Why is the full speed of the Internet not being used. Decline on concurrently open connections. Hardware problems

The global network today has become as integral a part of human life as television or radio. Every day, millions of people spend from 4 to 12 hours in it, and at the same time, few people know what to do with a low Internet speed.

What is internet connection speed

Internet speed is the amount of information transmitted in one second. Usually it is measured in bits, less often in bytes (for reference: 1 byte is 8 bits), although the latter seems more practical.

A quick Internet speed test can be carried out using the built-in programs of Windows 8, for this you need to go to the "Start-Run" menu or by pressing the key combination "Windows + R" and, in the window that appears, execute the command "ping ya.ru -t".

This feature allows you to exchange small data packets of 32 bytes with the site ya.ru. By the response time, you can judge the speed of the Internet. For a fast connection, these indicators will be in the range of 10-30 ms, more than 2000 ms are considered very bad. With an unstable connection, this window can simply be minimized, this will not “eat” a lot of traffic (about 100 kb per hour) and will help your connection to be “in good shape” and monitor its speed at any time.

Possible speed issues

Here is a list of the most common connection speed problems:

  1. provider restrictions. The reason that the connection speed has become lower than declared may be: too much load on the network, reaching a certain amount of traffic, speed limits at different times of the day;
  2. server limits. Not all sites have enough resources to maintain high speed when working with a large number of users;
  3. the workload of your communication channel with the work of background applications, such as updating Windows 8, downloading new virus databases, the operation of Trojans and spyware, etc.;
  4. lack of computer resources. Outdated hardware, the simultaneous launch of a large number of applications (including viruses that can work unnoticed) can cause low Internet speed, even if these programs do not use it;
  5. incorrect configuration of network equipment. Network card, router, modem - any of these devices, if configured incorrectly, will affect the connection speed.

Video: low internet speed - causes, diagnostics, elimination

Solution to the problem

In order to increase the speed of the Internet connection with insufficient experience in setting up a computer, software or additional devices, the best choice would be to contact specialists. If you want to understand for yourself how to find out the reasons for data transfer at a low speed, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the most effective ways to solve this problem.

What to do if the Internet speed is low:

  • carefully read the contract for the provision of Internet communication services. Perhaps the reason for the low speed lies in it.
  • contact your ISP's technical support. The questions “Why are my downloads slow” are addressed there many times a day and they know most of the reasons by heart.
  • install antivirus and firewall. If your computer is not powerful enough, it is better to use programs that are not too demanding on resources. For example, Avira Antivir and Outpost Firewall. The latter in "learning mode" will ask you for permission to provide access to the network for any program. This will help you find out what applications use the Internet.
  • if you are using a non-standard operating system (beast, extreme, GameEdition, etc.) it is better to replace it with the original one. Often the reason lies in the wrong configuration of the shell.

If the above measures did not work, try changing the settings of your equipment, namely the router.

Perhaps the whole point is the signal passing through the router, a very low speed in this case may be due to the following reasons:

  1. at the same frequency as your neighbor's router works;
  2. the number of open channels leads to either slowdown or interference with the operation of the device;
  3. the signal level does not allow you to gain maximum speed;
  4. using outdated hardware or software on the router.

Change the channel in the router

One of the reasons for the low speed of the Internet via wifi may be the congestion of the used channel of the router. If there are several wireless networks with similar settings in your area, it is likely that your routers are using the same channels, which is causing the network to slow down.

To change the settings of the router, you need to go to its control panel. To do this, you need to drive in the address bar of the browser 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1, usually it is located at this address.

Photo: we name the channel of the Wi-Fi router

There we are looking for menu items in the name of which the word “channel” will appear, you need to set the channel to auto-detect, in which case the device will independently search for a free frequency.

Number of concurrent connections

You should also pay attention to such a parameter as the number of simultaneous connections (Current Connected Wireless Stations numbers or something similar). The security level of a home wireless connection often fails to stop skilled hackers.

To do this, router manufacturers have provided another protection option - limiting the number of devices. If you use a constant number of wireless devices, feel free to specify their number, everyone else will simply not be able to connect.

Measuring wifi connection speed

If suspicions about the reasons for the decrease in speed fall on the router, there is an easy way to confirm or refute them. To find out what your outgoing (incoming) Internet speed is, today there are many Internet resources, such as: www.bravica.net, www.speedtest.net or NetWorx, DUTrafic programs.

Photo: Internet speed measurement service

For example, in order to check why a laptop has a slow connection, you must first disable all programs using the Internet on it. Next, you need to take measurements on a wireless device using one of the methods indicated above. After that, connect it with a cable and repeat the procedure. If the speed differs by more than 10%, then the router really lowers it.

