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How to Increase Network Bandwidth – Complete Guide
Do you want to achieve faster internet and a better network experience?
Do you want to download files at a higher speed? Do you want to stream in higher resolution and increased image quality? In addition to upgrading your broadband, there are a few things you can do to maximize your potential and minimize bottlenecks that can potentially slow down your internet speed.
By optimizing and configuring your computer, browser and your other programs, you can get faster internet without spending money or having to wait for the upgrade. In this article, we will go through some of the best tips for faster internet and increased network bandwidth.
How to increase network bandwidth
Your ISP and bandwidth
When you ordered your broadband, you received information about the bandwidth, in a range of Mbit / s, ie how many Megabits can be sent (or received) per second. One megabit per second equals 0.125 megabytes per second, so if you have 10 Mbit / s it equals 1.25 MB / s (MegaBytes per second).
Bandwidth can be explained like like a highway where the traffic goes in both directions, hopefully fast
Let’s say you have 10mb both in and out.
At the same time as you share a file at 10mbps speed, you download home a file at the same speed. Then you have good bandwidth that you use to 100%
That is, the total traffic (in both directions) capacity = bandwidth.
It is important to know that network bandwidth and speed are two different things.
The bandwidth refers to the number of hz or in a computer context the amount of data 100mbps etc.
Broadband networks are networks that have a minimum capacity of 2 million bits per second, or 2 MBit / s.
Look at the internet speed that your network provider promises for the area you live in. As a rule, a fiber network (or Fiber-optic internet) is faster than ADSL, while mobile broadband can vary greatly depending on the area and generation (2G, 3G or 4G).
Test your internet speed
Now that you know what your bandwidth and thus speed should be, it’s time to test it. There are many different tests, but one of the best and simplest is actually the speed test that a website offers on Fast.com. There you get your estimated speed in Mbit / s almost immediately and can choose to show more information if you wish to learn more.
You can test it several times in different browsers and through different tests. Whilst doing this, you can test your internet speed after each step to find the problem, or just to see if there is even a difference.
Reset and prepare
Now it’s time to “reset”. Start by restarting your computer. Then restart your router. Be sure to check that no cables are damaged or bent etc. If your router has antennas protruding from it, it may actually be a good idea to tune them in different directions, such as one straight up and one straight to the side.
If you have other devices running that use the internet, it’s time to turn them off. The most common is that the TV is on and streaming something from e.g. Netflix or YouTube. In a modern “smart home” you may have lots of internet-connected devices and even if they do not use a lot of bandwidth – or particularly often – it can be a lot in total.
Log in to your router to see if there are still connected devices and possibly kick them out and/or change the password – especially if you do not even know what it is!
Switch to a faster DNS
When you visit a website in your browser, the URL (eg https://example.com) is automatically translated into the unique IP address of a “Domain Name Server” (DNS). Your ISP most likely has its own DNS service, but how likely is it to be the best and fastest DNS service?
Not particularly, as companies like Google and Cloudflare offer very fast, as well as reliable, DNS servers for free. Cloudflare actually has the world’s fastest DNS service, which is also encrypted. In most cases, your ISP can see which websites you are visiting, but it will be difficult if you have e.g. Cloudflare’s service 1.1.1.1.
Clean up your computer and task manager
If you have an old computer, it can actually help you get faster internet if you free up your computer’s resources, that is, you shut down programs that run in the background unnecessarily. Start by pressing CTRL + Alt + Delete to open the Task Manager and sort by the “Network” tab to see which applications are using the internet. Turn off everything that is not needed.
Then continue browsing the list of programs running and shutting down, or even uninstalling the programs you know that you are not using. Turn off automatic updates for programs that you do not use, or that you can update manually – this is so that the updates that run in the background do not slow down your network.
Run a good antivirus program that can also detect malware, adware, and so on. Never have more than one antivirus program and a firewall running at the same time (for example, you can select an antivirus program with a built-in firewall). Turn off Windows Embedded Antivirus if you have a different third-party program. If you use a VPN service, you can turn it off, because VPN affects bandwidth.
Configure your browser for faster internet
Whether you have Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera or another browser, there are certain principles and settings that can make you surf the web faster. First of all, you need to update the browser to the latest version, if it has not been done automatically.
Clear your browser cache and turn off or uninstall any browser extensions you do not use, as some of them slow down the internet. Install an ad blocker (adblock) and / or a noscript extension, so no bandwidth is wasted on downloading ads.
If nothing else works
If you have tried a bunch of different methods, tuned your WiFi/router but still have the same internet speed, there is probably only one thing left to do: change network provider. There is always better broadband with a wider band and higher internet speed.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower frequencies in a continuous set of frequencies. Bandwidth is usually measured in hertz.
Hertz bandwidth is a key concept in several different areas that include electronics, information theories, digital communication, radio communication, signal processing, and spectroscopy. It is one of the decisive factors for the capacity of a given communication channel.
The characteristic of bandwidth is that a band with a given width can carry the same amount of information and then it does not matter where that band is in the frequency spectrum. For example, a 3 kHz band may carry a telephone call if the band is a module at a higher frequency.
Bandwidth is a key concept for many telephony applications. In radio communication, for example, the bandwidth is a frequency range occupied by a modulated carrier, while in optics it is the width of a single spectral line or for the whole spectral range.
In several contexts where signals are processed, bandwidth is a valuable and limited resource. For example, the tuner of an FM radio receiver ranges within a limited frequency range. A government can allocate a regionally available bandwidth that is also transmitted to a licensee so that their signals do not interfere with each other. Every transmitter owns the right to a piece of bandwidth which is a valuable, intangible, commodity.
For different applications, there are different exact definitions. For example, a definition of bandwidth may be beyond the frequency range where the frequency function is zero. This would then correspond to a mathematical concept called the support of a function, ie the length of values where the function is not zero. A less strict definition refers to those frequencies where the frequency function is small, which can mean less than 3 dB or lower.
Bandwidth has also sometimes become incorrectly confused with the transmission capacity, meaning the amount of data that can be transmitted in time units. An example is over modems or different buses. From a technical point of view, this is a total misuse of the term because bandwidth is measured in hertz and the transmission capacity in bits per second. This confuses the concepts of bandwidth and broadband and what the actual relationship that is proportional to the transmission capacity to bandwidth depends on is unclear.
If you have an interest in downloading a lot on the internet and maybe even very large downloads, then it may be wise to have as high a bandwidth as possible.
Most programs show download speeds in kilobytes per second or in megabytes per second, ie thousands and millions of bytes per second. The speed of the broadband service is stated correspondingly in Mbit / s, ie millions of bits per second. Since one byte corresponds to 8 bits, this means that the speed you see in such a program must be multiplied by eight to give your download speed in megabits per second. If you have a service of 10 Mbit / s, your maximum download speed is thus 1.25 MB / s.
