Troubleshoot

TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE

Step-by-Step Troubleshooting Guide to Fixing Your Connection Problems

1. Move Your Router

Walls, cupboards, even bookshelves can potentially dampen your Wi-Fi signal. Physically moving the router can make a real difference to the speed you get, and how far wireless transmissions can reach.

If your home has some dead Wi-Fi points, one good option is to buy some Wi-Fi extenders/repeaters.

2. Use an Ethernet Cable

If your connection on wireless is slow, try to connect directly to your router with a cable and test again.

If you have the option to connect your computer via cable, you will not have problems with interferences and will have much more stable connection.

3. Change the Channel or Bandwidth

Use your network’s 5GHz connection instead of 2GHz. Doing this will be different for every router. If you are not sure how this works, check your router’s user guide or look up the instructions. The option should be available in your device settings.

Using a 2GHz network will lead to a lot of interferences with most, while 5GHZ will lead to much less interference.

4. Check your internet speed

There are two ways to check your internet speed:

Directly from your browser, you can use an online speed checker such as https://speed.hyperoptic.com/
If you use Chrome, there are sometimes problems associated with extensions. To check if this is affecting your connection, you can install the following: https://www.speedtest.net/apps/chrome

5. Upgrade Your Router

Network Providers generally give their users a basic router as a default. However, some providers allow you to upgrade to a better router with stronger signal, more power, dual networks (2GHz/5GHz), etc. You can check with your provider if this is possible with your network.

6. Disconnect Unused Devices

You can also improve your connection by limiting the number of devices connected to your network. Having dozens of things tapping into the Wi-Fi at once can be problematic.

To check which devices are connected in your network, you can download FING, which is a free app that will list all devices connected to your network and consuming your bandwidth:

https://www.fing.com/products/fing-app

7. Check Your Computer

If the internet on your PC or laptop is perpetually slow, but other devices seem fine, open the Task Manager or Activity Monitor and see which programs are running in the background.

If you do not know how to check your Task Manager, you can use some free apps to analyse this, such as:

8. Keep your Operation System Updated

This is important, because some new apps and software do not work properly depending on the drivers installed, like Camera, Microphone, Bluetooth devices, etc.

It is also necessary to check your device’s maximum update level. If it is too old, some updates will no longer be possible, which might cause performance issues. If that is the case, it might be time to think about replacing your device with a newer model.