Troubleshooting Wales Broadband broadband speed problems

Before starting to troubleshoot the speed of your Wales Broadband internet connection, we suggest that you perform a Wales Broadband Internet Speed Test to benchmark your current connection speed.

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

You can find this information by checking your Wales Broadband broadband bill, your Wales Broadband contract or by contacting Wales Broadband.

Potential causes of Wales Broadband’s slow internet performance

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

You need to check the number of apps are running on your device.

The performance problem may be due to the over-utilization of your device’s resources i.e RAM/CPU Processor and as opposed to a problem with Wales Broadband’s broadband connection.

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

On any other device, you should try restarting the device which hopefully will kill all apps that may be using up your device resources.

Run the Wales Broadband Speed checker on your personal computer and your mobile phone to check how the results differ between the 2 devices.

This should hopefully give you some information to work with in terms of if the problem lies with your device or the Wales Broadband broadband connection.

• What exactly does the Wales Broadband download and upload speed mean?
• Who is the best Internet Service Provider in the UK?
• 5 ways to improve your Wales Broadband Internet performance
• Simple DNS tip to speed up internet browsing speed on Wales Broadband

Is your wireless the cause of the performance issue?

The cause of the performance problem may be your Wi-Fi network as opposed to the Wales Broadband broadband internet connection.

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

If the speed test result is better when you’re connected via a network cable, this indicates that the issue could be with the wireless network.

A number of things to check:

• Are the Wireless channels that you are using for your wireless network network (SSID) overlapping with your neighbors?
• Is the wireless signal from the wireless router obstructed?
• Does the performance get better when you’re stood directly in-front of the Wales Broadband wireless router?

Exactly who’s connected to my Wifi network?

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

Neighbors could be using your wireless network and eating up all your Wales Broadband bandwidth by downloading, uploading or even streaming music or videos on your Wales Broadband internet connection! Worse still, they may be conducting illegal activities over your Wales Broadband broadband connection.

Here are 3 apps to use to analyze your Wifi network to see who’s connected:

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

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

• How to see who is on your Wales Broadband Wi-Fi network

Do I need a Wifi network booster for my Wales Broadband broadband?

You may discover that you have wireless black holes at your property, a Wi-Fi network extender aka a wireless Booster is the best fix to increase your wireless signal to cover any black spots.

• Cheapest Wifi Signal Extenders

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

Position the Wifi network booster/extender where your Wifi signal from the Wales Broadband broadband router is starting to become weaker.

Place it approximately where your wireless signal drops down to less than two bars. Walk around your house with a tablet to find where this is.

When did you last upgrade the Wales Broadband broadband router?

The Wales Broadband and broadband infrastructure, in general, are frequently upgraded to provide new features and improve performance as technology evolves.  Ensure that your Wales Broadband broadband router is running the most up to date software.

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

If you can’t do this, get in touch with Wales Broadband and they will be able to do this for you or talk you through performing the upgrade yourself.

In addition to updating the software, if you have had the same hardware for a long time, it’s worth speaking to Wales Broadband to ask for a router upgrade.

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

This is probably the most common cause for Wales Broadband broadband performance problems in your area and it’s more common for broadband connections that are delivered using copper phone lines.

If you’re unsure if this is relevant in your case, you should contact Wales Broadband who will be able to carry out the appropriate connection tests to see if there is a fault on the Wales Broadband internet connection.

Is the performance issue due to Wales Broadband Internet congestion?

If you’re finding that the Wales Broadband internet connection speed in your area is slows down during certain times e.g over weekends or during the evening, it may be because of congestion during peak hours.

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

You should contact Wales Broadband to find out your guaranteed speed.

Test your Wales Broadband internet connection

After the problem has been fixed either by yourself or Wales Broadband, retest the broadband connection using  at least two separate Speedtests to ensure the fault is fixed:

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