5 Ways to Make Your Home Internet Connection Perform Better

Surfing the web at home has come a long way over the past two decades, from dial-up modems that required a phone line to virtually wireless networks that can be accessed freely from around your house. Despite these amazing advancements in such a short amount of time, it’s easy to grow frustrated when a website takes longer than a few seconds to load or when a sluggish Internet connection makes tasks such as streaming video or uploading photos impossible. Here, are five ways to improve your home Internet connection to achieve better results when browsing.

1. Minimize the number of tasks that you perform at a time.

While tabbed browsing has made it much easier to multitask, it is common for people to have more than ten tabs open at a time. Conducting these many operations at once can put a tremendous stress on your bandwidth and can compromise your computer’s performance. By keeping tasks to a minimum and focusing on one or two websites at a time, your computer will be able to load and function much more quickly. This also goes for using your connection on more than one machine at a time. For example, if you are streaming something on your television set while trying to access the Internet on your laptop, your connection will be noticeably slower.

2. Ensure that your antivirus software is adequate and up to date.

Simply clicking an ad link or opening an infected email can set off a range of problems for many PCs if a virus is involved. When your computer becomes infected by a virus, most of your network’s bandwidth will be unavailable for normal tasks. Make sure you have antivirus software installed on your computer to protect you against these dangers. This will help to catch even small bugs that can affect your system’s performance.

3. Keep your computer clear of spyware and malware.

If you have never scanned your computer for spyware or malware, you may not even know what the term means. Most computers that are connected to the internet will have picked up spyware at some point in time, and this can noticeably impact your computer’s performance and your connection speed. MalwareBytes and SuperAntiSpyware are two popular free options to help combat spyware and remove it from your system.

4. Optimize your temporary Internet files or cache.

When you visit a site repeatedly, your computer may be wasting time and effort downloading the same files over and over. For example, your email, banking website, Facebook, or other sites might be loading from scratch each time you sign on. Optimizing your Internet options and cache will allow your computer to only download new graphics from specific sites when something changes. This will free up bandwidth for other tasks and allow for faster service.

5. Use updated hardware and software whenever possible.

Often, your Internet connection can be improved simply by replacing old programs or hardware. Newer computers will be better equipped to handle high Internet speeds. An old router or damaged antennae may also be hindering your network’s wireless performance. If your router is positioned in a prominent spot in your house and you feel like it should be working more efficiently, try another router or attempt to connect a friend’s computer to the network to assess the difference in performance.

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

Post contributed by Amy, on behalf of Cable.co.uk, a comparison site where you can search over 300+ broadband deals, TV and phone packages.