Learn How to Improve Your Internet Speed

The speed at which your computer connects to the internet can be affected by several different variables. The problem is not necessarily with your hardware or your internet service provider. There are several things you can look for to determine why your internet connection might be slow.

The first thing to check when you are tring to gauge and monitor internet speed is who is using your bandwidth? Think of bandwidth like a freeway with 2 lanes. If lots of people are driving on the same freeway, traffic will flow more slowly as cars get backed up. If many people are driving on your freeway (your bandwidth) your internet will similarly be slow.

Take a look at any computer running on the same network in your home. Is anyone downloading heavy music files or watching movies online? Is anyhone downloading large files?

Online games with other users across the world or street are big bandwidth suckers. Your kids are probably playing games like this all the time and you might be thinking that they are playing a game that was installed on the hard drive. Watching online video clips or movies or listening to streaming music are other bandwidth intensive activities. Kill all these applications and see if your speed improves.

If you can't find any of the aforementioned going on on your network, look beyond. Is your router secured? If it isn't anyone and their dog can connect to the internet through your router and make a significant dent in your bandwidth not to mention the security risk of leaving your router and thus your computer unprotected.

The fact that your neighbor or anyone else in the vicinity may be using up your bandwidth is not just a problem that affects your connection speed. Leaving your router unsecured is a security risk and anyone with determination can easily get onto your network and cause you significant problems. To this end, it is highly recommended to secure your router.

Check the router's instruction manual to find out how to secure your router. You should find your router's IP address which you type into a web browser. This will bring up the setting page for you router where you can password protect access.

Everyone should have anti-virus and anti-spyware software on their computers. If you don't run them and update them regularly, you may have malware on your system that is slowing down both your PC and your internet speed. Update your software every week and scan your system for any offending parasites that could be draining your internet speed.

The results of monitoring internet speed on your computer are helpful in optimizing your computer in general.