Ways to increase speed

  • Reducing the number of connections.
  • Setting the auto-detection of the data transmission channel.
  • Replacing a router with a device using a more modern connection protocol or flashing an old one (today the 802.11ac protocol is considered the most modern).
  • Connecting a more powerful antenna to the router will give a better signal in places with interference and improve data transfer speed.
  • If your provider works on the VPN protocol and it is possible to change it, do this by choosing one that uses DHCP or PPPoE protocols (on a static IP address).

The speed of the Internet from providers MTS, Megafon, ByFly, Beeline, Ukrtelecom is underestimated

Most wireless and sometimes cable Internet providers limit the speed. The problem is this - access to the World Wide Web is carried out through the same channels as communication, which is why, with a good network signal, the speed will still be low.

With cable providers, the problem is the same - to prevent network congestion, they set internal limits, often without the consent of customers. There is only one way to deal with this - complaints and persistent demands.

Let us consider in more detail what are the speed limits of the mobile Internet for different providers.

MTS

Depending on the tariff plan, 50 or 100 MB per day can be provided without speed limits, everything that is provided above is limited to 64 kbps. There are monthly tariffs - 3,4,6,20 or 50 GB. After overcoming the limit, the use of the Internet is blocked.

Video: how to increase internet speed

Megaphone

Offers monthly tariffs without download speed limit with a maximum traffic of 70 MB and 3,7,15,30 GB. After the exhaustion of this volume, access to the use of the service is blocked.

ByFly

This is a cable carrier. Its service packages start at 1 Mbps and end at 50 Mbps. However, it should be remembered that wired Internet is also experiencing difficulties in areas where there are no fiber optic lines and with the declared 1-2 Mbps, the real reception speed will be 512 kbps, and the upload speed will be 256 kbps.

Beeline

This company today provides both mobile and wired Internet services. In the latter, the speed varies from 10 to 100 Mbps, there are tariffs with a speed limit when a certain traffic threshold is reached, and there are without it. Mobile Internet differs only in the amount of traffic provided within a certain tariff. The declared speed is up to 256 kbps, the real one can drop to 32 kbps, it all depends on the network load.

Ukrtelecom

It provides both wireless Internet services using 3G technology, which provides speeds up to 7.2 Mbps, and cable fiber optic connections, the speed of which can be up to 5 Mbps without traffic restrictions.

Understating the speed of the Internet can have a variety of reasons from the banal restriction of the site to interference in the operation of your equipment and work through a wifi router by strangers. The first step to identifying this problem is to constantly monitor your internet speed using any of the tools suggested above.

If you are convinced that an understatement is present, begin to act according to the plan proposed above:

  • calls to the technical support of the provider;
  • setting up or changing software;
  • flashing or replacing equipment.

So we start by determining what operating system is on our computer. And that our computer meets the requirements for the normal operation of this operating system. To do this, hover over the shortcut Computer, right-click and open properties.

If you have a windows 7 operating system, then the following computer parameters are required for its normal operation.

  1. Processor with a clock frequency of 1GHz (GHz) or higher.
  2. RAM (RAM) - from 1GB (gigabytes) and above, but preferably, of course, starting with two.
  3. Free space on the hard disk is at least 20 GB, but preferably 50, because when updating the OS (operating system) it will increase in size and eat up disk space.
  4. DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver version 1.0 or higher.
  5. From my own experience of using windows 7 as an OS, I will say that these are the minimum tactical and technical data under which it is impossible to achieve high computer speed. Seven compared to XP requires a lot of system resources for its functioning.

Five Possible Causes of Slow Internet Speed

We always follow the path of least resistance:

  • We determine the parameters of the computer. To do this, we are guided by the foregoing. The processor may not be able to handle the data stream, especially when downloading files from torrent trackers.
  • If you use the Internet Explorer browser to access the Internet, then try to do this by replacing it with Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox, I assure you that it helps a lot.
  • Check if windows is automatically updated on the computer, the anti-virus system is running, if resources are downloading from the Internet, or if some programs are open. web browser. Also check the processor load in the task manager mode, if it is loaded at 100%, then this indicates an overload of the OS (on stationary computers this can be seen from the constantly burning OS process indicator), which means the provider has nothing to do with it.
  • Install (if not) a utility on the computer to check the temperature of the main components of the computer. When the processor, motherboard, video card is heated above acceptable standards, the computer freezes completely or partially. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly monitor the processes occurring inside the system unit. I think a small AIDA64 program will be enough to monitor our iron.
  • The computer is infected with a trojan virus, spam bot, or some other spyware. Which, secretly from you, turned off the protection and launched processes invisible to us.
    It can send spam, transfer your confidential data, e-mail passwords to its owner, upload any files to the system and thus occupy part of the access channel. The best advice for me was to download the Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool from the official website and scan all local drives for viruses.

