A lot turns on the strength of your broadband speed.

If you’re a business, the strength of your broadband determines how quickly you’re able to download and transfer files, how long it takes to process data, and the quality of your communication with your clients.

Faster connections will allow your team to carry out tasks efficiently, and guarantee smoother customer engagement on your contact channels. Slower connections could affect the pace of work and dampen the quality of your interaction with customers.

Unless you remedy the issues arising from slow broadband, your clients could seek better service elsewhere. This could in turn reduce your sales and shrink your revenues.

If you are struggling with less than optimal broadband speeds, you should find this article useful. Here we’ll note some of the possible causes of your slow internet speed, and present practical steps you can take to fix this problem.

First, let’s answer a few questions about broadband internet, so we get a sense of where we’re headed.

What is Broadband Speed?

Broadband speed refers to how quickly you can upload or download data with your internet connection. It’s measured in megabits per second (Mbps) and kilobits per second (Kbps). These days, we also hear talk of speeds reaching several gigabits per second (Gbps).

A kilobit is a thousand bits; a megabit is a million bits. One gigabit refers to a billion bits.

A bit is the smallest unit of data on your computer.

If your broadband speed is 20 Mbps, this means you’re able to transfer up to 20,000,000 bits of data per second over your internet connection. This is faster than a broadband speed of, say, 20 Kbps, or 20,000 bits per second.

How Fast Should Your Internet Be?

The answer to this question depends on what you’re using your internet for. If you routinely transfer heavy files between computers, you will need much faster broadband than someone who only uses their internet for simple text emails.

Some video streaming services require speeds of at least 5 Mbps. If you’re working with a speed of 50 Mbps, you could download a 2 GB file in about five minutes.

Things that May Be Slowing Down Your Broadband

Many people tend to blame their Internet Service providers (ISPs) for their slow broadband. But it’s not always the ISP’s fault; a lot of other factors could contribute to slower internet connection. Some of them are explained below.

• Quality of Your Hardware: If your cables and router are old, they may cause your broadband to slow down. It’s advisable that you check your connection hardware and replace it with new equipment if they have aged.
• Distance from Network Centralizer: The farther you are from your service provider’s broadband centralizer or access points, the slower your internet is likely to get.
• Obstructions: Network signals could weaken if there are walls or other things standing in its path.
• Spyware and Viruses: Spyware may affect your broadband speeds by interfering with your browser. Computer viruses may also multiply to weigh down computing power, and impede normal functioning.
• Router Location: Routers need to be placed in a central, elevated location, or at least at a point that lets signals travel unimpeded to your computers. When it’s not positioned this way, broadband speeds will be lower.
• Several Devices and Users: Access speeds may drop if there are several users and multiple devices using a single network.
• Heavy or Outdated Applications: Applications that have not been updated can affect internet speeds. They may also slow things down if they use a lot of bandwidth.
• Peak Time: Think about internet traffic as a stream of vehicles on a road. There’s usually more traffic during peak periods, so movement—or internet speeds –could be slower at those times. Peak period for internet connections is usually somewhere between morning and evening. Off peak periods may last between 2 AM and 7 AM, when there are fewer people using the internet.

How to Check Your Broadband Speed

You can find out what how fast or slowly your broadband is working by conducting a broadband speed test. It’s simple and takes just a few steps:

1. Link your computer to your router with an Ethernet cable
2. Go to your browser
3. Search for a speed testing platform (examples include speedtest.net, fast.com, and speedcheck.org).
4. Follow the instructions on the site you choose.

Note that the broadband speed displayed may be slightly lower or higher than what your ISP says it provides. This isn’t necessarily a problem. You only have cause to be concerned if the speed test consistently shows results that are much lower than what your ISP claims to be supplying you.

How to Speed Up Your Broadband

You could take these steps to make your broadband faster:

1. Protect Your Connection

It might be that your internet connection has no password protection, and other users are linking up to it without your knowledge. As we noted earlier, having multiple users on your connection at once may affect your internet speed. By restricting access with a password, you could reduce the possibility of this happening.

2. Change Your Router’s Location

Place your router in a more central location so that it achieves broad coverage. Or just make sure that the paths between it and your computers are not impeded by walls or other obstructions. Ideally, you should put it in an elevated place, like a shelf or high up a wall.

3. Close or Remove Bandwidth-Consuming Applications

Some applications could start and run without your knowledge, consuming bandwidth and stifling access speeds. Make sure to shut down these applications, or remove them if they aren’t important to you. You should also delete old files and wipe your browsing history clean to free up space and allow quicker computing.

4. Scan Your System with an Antivirus

Combat bandwidth-shrinking malware with up-to-date antivirus. You can set your antivirus to scan your systems for spyware or viruses on a regular basis.

5. Change Your Service Provider

If other measures don’t help, the problem may well be from your service provider. In this case you will have to try some other ISP and see if they can offer you a faster connection.

Get Fast, Reliable Broadband for Your Business

If you’re looking to solve your issues with broadband speed, you can speak to the experts at Layer3. They will assess your needs and recommend changes besides the few mentioned here.

Layer3 also provides secure, stable and fast broadband service. Its broadband package guarantees low latency to the internet, routable IP addresses, and multiple connections to the internet backbone via submarine cables. It’s exactly what your business needs to maintain a high standard for its operations.

Find out how these features can benefit your organization. Get in touch with the Layer3 team and request a demo today.