This article explains 3 methods by which you can improve internet speed at home. Users complain that inspite of having fast internet speed from the ISP, the speed at home is significantly lower when a speedtest is done. There are two main causes for this issue.
1. The router would not be supporting high speed network. The router would be working on 802.11b/g standard which gives a theoretical maximum speed of 54 Mpbs. This would reduce the effective internet speed of home users on the network when accessing the internet.
2. The router would have high speed network support (802.11ac), but is not properly configured.
3. The router supports high speed , but the wifi cards on the clients and users on the network does not support it. For example , the router supports high speed standards like 802.11ac, 802.11ax, but the wifi cards on the clients support only 802.11 b/g.
3 solutions are provided to improve the internet speed at your home network.
Solution 1
If your router does not support high speed networks, then it is recommended you upgrade your router to 802.11ac or 802.11 ax. These can be purchased from amazon here
802.11ac Routers| 802.11ax router
Solution 2
If your router supports high speed networks, and you have not configured it, then enable the high speed network on the router. If your router is a dual band router, enable of mix of 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz. The 5Ghz would provide better speeds as compared with a 2.4 Ghz network. A screenshot of a TPLINK 802.11 ac router with options are provided below. We select 802.11n/g for optimal performance. This would ensure that devices in the 2.4 Ghz band can operate in 802.11n(300 Mbps) as well as 54 Mbps.
Enable 5 Ghz as well for the router for allowing devices operating in the 5ghz range to connect to the router to achieve high speed connectivity. Allow a mix of 802.11a/n/ac as the mode for optimal performance.
Solution 3
In case your router supports high speed and properly configured, then it would be the wifi cards on the clients which would be the reason for slow speed. Purchase a external USB adapter which has support for 802.11 ac or 801.11ax. This can be purchased from amazon here – 802.11 ac adapter
The adapter has to be purchased based on the type of the router. You should buy 802.11 ac adapter for a 802.11 ac router for best performance.