your Vivaciti broadband connection! Worse still, they could be carrying out illegal activities using your Vivaciti broadband connection.

Here are 3 apps that you can potentially utlise to analyse your Wifi network to check who is connected:

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

The above apps scan your Wi-Fi network and produce a list of the devices connected.

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

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

You may find that there are Wi-Fi black holes in your house, a Wifi network extender aka a Wi-Fi Booster is the best fix to increase your wireless signal to cover any black holes.

• Best Wi-Fi Signal Boosters

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

Position the Wifi network booster where your wireless network signal from your Vivaciti broadband router is becoming weaker.

Place it approximately where your Wifi signal drops down to two bars. Walk around your house with a mobile phone to determine where this is.

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

The Vivaciti and broadband infrastructure, in general, are constantly updated to provide new features and improve performance as technology evolves.  Ensure that the Vivaciti internet router is running on the latest software.

Most Vivaciti broadband routers allow you to perform the software upgrade by simply logging on the Vivaciti broadband router and simply clicking a button to start the upgrade.

If you can’t do this, get in touch with Vivaciti and they will perform the upgrade for you or talk you through the process.

In addition to updating the software, if you have had router for a long period, it is worth speaking to Vivaciti to request for a hardware upgrade.

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

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

If you’re unsure if this is relevant in your case, you should contact Vivaciti who will be able to conduct the relevant line tests to see if there is a problem on the Vivaciti internet connection.

Is it because of Vivaciti Internet congestion?

If you are finding that the Vivaciti internet connection speed in your area is slow during certain times i.e. weekends or evenings, it may be due to congestion during peak times.

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

You should speak to Vivaciti to check your minimum speed.

Re-testing your Vivaciti broadband connection

After the fault has been resolved either by yourself or Vivaciti, retest your broadband connection using  at least 2 independent Speedtests to ensure the issue is resolved:

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