Thus, dear PC users, in my opinion, the above may be Top 5 Reasons for Slow Internet Speed. But what you say about this, I think in the near future I will read it in the comments.

And for those who forgot to get useful information

In the "old" times (in the early 2000s), the low speed of dial-up modems was enough for most people. Now high-speed Internet has become a necessity. But often even on an unlimited tariff and a broadband connection, the speed suddenly drops. How to find the reason?

Browser and its settings

If the Internet began to work slowly, then first of all, you need to figure out which specific programs “slow down” it. In the minds of many people, the Internet is firmly associated with the browser - the program with which websites are viewed. But the mail program, ICQ and Skype also go online. They also transmit and receive packets of information from their servers and other nodes.

Check their work and if the speed dropped only when working in the browser, then the reason is in it. The easiest way to solve the problem is to install another browser or update an already installed one.

Meticulous people can be offered to understand the settings of the old browser. They can crash for a variety of reasons. You need to look at the "Connection Settings" tab. Here is one of the most common configuration errors: there is a checkmark next to “Internet access through a proxy server” and the browser sends all its traffic through an additional server, which affects the speed of loading sites. Try disabling the proxy server and check your internet speed.

Another reason is plugins that limit the speed of the browser. Rate limiting options are found in some types of plugins, such as download managers, or the plugin may simply be "buggy". Try disabling all plugins in the browser, restart it and check the speed.

Automatic system or software updates

If automatic updating is set in the operating system settings, then it can be updated at any time at will. The operating system sometimes loads a ton of information, which is not always needed. During such a download, both the Internet connection and the general operation of the computer slow down. To avoid such freezes, it is convenient to install all updates manually. This video shows the process of disabling updates in windows 7:

The following video talks about two ways to disable updates in windows 8:

Many programs like to update automatically: Adobe, Google Chrome, Photoshop. During the download, the bandwidth of the channel is always reduced - after all, part of the channel is occupied by updates. You can disable the automatic update function in the program settings.

Virus infection

If you do not have an adequate antivirus program, then with a high probability you can say that the Internet is slow due to the active activity of viruses. Malicious programs, having settled on the hard drive, begin to download considerable amounts of information, as well as send spam from the computer. To fight viruses, you need a licensed anti-virus program. Unlike other programs, it requires daily updates. Otherwise, the antivirus will be of no use.

When the browser opens pages for a long time, it is useful to carry out a deep scan not only of the system C: drive, but also of all other drives. The free CureIt utility from Dr.Web (freedrweb.com/cureit/) and the free anti-virus program AVZ (z-oleg.com/secur/avz/download.php) do a good job of checking.

Problem with router, switch or cable

The problem may be on the side of the hardware through which your computer is connected. Often, due to a power surge in the network, a switch or router can freeze. Try rebooting them by turning the power off and on.

It is a little more difficult to check the cable - it often happens that the cable is damaged due to mechanical impact on it, but such damage cannot be determined by eye. For example, they often stepped on the leg of a chair or crushed the cable with a door.

To check, it is best to “ring” the cable with a special device - a signal will be passed through the cable and damage will be determined. This service can be obtained from computer repair companies or from the support of the provider.

Interference from the side

If the Internet speed is low only at certain times of the day, or under certain weather conditions - thunderstorms, snow, fog, then most likely the provider's equipment is to blame. It may not be installed correctly, it may flood with water, or it may simply not be able to handle the load during the evening hours. There are two ways out - contact the provider and wait for the problem to be fixed, or change the provider.

If you use a Wi-Fi router to connect, then the reason for the low speed may be interference from a radio or microwave oven - Wi-Fi networks are quite sensitive to such interference. Try switching to a wired connection.

ISP Restrictions

What to do if you have checked all the above options, but still the speed is lower than stated in the tariff? One of the frequent reasons is the "secrets" of the provider. Some fares have speed limits under certain conditions.

For example, if during the month the user managed to download a certain amount of data. When concluding a contract, the provider must say this, but ... Sometimes the user himself forgets about these restrictions. To “treat” such a case, you need to change the tariff. Or maybe a provider.

Why are torrents downloading slowly?

It happens that the Internet works fine, but the downloaded torrent does not download, or it does it at a very low speed. Downloading from a torrent resource is not like downloading from a server. On torrent sites, files are downloaded from the computers of other people registered in the system. If the torrent is slow to download, it means that it is being distributed slowly from other computers.

What determines the distribution speed? Mainly on the number of seeds. Seeds are all those users who have the file you need on their computer and who distribute it in the torrent system. The fewer people there are, the slower the file will load. And vice versa, when a video, audio, book is very popular and is distributed to a large number of people at once, then downloading them will turn out to be “flying”. If you need to download something rare and large in volume, then it is better to leave this procedure overnight.

