Is It Time to Upgrade Your Internet?

Since internet powers so many of our day-to-day activities, blips in your web connection service can certainly leave you in the lurch. If this is a constant issue for you, your equipment may not be the only cause! This article is for readers who have been experiencing performance issues with their internet and are considering a higher internet speed to eliminate those issues.

Why Should You Increase Your Internet Speeds?
How to Tell When You Might Need Advanced Bandwidth
Reasons for Internet Performance Issues
Troubleshoot an Internet Connection: Run Speed Tests
Troubleshoot an Internet Connection: Check Equipment
Troubleshoot an Internet Connection: Decide on a Plan
FAQ

Summary

Once it becomes clear that your internet connection isn’t working for you, it’s time to consider some solutions. Before upgrading the speed on your broadband service, you may want to first consider other issues like aging equipment, poorly set-up hardware or network congestion. Here, you’ll find steps for troubleshooting your internet connection to help you decide on your next steps.

Why Should You Increase Your Internet Speeds?

Given how entwined digital services are with the way of life for a large portion of the global community, it can be distressing when your internet connection falls short of your online needs. For example, if you’re working from home, it may feel like your professional reputation and productivity are at risk if your conference calls seem to keep dropping. Remote learning students will find it difficult to pay attention to their online class if they’re constantly trying to get reconnected. Even if you’re just finally sitting down to catch up on the streamed show you just haven’t had the time to watch yet, your ability to relax can be impaired if your internet connection drops out.

No matter what you use your internet for, it must meet the needs of your household instead of becoming another obstacle to contend with. It may be hard to tell, however, what problem your internet is suffering from. Is it an equipment or service issue? Or is it just that your household’s online activities exceed the speed limits on your internet subscription? Read on below to find out which category your troubled internet connection may fall under.

To get a better idea about which speed most closely suits your household’s online habits, please feel free to take our Internet Speed Quiz!

How to Tell When You Might Need Advanced Bandwidth

Average starting internet speeds currently level out at about 100 Mbps – 200 Mbps. Although these are excellent starting points, your internet speeds need to grow along with your household’s expectations for their online experiences.

Conditions which might warrant some higher internet speeds:

Your house has lots of screens (i.e. more than eight devices that have streaming capabilities).
You’re interested in smart home or lifestyle devices (thermostat, vacuum, light bulbs, baby monitors, etc.)
Multiple people in your home have their own smartphones.
You’re into online multitasking (doing many things online all at once).
Someone in your home is into online gaming or MMO RPG games.
You really value crystal-clear picture quality and you know the difference between LED and OLED.
You have people visit frequently (guests will ask to use your internet connection, too).
You work from home for a high-connection job (chats, phone calls, video conferences, etc.).

Still not sure if this applies to you? Here are some scenarios which, if they sound familiar, might indicate that you need more online speed capabilities.

Your internet is fine when you’re alone but starts acting up when others get home and start using their devices.
You find yourself curbing your online activities because you know your internet will slow down if you open even one more window on your browser.
After ensuring that your equipment is up to snuff and located advantageously, you still experience interference with the connection you need for daily online tasks.
You installed a smart home device and it’s suddenly a challenge to get just one show to stream properly online.
You can accurately predict that the connection powering your video conference will definitely be lost if another household member decides to start playing their favorite online game.
If you feel compelled to set rules that no one—absolutely no one—can so much as think about the internet while you’re working from home.

If any of those scenarios sounds like something that’s happened in your home, then you could perhaps talk to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) about upgrading your subscription. If these scenarios don’t quite sound right but something is still going on with your internet speed, read on for some more reasons why your internet may be hindering you.

Reasons for Internet Performance Issues

Aside from speeds that are potentially too low, there could be some other reasons why your home network might fail you.

A congested ISP network connection, especially if your neighbors use the same ISP
Any exceeded data caps on your network
Weak Wi-Fi signal
High network latency (latency is the time it takes for a signal to be transmitted to your ISP and back to your device, and it’s a tough issue to work around)
Slow or outdated devices
Throttling on your plan

