Improve your broadband connection

Slow broadband connection?

Today XLN Telecom suggest ways to rectify a common home working problem – a slow broadband connection:

When you’re working from home your broadband connection can often be your lifeline to the outside world. But it can also be a source of incredible frustration – particularly if your broadband speed is slow.

Surfing the internet at slow speeds can feel a bit like riding a bike through a foot of water – slow, tiring and a complete waste of your precious time. Thankfully there are a few different things you can do if you feel your home broadband is dragging:

1. Switch to a faster connection speed
An obvious solution is simply to switch either your broadband provider or the type of connection you have. Even though most broadband providers use your telephone socket to deliver their service, behind the scenes these providers can use different systems which means some are faster than others – and this may depend on where exactly you live. Another alternative is to upgrade your broadband connection, for example by switching to one of the new fast fibre optic broadband products.

2. Don’t use telephone extension cables
Don’t use telephone extension cables between your phone socket and your router as they are likely to slow the speed your data can travel. Instead, connect your router directly (with a filter – see 3) to get the fastest speed.

3. Make sure you have ADSL filters connected to all extension sockets
It’s easy to forget to use ADSL filters when connecting your router and telephones to your phone sockets. A filter should be the first thing connected to the telephone socket as otherwise you might get interference between your devices which can slow things down or simply make them not work.

4. Check your wireless connection is secure
Be sure to check your wireless internet connection! There’s nothing like a few freeloading neighbours busy watching iPlayer to slow your broadband connection speed down. Try using a friend’s smartphone to check if other people can see and use your internet connection – and if they can, it’s easy to change your settings to stop them.

5. Connect your router to your telephone master socket
Most people connect their router into the nearest telephone socket to their device. But often a faster broadband connection speed can be achieved by connecting it to your master telephone socket – the box where your home’s telephone setup meets the outside network – and then using Wi-Fi to connect to your device. You can usually find your master socket by looking for a larger than normal telephone socket where the external telephone wire connects to your home – whether from an external pole or if underground, near your front door or garage.