Your VPN Is Crushing Your Online Speed. This is How to Correct It

May 23, 2023 Floo

Let us facial area it: Using a digital non-public community will gradual down your web speed — typically by 50% or extra.

It can be the character of how VPNs get the job done, and you can find seriously no way all-around it. However, there are many points you can consider if you want to realize the swiftest probable speeds from your VPN link.

A VPN encrypts your on the web site visitors and routes your internet link by means of a protected server in a remote area of your choosing. Although this retains your on-line activity personal, it is this method which is mainly responsible for the pace decline. It can take time to encrypt and decrypt your site visitors and for your details to make the round journey to the VPN server and back again to your unit.

Other components, these as the VPN protocol you are working with or how several folks are working with the similar VPN server you might be connecting as a result of, can also add to the in general speed loss.

The speed hit may be pretty much imperceptible for standard internet use when you use a quick VPN, but you’ll want all the speeds you can get for data-weighty pursuits like gaming, streaming or movie conferencing. A delay of even a couple of milliseconds can imply the difference in between glory and failure in your on the internet match. And gradual VPN speeds can end result in a ruined video clip streaming expertise, spoiled by consistent buffering and a heaping dose of pixelation. And if you happen to be employing a VPN although on a Zoom get in touch with, you may want to do what ever you can to increase your VPN speeds to be certain the get in touch with goes easily and would not drop out.

If your VPN isn’t really as speedy as you have to have it to be, this is what you can do to pace up your link.

Read more: The Best VPNs, Tested and Rated

7 means to improve your VPN speeds

Link to a server closer to your physical location

Frequently speaking, the closer the VPN server is to your bodily area, the quicker your connection speeds must be. Your traffic will have a shorter physical distance to go over when it can be routed through a VPN server which is near by fairly than 1 that is halfway across the entire world. If you’re in Boston, your VPN connection should be a good deal speedier if you connect to a VPN server in New York City or Montreal than just one in Sydney or Tokyo, for example.

This would not usually be realistic if, say, you want to stream material from a unique region or obtain a gaming server from a unique place. But when you have to have a a lot quicker relationship, consider connecting to a couple of unique VPN servers shut to in which you

… Read More... Read More

Your Router Is in the Wrong Spot. Here’s Where to Move It to Speed Up Your Wi-Fi

May 20, 2023 Floo

Few things are more frustrating than a slow home internet connection. It’s a massive headache if you work from home, if you’re trying to install smart home gadgets, or if you just want to unwind with some Netflix at the end of the day. So what can you do if your Wi-Fi always seems to be unstable, regardless of what internet service provider you have or how many devices are connected?

The good news is there’s an easy way to optimize your Wi-Fi network and address these issues — and it’ll only take you a few minutes.

Shopping for a faster internet speed?

We’ll send you the fastest internet options, so you don’t have to find them.

There are a lot of factors that determine internet speeds and while there are a few tricks or guidelines you can follow to improve the overall wireless speeds and coverage in your home, one of the most crucial factors is the location of your router. And the best place is not always where the technician sets it up. So keep reading to learn about the best place in your home for your router and other tricks for faster Wi-Fi. You can also check out our picks for the best Wi-Fi 6 routers, the best mesh routers and the best Wi-Fi extenders. (And if you have a mesh router, make sure you check out our guide for where and how to set that up the right way, too.)

See also: T-Mobile Home Internet Review

Choose the right router for your space

First things first: It all starts with choosing the right router or other equipment. Not all routers are the same and the size and layout of your home will determine what type of wireless network you need.

For most apartments and smaller homes (under 1,500 square feet), a single wireless access point should suffice. That said, if your router is several years old, you may want to consider upgrading to a newer model with support for 802.11ax, or Wi-Fi 6. That’s the latest generation of Wi-Fi technology, and it’ll give you the fastest wireless speeds possible and the best overall coverage.

For bigger, multilevel homes, it’s worth considering making the upgrade to a mesh network to offer consistent coverage throughout the entire house. Once the main access point is installed, if you find a far corner of your home doesn’t have solid wireless coverage, just add another node to that area. Problem solved.

To learn more, check out our list of the best mesh routers of the year (our top pick is the TP-Link Deco W7200). If you need some additional guidance, consult our router buying guide.

Just remember: Regardless of whether you have a single access point or a mesh network, where you place the primary access point still matters.

OK, so what’s the best place to put your router?

… Read More... Read More

Slow Wi-Fi? Your Internet Provider May Be Throttling Your Speed. Here’s How to Tell

May 13, 2023 Floo

When your internet isn’t performing up to standard, your first thought probably won’t be to blame your internet provider. After all, there are many reasons why your internet could be moving slowly.

It might be because of an outdated router or a less-than-ideal router location. You might be able to solve slow speeds with an easy fix, like upgrading to a mesh network (which also has to be set up in the right spot) or simply restarting your modem and router.

Shopping for a faster internet speed?

We’ll send you the fastest internet options, so you don’t have to find them.

But if you’ve already attempted many of these tried-and-true methods and your internet speeds are still subpar, the issue might be something your internet service provider is intentionally doing: bandwidth throttling.

Yes, you read that right. Your ISP could be making your Wi-Fi slower on purpose. Because of a 2019 Supreme Court decision in which the court declined to hear an appeal on net neutrality, ISPs can still legally stifle your internet, limiting your broadband if you’re streaming more TV than they want and serving slower connections to websites owned by their competitors.

