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My Internet Connection is Slow, Should I Change Providers?

By : Joaquin Hernandez |August 31, 2017 |Internet, Small Business IT |Comments Off on My Internet Connection is Slow, Should I Change Providers?

Top 10 Small Business IT Questions

#10 ? My Internet Connection is Slow, Should I Change Providers?

There are several reasons your internet connection may seem slow. Before you jump to the conclusion the problem is with your internet provider you need to do some investigation.

First, run a speed check of your internet provider. This is actually quite easy to do. A speed test program will test the speed of your computer connecting to the Internet – called the “upload” speed. It will also test the speed of copying data from the website onto your computer – called the “download” speed. There are many speed test programs available. You can search by typing “internet speed test” into your search engine. One I found on Google is http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/.

After you run the speed check and have both the upload and download speeds, compare them to the contracted speed of your internet provider. Most of the time you’ll find the internet provider is not the problem. If yours is not, continue the investigation.

The most common cause of a slowing computer is a virus or malware. Check your virus protection or malware program status. You may find your computer is infected and needs attention. Take steps to clean or quarantine the problem.

Another possibility can be a problem with a specific program or website. If one program seems slow, log in to a completely different program to determine if the problem is widespread or limited. I use Quickbooks to manage my accounting so I’d log in to Quickbooks to see if I still notice a similar response time problem. If the slowness only occurs in one program, you have probably found the culprit. If the slowness affects multiple programs, your computer may be to blame.

After investigating all of these without finding any issues, your computer itself may be the source of the problem. You will most likely need help from a local computer expert who can evaluate further. If you live near Torrance, I’d recommend PC Parlor run by Tony Musorafite. Ask for his bench rate which is very reasonable.

Hopefully, these tips will help you find the problem and get your computer back up-to-speed!

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