This document applies to HP computers with Windows 10 or Windows 8. Cracked software download sites. Select the network or modem driver update from the list. For example, Windows Update may attempt to automatically download and install important updates for.
This guide will help you work out what’s wrong with your connection, so you can decide whether it’s possible to fix the problem yourself for free, if you need to buy some new kit, or whether you simply need to have a moan at your ISP. How fast is my internet connection? Speeding up your internet connection is chiefly a question of experimenting and working out where the bottlenecks lie. The first step is to figure out if it’s your internet connection or your home network that’s causing the problem. (also available as a smartphone app) is the best way to evaluate the speed of your internet connection. First, run the Speedtest.net test in the areas from where you normally need to access the web. Make a note of the results.
Next, plug a laptop straight into your router with an Ethernet cable – or just stand a metre away from it, if you only have wireless devices – and run the test again to create a best-case speed. If the next-to-the-router speed is much quicker than that in other parts of your home, your network needs some troubleshooting. If not, the fault lies somewhere between you and your internet service provider (ISP). We all know that the stated speed on your broadband package is a theoretical maximum, and that most of us would be lucky to get anywhere near the claimed speeds. What’s trickier is knowing whether you’re getting the best possible speed for your area; you can complain to your ISP all you want, but if you’re just too far away from the network cabinet then you’re never going to see decent speeds.
Trending: The best way to determine whether your internet connection is performing as it should is to check out overall connections in your area. You don’t have to knock on doors to do this, however. Sites such as will let you test your connection speed, and also show you the results of those around you. By looking at the average speeds reported, you’ll be able to work out which of the results shown share your connection type, such as ADSL (often just called “broadband” by ISPs), fibre or cable. If your ADSL connection is coming in at 5Mbits/sec, and next door has a 12Mbits/sec connection, it’s time to get your ISP to look into your connection. Sometimes, it may be necessary to change your connection type entirely to achieve decent internet speeds. In this part of suburban London, we couldn’t get more than 5Mbits/sec of a possible 17Mbits/sec on ADSL, but fibre comes in at 36Mbite/sec out of a maximum 38Mbit/sec.
This is well worth paying the extra fiver a month. Check your uploads Most home internet connections are asymmetric: they have much faster download than upload speeds. For example, this 38Mbits/sec connection has a measured upload speed of just under 6Mbits/sec. If your upload speed is saturated, web browsing can slow to a crawl, since the requests from your computer for each element of a page to load become stuck in the upload queue. The main applications that can hammer your upload are torrent programs and file backup and synchronisation software. If you’ve recently downloaded a torrent, such as a Linux distro, it will automatically sit there uploading to others until you remove it manually. And if you’ve recently put a bunch of home videos into Dropbox, they’ll put a strain on your upstream for quite a while.
The best way to deal with this is to set upload caps within the individual applications. Check your upload speed with speedtest.net, then set a cap for about half the reported figure. Speed up your Wi-Fi If your speed tests show that your internet connection is fine next to the router but poor elsewhere, it’s time to start troubleshooting your wireless network. Wi-Fi is a wonderful technology that has come on in leaps and bounds in the past ten years, but it still can’t compare to an Ethernet cable when it comes to reliability. Router position, interference from other networks, and even your home’s construction can all make a difference to your Wi-Fi signal’s strength, and therefore your network speed.