When using a laptop or computer to access the Internet, some users have problems with connection speed.

Although the wireless internet signal is strong, you may experience some problems.

When this happens, below are a few reasons that could be the culprit for a slow connection.

Connection speed

Not every type of Wi-Fi connection works at the same speed. When buying a router from an ISP, you usually have a choice between several different speeds.

The fastest connection has the highest cost. If you have a slow connection, your laptop may indicate a strong Wi-Fi signal, but the data transfer speed will be slow.

When you browse the Internet, your PC saves files in the Temporary Internet Files folder.

After a certain amount of time, your system can become bogged down with all these accumulations.

Therefore, delete temporary internet files from time to time. This can be done by going to the settings section of your web browser and then clearing temporary files and cache in the settings.

In some cases, the process of surfing the Internet on your laptop or computer can be problematic when you have too little RAM.


If too many processes are running at the same time on the computer, RAM may be used up.

You can improve the speed of your computer by installing more RAM and removing unnecessary programs, or at least removing them from startup.

Other questions

In some cases, your PC may be infected with viruses, malware or spyware.

When this happens, the Internet speed will slow down significantly. To fix this problem, you need to install antivirus software.


After you launch the antivirus program, it will send all suspicious files to quarantine or delete them.

After that, you may notice a significant increase in the speed at which your computer started working. Good luck.

I think every active user of the World Wide Web has faced the problem of low Internet speed. Oddly enough, but this is a fairly common occurrence. Usually, after the speed becomes slow, all the barrels roll on the provider, they say the provider is to blame and gives slow Internet. But it is not always the case! There can be many reasons. It is precisely about these reasons that slow down our Internet that I will tell in my article.

But before you start, you need to take a speed measurement and compare it with the one that your provider provides you with according to your tariff plan. The test is necessary because usually users measure the speed so to speak by eye. Here the page of the site began to load slowly, or the movie is slowly downloaded. Of course, you can also evaluate it by eye, but it is best to do it through special services. After you measure the incoming and outgoing speed, you can already understand exactly how bad everything is and look for the reasons.

Well, now let's go directly to the main reasons.

What are the reasons for the low speed of incoming and outgoing Internet?

  1. The reason may be in the Internet Explorer browser. It often happens that the user used the Google Chrome, Opera, Mozila Firefox browsers to access the network. And then I started using Internet Explorer and noticed that pages load much more slowly. This is the fault of the Internet Explorer browser. It is very slow on its own and it is not recommended to use this browser to surf the web.
  2. Various programs are running on a personal computer that download something. Or some programs are simply updated, for example, an antivirus, or you simultaneously listen to music via the network, an online toy is launched and a movie is also loaded through an online cinema. If you have purchased a tariff from a low-speed provider by itself, then, of course, so many simultaneously loaded operations on the network will slow down the Internet very much.
  3. The processor can not cope and is loaded with various processes under 90-100%. In order to check the CPU usage, you need to press + + , then select the task manager. After that, you will see the processes and CPU usage as a percentage. If the CPU usage is under 90-100%, then you will have to close some processes to reduce the load.
  4. The computer has become infected with viruses that send spam, download any files from the network, block access to the Internet in Windows settings, or change the settings for accessing the network. There are also viruses that penetrate browsers and open various sites in a new window when you are online through those browsers that are affected by the virus.
  5. On the PC, special programs are installed and running that speed up the Internet or save traffic. So programs, especially programs for saving traffic, can be guilty of a low Internet connection.
  6. If you have Internet connected through your home phone, then check all the wires for bareness.
  7. The server from which you download files may be heavily loaded. In this case, the jump speed will be very small. Also, the administration of the site that you can visit can impose a speed limit, or use cheap hosting, which greatly affects the speed of loading the site.
  8. If you are using wi-fai, then the problem may be due to the low signal of the wi-fai itself. For example, you are far away from your router. Move closer to the router and the problem should be solved.
  9. Your network card is faulty. The most common problem. As practice shows, it is very difficult to determine whether your network card is working or not. It will be easily detected in the system, show a reaction to the included cable and notify you that the cable is connected, but when it comes to full-fledged work, then everything will begin. To check your network card, it is best to connect the internet to another computer. If everything goes well on another PC, then your network card is covered, or the drivers have flown. Try reinstalling the drivers on the network card, if the situation does not change, then call the wizard so that he can accurately diagnose your network card.
  10. If you are using wi-fai and have not set a password, then someone may have connected to you and is using your traffic. If two or three computers are connected to one router, then this will cause a small and low Internet speed.

I have reviewed the 10 most common reasons. If you do not find any of the above, then most likely the problem will be in your provider itself.

 

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