My Internet is So Slow :(

CG Communications, Inc. receives support calls where the statement is said, “My Internet is so slow!”

On a call, the technical support agent asks for the subscriber’s name and reviews the equipment’s status and connection, and they will review a chart showing the utilization.

The following image is a screenshot of a subscriber’s connection while they reported their connection was very slow. In this example, the subscriber is on a 5 Mbps Small Office Home Office (SOHO) bandwidth plan. As seen in the graph, the connection is already reaching its max bandwidth.

There are increasingly more devices that are bandwidth hungry than ever before. Smart phones, smart televisions, console gaming machines, computers, tablets, laptops and other appliances may all be trying to access the Internet at the same time. Computers and network appliances may run an automatic software update, application service, or processes that you may not realize.

The most common occurrence of a maxed out connection is when a router is used as a Wi-Fi hotspot in a residence with many devices. If someone is running a movie stream, depending on the service, the other users may not be able to make a new connection.

What’s the solution?

Find the source of the problem. The easiest way to isolate the issue is to unplug the router, and plug your computer directly to the LAN Port of your Power Supply. If the sluggish performance goes away, then you know that a device on your router is slowing you down. If your computer is already plugged directly to the LAN port, open up the Network Monitor on your Mac or Network Resource Monitor on your PC, and see what process is downloading data.

In the image below the Network Section of Resource Monitor shows that chrome is downloading 4.4 Mbps (converted from 550,915 Bytes per second).

Most routers allow you to see the devices that are currently connected. Some routers allow you to see what each device is utilizing. You may need to visit the router manufacturer’s website to see what features your router has built-in.

If you find the culprit that is eating your data bandwidth, you may need to find out what it is doing, and shut it off, or tell it to run the update at a later time. Smart phones may have applications that are running in the background that are utilizing the Internet. Close the App if you are not using it. If you are running a streaming service, you may need to adjust the settings to prevent one account from maxing your entire connection.

You may also increase your Internet bandwidth; however, it may not always be the viable and feasible solution as some Internet services will continue to max out your connection if the bandwidth is available. You may need to research in purchasing a router that has a bandwidth manager that allows devices to be limited to how much they can use.

If you need assistance troubleshooting your slow connection, you may visit our support site, or you may contact us at 888-221-6704.