The fiber optics is currently the fastest way and stable Internet access. Every day there are more homes and companies with this connection and operators offer speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to a dizzying 1,000 Mbps (1 Gigabit per second). Without a doubt, a service that is light years away from what we had five years ago.
On paper, this assumes navigate 5 to 50 times faster than with a conventional ADSL connection. In other words, thanks to fiber optics and the latest generation routers provided by the operators, the speed you have contracted usually reaches your home.
However, the reality is that many users do not notice a great difference when they connect to the Internet from their computer, mobile phone, console or Smart TV, after having contracted a fiber optic connection. But why does this happen? Next, we explain what the problem is and how you can solve it.
How to increase speed:
We have a problem with the WiFi router
Unlike what is currently happening in countries like Germany or Italy, in Spain there is no free choice of the operator’s router. This means that, when you hire a fiber optic Internet access service, you have to use the router offered by your operator, and sometimes you will even have to pay an extra for it.
However, for different reasons, these routers are not always the most modern nor the ones with better speed or security features.
For commercial reasons, these are low-cost routers, designed to provide a basic service to all users, but they do not always offer the necessary features to cover the coverage and speed needs that the user needs due to the characteristics of their home.
This is noticeable, above all, in the connection speed, which sometimes does not reach the performance that the user expected when hiring. Although at other times it may not be the responsibility of the router and if for some other reason.
Connect with cable or WiFi
As you know, there are two ways to connect a device to the router to access the Internet. The most basic is to use a network cable to connect your computer, laptop or television directly to the router. This allows you to have instant access to the Internet and navigate at the maximum speed that we have contracted.
However, this method is not practical when you have several devices at home, or if you want to connect other devices that do not have a network port, such as a smartphone, a tablet or any of the Internet of Things devices that Lately they are becoming a must-have for the connected home.
In these cases, it is preferable to use the other type of connection: the wireless network. All current routers offer a WiFi network, which is much more comfortable as you do not need any type of cable or be near the router, as well as being able to connect an unlimited number of devices.
However, for technical reasons, browse Internet via WiFi is usually slower to do it connected to a network cable. If we add to this that the router is not close to the device, or there are several devices connected at the same time, the performance of the connection may be much lower than expected.
In any case, this slowness may be due to other types of circumstances that can be fixed in a simpler way than it seems at first.
You can do the test yourself, doing one of the connection speed test available on the Internet.
To try to solve these problems we can carry out certain tasks that can cause the incidents to be solved or directly opt for other types of somewhat more drastic responses.
Basic solutions
There are a series of tasks that we can carry out to get our connection to work again in a fast and solid way.
They do not always work, but they should be the first solutions that we must take into account, as they are the simplest and fastest to carry out.
Restart the router
It is the first thing we can test, since sometimes the router is loaded with so much data, even some corrupt, that it can cause the speed to be noticeably slower.
If this is something that happens often, then we may have a problem within the device.
Update Windows and drivers
Having Windows updated to the latest of the latest can also save us from losing speed, since Microsoft may have detected such a problem with the WiFi and they solve it in that patch that you need to install.
The drivers of the router and the network card may also be convenient if we can update them if we do not have them in their latest version. It’s as easy as going to the web for both devices and downloading them.
Try placing the WiFi elsewhere
You cannot imagine how many times the loss of speed is due to where is the router locatedso it might be a smart idea to put it somewhere as far away as possible from where it was, to check that the speed throughout the house is good again.
This is something very simple to do, but extremely difficult to know which is the best place the first time. Surely you will have to place it in different places until you find the best one.
Intruders on the network
If the previous solutions have not worked, it may be that the problems are of another nature a little larger, such as that we have a neighbor or intruder on the network that is occupying us all the bandwidth.
In order to check if we have someone who is occupying our network, we can opt for a very effective computer software in this sense, such as Wireshark.
This program will allow us to verify that devices we have connected the wireless networkIn this way, to check if there is any type of device that is not from the family unit, something that will be obvious if in our house there are six computers that connect via WiFi, but more appear in the software.
If we have identified the intruder, the best we can do is enter our router and change Password immediately. The next thing would be to restart it so that anyone who does not have the new password can connect.
It is advisable to change the channel
Now practically all fiber routers come prepared to work with the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz channel. This means that we can vary from one to the other, as long as our device is compatible with both channels.
If we see that we have many devices connected on the 2.4 GHz channel, it may be a very good idea for all those that can operate with 5 GHz to connect there, since it is a much more agile channel, much faster and that can not let’s have a single channel saturated.
This can make us have a much more than decent speed again, since we are being fair with the connection.
Firewall or antivirus slows down the connection
This is another case that can occur and is that the firewall or antivirus are responsible for slowing down our connection. This is something that occurs more in the firewall, but in certain occasions, not many the truth, the antivirus is also responsible.
It is easy to solve, we are just going to our firewall and we deactivate it for, for example, 15 minutes. In that time we carry out a speed test and if the connection is faster, we already know who is responsible. We will do the same with the antivirus.
In that case it is best to contact the manufacturer of such software, commenting on the problem and hoping that he will give us a solution so that we do not have to deactivate it, especially if we have paid for this program.
It would not be acceptable to have software for which we have paid an amount of money that does not let us enjoy our own network.
Install a repeater to improve your WiFi
Another solution may be to install a WiFi repeater, especially if your problem is the loss of signal and, therefore, speed in certain parts of the house.
The WiFi repeaters They are devices initially designed to be able to extend the range of the wireless signal, when it does not reach all the rooms of your house with enough power or quality to all the rooms of a house.
In this way, adding the WiFi repeater easily expands the router’s WiFi coverage, for example, in large houses, with several floors or with a garden or terrace, although they can also serve to improve the performance of the WiFi network by increasing its connection speed by configuring it in the so-called mode Bridge.
We have an example in the WiFi repeater FRITZ! Repeater 3000 from the manufacturer AVM. It is a repeater that, unlike the most basic routers, broadcasts on three bands (two channels on the 5 GHz frequency and one channel on the 2.4 GHz frequency).
At this point, you may have a question that makes a lot of sense: If your router’s WiFi signal is weak, what is the use of increasing its range with a repeater? The short answer is very little.
WiFi repeaters increase the range and stability of the wireless signal, but do not improve its speed or bandwidth. If the WiFi connection of your router is slow, the WiFi of the repeater connected to the same wireless network will be just as slow. It will only make sense if you want to increase the range, but not the speed of the WiFi.
Hence, we commented that a repeater is only in cases in which in certain parts of the house we do not have a good signal.
Buy a new router
You can always try to call your operator and tell him if he changes the router, but the problem is that he will surely put the same one again and if the one you had, for whatever reason, did not work well, it is unlikely that with another anyway the situation is solved.
That is why the best thing would be to acquire a new one and that is of quality, that is, a device that allows you to take advantage of all the speed that you have contracted and more, so that when more speed arrives, you are already prepared.
Surely many of your problems will be solved with one of the solutions that we have given you, although if the problem persists, it is best to contact the company that gives you the service and have them come and look at it, since everything seems to indicate that it is some internal problem of the network itself.