How to Improve Internet Performance

Performance Issue:	Potential Cause of the Issue:	How to Fix Internet Performance Problem:
Disney Plus starts buffering right in the middle of “We Don't Talk About Bruno” from Encanto	Download speed may be too low to support consistent playback	Disconnect other devices from the network \| Lower the image resolution of the streamed media \| Connect streaming device through Ethernet \| Increase available download speeds
Your coworkers miss chunks of your thoughtful interjections because your videoconference calls (i.e. Zoom, Skype, etc.) stop syncing correctly	High latency or low upload speed	Connect video conferencing device through Ethernet \| Use router’s Quality of Service (QoS) function to prioritize video calls \| Upgrade your internet plan
Your Wi-Fi works great in your living room but lags or drops in the dining room	Weak Wi-Fi signal without adequate reach	Position your router closer to the middle of your home \| Upgrade your router or mesh system \| Incorporate a Wi-Fi extender or access point
Pages load perfectly on the first of the month but web connection speeds noticeably slow down at the end of the month	Most likely throttling due to surpassed data caps	Find a plan without data caps \| Plan to use less data (or use it strategically) throughout the month
Email load time takes much less time in the morning than it does in the evening due to nightly connection slowdown	High local traffic online	Try to plan for downloads at different times of day \| Download the shows you plan to watch before the evening's digital rush hour
Wi-Fi keeps crashing, causing you to lose most of your online gaming raids	Either weak Wi-Fi signal without adequate reach or dysfunctional router	Unplug your router and plug it in again \| Replace your router \| Call your ISP for help
Slow internet even though speed tests show correct speed	Outdated or overwhelmed devices	Close all applications on your device \| Turn device off and on again \| Update device or its included software

How to Troubleshoot an Internet Connection

Once you experience issues with interrupted signal, it’s time to do some troubleshooting before you decide to upgrade. These can be broken down into three general steps: run speed tests, check your equipment, and decide on a plan.

Step One: Run Speed Tests

While doing a speed test, your tested speed should match up with the speed you know you’re subscribing to (i.e. 100 Mbps).
Test your internet speed in different parts of your home for the download speed, upload speed, ping time, and jitter score. See definitions of these terms below.
Test at different times of day if you can, because one reason why your internet may be slow could be external traffic from your neighborhood serviced by the same ISP.
Use a reputable tester on a trustworthy computer or device. Your device shouldn’t be so aged that it has an older network card that prevents it from interacting properly with your Wi-Fi. If you’re unsure, test from multiple devices and try not to do anything else online while you run the test (remember to check for any programs running in the background on your device).
There is a difference between interruption because of slow speeds and interruption due to lack of Wi-Fi reach. If the tested speeds are slow no matter where you are in the house, then it’s a general connection issue which should be reported to your ISP. If your tested speeds check out at the correct speed in some parts of your residence but not in others, then your issue is with the strength of the Wi-Fi signal.
If your speeds check out in all places of your home but you still have frequent issues, then this might be a hint that you need to increase your bandwidth.

Internet Speed Key Terms

Download Speed:
The speed at which your network can extract data (i.e. photos, music, movies, etc.) from the internet into your connected devices.

Upload Speed:
The speed at which your network can transmit data from your device to another place through the internet

Ping:
The speed at which your internet can respond to a data download or upload request from your device

Jitter:
The consistency of your ping times—low scores mean that the ping times are stable, high scores mean that ping times vary (which creates poor connections)

Upgrade Internet Equipment for Better Connection

Step Two: Check Equipment

If your modem (usually connected by coax cable to the wall) is over several years old, ask your internet company if they can upgrade it for you. Routers typically need to be upgraded every few years or so, too.
Check that your router is in a central location in your home. If it is, try unplugging it and then reconnecting it after a minute for a solid reset. You can also connect your router to your device to run a speed test directly from there.
Check your speeds again once you’ve worked out any hardware kinks. If your internet is faster near your router and modem but slower when you walk away from it, move it to a more central location. If performance problems persist everywhere in your home, call your ISP to troubleshoot.
You can also try setting up a mesh network or using Wi-Fi extenders. If your speeds are consistent wherever the signal is, you may just need to extend it with a mesh network so that those consistent speeds can reach throughout your residence.

Step Three: Decide on a Plan

If you’re still having issues once everything in your network has been optimized as much as possible and the speed test shows that your service is running at the expected speed, it’s a good time to consider upgrading your internet subscription to a faster speed.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to replace my router or modem when I upgrade my internet speed?

Check with your Internet Service Provider to be sure that your equipment is up to date. They will be most qualified to tell you if your specific modem or router needs to be replaced.

What factors could affect my internet speed test?

Many factors could alter the results of your speed test, including: your locations, devices used to run the test, browser, etc.

What's a good ping (latency) rate for online gaming?

Ideally, an online gamer should look for ping rates no higher than 130 ms. Rates that go any higher than that won't help you level up any time soon.

What is an acceptable jitter rate for my internet connection?

Your network's jitter rate should ideally be below 30 ms. Any higher, and your internet performance is noticeably affected.

Written by Sarah Solomon

Edited by Henry St. Pierre