I write this post out of conviction and experience. I’ve been there in the trenches suffering painfully slow broadband connection speeds that boggle the mind. I’ve done all the tests, had the engineers out and paid far too much for phone calls to support that really didn’t help.

I’ve put together this list of tips, segmented into hardware and software, that will help you to optimise your broadband speed. Try them out one-by-one and hopefully you’ll improve the the speed of your internet connection!

Hardware Optimisations For Improved Broadband Speeds

Let’s start the broadband speed optimisation process by addressing possible problems with hardware. Phone lines, routers and devices connected to your phone line all play a part in your broadband speed. As an example of what can go wrong, one ISP (BT) has shown how a faulty fluorescent tube massively reduced broadband speed from from 4Mb to only 470Kb.

Check Or Replace Your DSL Filter / Microfilter

These little dongles are nothing short of a nightmare. Typically your ISP will provide you with a DSL filter / microfilter to split voice from data, but they’re notoriously prone to damage. Swap out your existing microfilter for a brand new one and see if that assists with improving your broadband speed.

All Connected Devices Should Use A Microfilter

Ensure that any and all devices that are connected to the phone line are done so via a microfilter. This includes telephones, answerphones, fax machines, TV set top boxes, games consoles, alarm systems etc.

Use The Master Socket

As with many homes, you many have your modem or router connected via a line extension. While handy, these have a reputation for being unreliable. If you are experiencing a slow connection then it is advised that you plug your router or modem directly into the master socket where the main line comes into your property.

Remove Line Extensions

While phone line extensions can be very useful, they act like a large antenna that can interfere with your wireless broadband connection. It may sound extreme, but if you are suffering from an extremely poor broadband connection then the culprit may well be the line extension. To solve the problem and reduce interference with your wireless network, it may be worth considering the removal of your line extension.

Check For Faulty Third Party Equipment

If you are using a wireless router to connect to the internet, your broadband speeds may be affected by faulty third party electrical equipment. Devices such as set top boxes, microwaves and games consoles have been known to cause significant interference with WiFi networks. While anecdotal, I have personal experience with one person’s faulty digital satellite set top box causing the internet connection for a row block of homes to fail for a period of weeks.

Rather annoyingly it isn’t easy to spot a faulty device. For instance a set top box may have a faulty power supply unit that isn’t bad enough for the device to fail completely, but is responsible for your connectivity problems. Finding faulty equipment is time consuming and can only be done through trial and error: turn all other devices off except for your modem or router and computer, then turn on devices individually and watch for connectivity problems.

Check For Interference

Your phone line and wireless network can be subject to interference from various outside sources. Faulty Christmas tree lights, fluorescent lights and metallic interior decorations are known culprits in creating enough interference to noticeably reduce your broadband speed.

Connect Your Router To The Phone Line As Closely As Possible

This one is really quite simple: the less cable between your router and the phone socket, the better. Remember, you really should not have any line extensions between the router and the socket.

Move Closer To Your Router

If you are using a WiFi router to connect to the internet wirelessly but your broadband speeds are poor, then it might be worth repositioning your computer closer to the router itself. This, in theory, should help boost speeds.

Ditch Wireless, Use Ethernet

Another way to improve your broadband speed is to forget about going wireless and connect directly with the router via an ethernet cable. It will probably mean you’ll have less flexibility but this is another way to optimise your broadband speed.

Boost Broadband Speed With Software Tweaks

The speed of your broadband connection can be optimised significantly by tweaking your software setup. There are optimisations for your operating system and network settings that will boost your broadband speeds quickly and with very little effort.

Get Up To Date

Before you even bother calling your ISP, make sure you are running the latest version of not only your chosen operating system, but also your browser and router firmware. These are all very important, but it is especially important to keep your router firmware current so that it can handle any new technologies employed by your ISP.

NB: In the UK you may be charged if you arrange for a BT engineer to call and find that the problem is due to out of date router firmware etc.

Use A Dedicated Independent DNS Service

The speed that pages load is affected by the Domain Name System (DNS) which associates an IP address with a domain name. By using a dedicated DNS service (such as those provided by OpenDNS) you get the benefit of a cutting edge, highly intelligent and self-healing network. It is free, is easy to setup and also allows you to block certain sites and monitor usage.

Optimise Your TCP/IP Settings

Take it for granted that your vanilla TCP/IP settings are not setup to handle the larger amounts of data transferred with a typical broadband connection. This can be easily fixed by downloading TCP/IP Optimizer (Windows) or Broadband Optimizer (Mac OS X) to tweak your settings and provide a broadband speed boost.

Password Protect Your Wireless Network

If you are using a wireless network to access the internet then you should set a password. You may be an altruist, but people will use your network to get fast broadband internet access for free. Obviously the more people using your router, the slower your broadband connection will be. Login to your router and set a WPA or WEP password to keep the network to yourself. This is a really fast and very simple way to boost broadband speeds.

Stop Using Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer on Windows is much-maligned with a reputation, whether justified or not, for being unreliable. One of the easiest ways to optimise your broadband speed is by switching from Internet Explorer to Firefox, an open source alternative. Not only is Firefox free, but it is also updated regularly, provides protection from phishers and is extremely extensible.

Install FasterFox

Firefox is speedy even when it’s just a plain out of the box install. However, installing the FasterFox plugin opens a up a whole new bright world of broadband speed optimisation. As well as improved popup blocking and network tweaks, FasterFox prefetches pages that are linked to from the page you are currently viewing so that they load faster.

Check Applications Running In The Background

Windows and Mac OS X both allow applications (such as security suites) to run in the background, some of which may actually affect your broadband speed as they transfer data from your computer to a remote server.

In Windows you can help boost broadband speeds by disabling unnecessary applications from running in the background or in the Taskbar with Process Explorer. In Mac OS X you can disable applications from running in the background by going to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items or killing the process in Terminal.

Disabling background applications is not the panacea of broadband speed boosts, but every little helps.

The Last Resort

If you’ve tried everything and your still have poor broadband speeds, then maybe it’s time to start shopping around for another ISP.

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