Boosting internet speed by adjusting modem and computer setting?

Cathalog · 04-11-2012 08:33PM #1

Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering if anyone knows if there is anything I can do to boost the internet speed in the house.

The problem is that I get a reasonable internet speed coming into the house. However, I'm convinced that the router is doing something to slow it down - perhaps it's trying to prevent one device from hogging the entire bandwidth that I have.

I get speeds of about 250kB/s with speedtest.net.
However, when I download a file normally, it averages at around 50-80kB/s, generally.However, when using a download accelerator called "DownThemAll" (a firefox plugin) (basically, this splits a file that I download into ten parts, and downloads each part at the same time), my download speed is increased up to 200-250kB/s, generally.

So you might be wondering what my problem is..
Streaming.
As you can't use download accelerators for streaming videos, I'm wondering if there are any settings in my router or computer (Windows 7) that I could tweak to perhaps boost the internet speed to my laptop.

I connect via WiFi, by the way.

Thanks in advance.

agricamera · 04-11-2012 11:21PM

Cathalog wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering if anyone knows if there is anything I can do to boost the internet speed in the house.

The problem is that I get a reasonable internet speed coming into the house. However, I'm convinced that the router is doing something to slow it down - perhaps it's trying to prevent one device from hogging the entire bandwidth that I have.

I get speeds of about 250kB/s with speedtest.net.
However, when I download a file normally, it averages at around 50-80kB/s, generally.However, when using a download accelerator called "DownThemAll" (a firefox plugin) (basically, this splits a file that I download into ten parts, and downloads each part at the same time), my download speed is increased up to 200-250kB/s, generally.

So you might be wondering what my problem is..
Streaming.
As you can't use download accelerators for streaming videos, I'm wondering if there are any settings in my router or computer (Windows 7) that I could tweak to perhaps boost the internet speed to my laptop.

I connect via WiFi, by the way.

Thanks in advance.

There is no settings you can change on the computer or router and I would very much doubt the router is the cause of your issues.

The only thing it could be is if you have any Traffic Shaping switched on on the router that is limiting the rate of downloads. Might be worth checking this.

Go here: http://mirror.for.me.uk/

And try to download a file. See what speed you are getting. Thats hosted in a london data centre and there is no throttling at all.

Peregrine · 05-11-2012 12:22AM

Maybe your speedtest is in bits and computers use Bytes for measuring files

8 bits = 1 Byte

But you specified kB sooo

It could just be the sources you're downloading from

bealtine · 05-11-2012 01:50AM

Cathalog wrote: »

I connect via WiFi, by the way.

Thanks in advance.

Wifi is problematic...so that's most likely your problem. I'd suggest connecting via ethernet and trying your speedtest again (even if it's just temporarily)

Cathalog · 06-11-2012 08:10AM

Thanks for all the replies. I'm gonna give these a shot when I get home from college. I'll let you know how I get on.

Cathalog · 06-11-2012 12:04PM

Ok, so here's what I've done.

(still connected via Wifi)
Did a speedtest.net test. Got 1.87Mb/sec. Say 240KB/s.

Then downloaded a file from that site that was posted.

Average speed: ~65KB/s.

Sadly, the server doesn't support my download accelerator so I can't show you the boost in speed that I'd receive. - But I generally get speeds at around 180-240 with the accelerator.

I then turned off my Wifi and connected to the router directly (via Ethernet).
Results were similar to the above. No improvement.

googlefibre · 20-09-2014 01:44AM

change the channels on ur router, check everyone of them and speed test them all, it will help, u using a dongle?
try that if ur not and it will helps an theres several way to improve this by little steps.

Boosting internet speed by adjusting modem and computer setting?

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