Tired of looking at your mobile phone while you wait for websites to load? If yes, maybe it's time to find out why your internet connection is so slow. There are many contributing factors to connectivity when using the Internet: it is not just about the type of your internet service provider or the features of your smartphone - different issues can present various combinations of issues, causing trouble with your internet connection. Most commonly, the internet connection speed is affected by types of Internet access, issues within your phone, or external factors. Let's troubleshoot the reasons for the slow internet connection!
6 Reasons for Slow Mobile Internet Connection and How to Fix It
1. Crowded Wifi Network
If you're not the only person using your WiFi network, you'll be sharing bandwidth. The pipeline between your devices and the internet is limited, and if a lot of devices try to send and receive a lot of data, they'll have to take turns. This will slow down the internet for everyone connected. For Wi-Fi networks, numerous connected devices can also lead to a slowdown, as the Wi-Fi communicates with each device in turn.
Fix/Solution: In order to get rid of this, you can use 'Portable Wifi Hotspot Manager', which can be downloaded on Play Store, to manage users connected on a hotspot, or if your phone has a One-time data limit feature which can limit the number of connected devices, these can be found under Settings > Portable hotspot.
2. Network Range and Physical Obstructions
One simple reason why you are experiencing an unstable internet connection and may not be working as well as it should be is that you're not in a great spot to pick up a Wi-Fi signal. If you're far from the Wi-Fi router or have many walls, floors, and lots of objects between your device and the router, you'll probably have a poor connection that can slow down your internet access. Stone, brick, and concrete walls will especially interfere with your signal, as can any device giving off its own wireless signal, like a smart home device.
Fix/Solution: If you can carry your device somewhere else, this is an easy fix. Just place your device near the WiFi router.
3. Issue with Philippine ISP data plan along with speed
Sometimes, your internet is slow because you're only paying for slow internet. Log onto your provider's website, may it be Globe, Smart, PLDT, or Converge ICT, or give them a call through their customer service hotline and find out what plan you have.
Fix/Solution: If you're just paying for slow internet, the best way to speed it up will be to upgrade.
4. Local congestion or ISP throttling
Another reason you might be getting slow internet, and one that's not easy to do anything about, simply is that there are tons of people using up the bandwidth available to your neighborhood. The area you live in doesn't have an unlimited pipeline to the internet, and if a huge population is all on the internet at once, the congestion can slow down the internet. This probably won't happen often, but when it does, you're going to hate it. Regarding bandwidth throttling, Globe implements a Fair Use Policy, which slows down the internet once 800MB a day is reached. Smart implements a fair use policy on data usage, but instead of a slow internet connection, once 800MB a day is reached, the SIM will be blocked from connecting to the internet. To solve this, read how to unblock Smart SIM.
Fix/Solution: To monitor your data consumption and to avoid reaching the data cap of ISPs, these apps might come in handy:
For Android users, download My Data Manager on Google Play Store. After installing, open the My Data Manager app and monitor your mobile data usage.
For iOS users, download My Data Manager on the Apple App Store. This app will help you monitor your data usage.
See also: Mobile Legends, CODM, Dota 2, Other Online Games Data Usage
5. Bandwidth hogging due to background process
It might not even be your neighbors that are stealing the bandwidth available to you. Let's face it: our phones and electronic devices do a lot of stuff behind the scenes that we don't even realize what's going on, like auto-updates and auto-sync features, which consume data without the user knowing it.
Fix/Solution: If you're browsing the internet while the automatic update is turned on, your browsing may be slower than usual. In resolving this problem, it is recommended to turn off the automatic update of apps temporarily. You may also clean up the unnecessary tasks from the task manager to get more free RAM; just swipe rarely or unused apps from your recent apps.
6. Issues with DNS server
When you type an address into your browser, like google.com, your phone uses something called DNS to look up and translate that into a phone-friendly IP address. Sometimes, though, the servers your phone uses to look up that information can have issues or go down entirely. If your default DNS servers aren't having problems, then you probably won't find too much of an improvement with an alternative server—but it might speed up your browsing by a few milliseconds, at least.
Fix/Solution: While there is no exact solution when you experience a DNS problem with your ISP, using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) might be of help to make your internet connection more stable. VPN is mainly used for anonymity purposes, and some are using it for free internet.
You might also like:
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How to Use DNS on Android Efficiently (Faster Internet, Better Privacy)
What can you say about these tips on how to solve a slow internet connection? Let us know your thoughts by leaving your comment below.
Thanks for reading!
Credits: miui