One solution to slow Wi-Fi (if it’s caused by internet throttling) is a virtual private network. Basically, ISPs need to see your IP address to slow down your internet, and a good VPN will shield that identity — though this comes with some limitations and downsides, which I’ll discuss below. We’ll walk you through how to tell if throttling is to blame and, if not, what to do about fixing your crummy Wi-Fi. (You can also learn more about how to get free Wi-Fi anywhere in the world.)

Step 1

First, troubleshoot your slow internet connection

So your Wi-Fi is slow and you think your service provider is throttling your connection. Before you jump to those conclusions, it’s important to run through the usual troubleshooting list: Check that your router is centrally located in your home, reposition its antennas, double-check your network security and so on. If you want to read about more ways to optimize your Wi-Fi, check out our suggestions.

If you’ve run through the laundry list and your Wi-Fi is still chugging slowly, move on to the next step.

Screenshot by David Priest/CNET

Step 2

Test your internet speed

Norton

Step 3

Find a reliable VPN

Screenshot by David Priest/CNET

Step 4

Compare your speed with the VPN

Next, test your internet speed somewhere like Fast.com or Speedtest.net. Compare the results with the same test when your VPN is active. The use of any VPN should cut your speed considerably, so the speed tests should show a discrepancy, with the VPN-active speed being notably slower than the VPN-inactive speed. But a VPN also hides the IP address that providers use to identify you, so if your speed test with the VPN is faster than without the VPN, that may mean your ISP is targeting your IP

… Read More... Read More

10 ways to speed up your internet connection today

April 4, 2023 Floo

PeopleImages/Getty Images

Are you suffering from slow internet speeds at home?

Also: How to convert your home’s old TV cable into powerful Ethernet lines

Connectivity drops, bottlenecks, lagged content streaming and downloads, and slow speeds are all common problems with home internet services — and it may not be the fault of your internet service provider (ISP). True, the routers typically provided by ISPs are basic and may not be able to handle modern-day data demands, but there are ways to improve your speed relatively easily in 2023.

Below, we explore common reasons why your internet might be slow and offer suggestions for fixing them.

If you have constant speed problems, your bandwidth is the first thing you should consider.

Ensure you are on a package that can cope with today’s array of devices and their demand for bandwidth. ZDNET’s Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols noted that a minimum speed of 30Mbps is recommended.

While many areas are only served with cable connections, fiber provides the best speeds. If you want a fiber service but your ISP doesn’t offer one, in some cases, you can register your interest with your ISP — and if enough people follow suit, this might mark your location on the map for earlier installation projects.

Also: The top satellite internet services compared: Starlink and alternatives

The general rule is that you will need more bandwidth if you have multiple devices and streaming services on the go.

Your internet provider may throttle your service if it decides you use too much bandwidth. This is more common when you are on a basic package. If this is the case, you must call your service provider. You might also need to renegotiate your package, upgrade, or, if you aren’t being offered a good deal, switch providers entirely.

If you are already on a high-speed package and you are suffering slow internet speeds, despite the service you’re paying for, you should check your connection. If you are paying for a subscription of up to 30Mbps, for example, and are only receiving speeds of 2 or 3Mbps, it may be an issue with your internet service provider (ISP).

The free services below will ping and check your download and upload speeds.

It’s also worth checking in with your provider to see if there is an outage or other known issue in the area. An easy way to do this is to type your ISP’s name and “outage” into a search engine or visit its website for live outage notices.

Also: The best internet speed tests

You could also ask neighbors if they are having trouble. Several years ago, my whole street was booted offline after a maintenance worker accidentally sliced through our main fiber cable. (You can imagine the uproar).

Flickering lights on your router (often yellow or red, but it depends on your router model) may indicate a problem outside your home, such as with physical cables or junction boxes.

Sometimes, being unable to access web domains is not down to

… Read More... Read More

How to speed up your WiFi, world-wide-web connections

February 22, 2023 Floo

Have you found your WiFi declining in velocity or are you just hunting for a quicker web link in common? You could not even comprehend some of the significant things you happen to be undertaking erroneous that are slowing down your net.

Simply click TO GET KURT’S CYBERGUY Newsletter WITH Swift Ideas, TECH Testimonials, Safety ALERTS AND Effortless HOW-TO’S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER

There are steps you can get from the placement of your router to extending your network by way of your home, and they are all reasonably simple methods to get the best connection attainable.

How to pace up your WiFi and online connection

Make positive your WiFi network is secure

Do you know if your WiFi community involves a password or not? It is a modest setting that would make a huge difference when it comes to the safety, privateness and speed of your connection. Be confident to check out your router’s network configurations either via the router’s IP deal with (typically situated on the again or underside of the actual physical router) or on your WiFi’s web site or app. If you don’t require a password, any person could be thieving your WiFi and slowing down your relationship.

Case in point of signing in to a safe Wi-Fi community with a password. (Fox News)

WHAT IS A VPN? CAN IT Seriously Protect MY On the net Privacy AND Security?

Get a mesh network

The advice a couple decades back when it arrived to extending your WiFi was to get a WiFi extender. Nevertheless, if you have a slow WiFi link, an extender mainly extends that undesirable connection.

If your WiFi or link appears to be slower in other parts of your property, take into consideration investing in a mesh community. They’re rapid to install, just plug in a few equipment in places of your house further from the router, and you’ll right away discover the variation when it will come to pace.

Look at out our leading mesh networking winners for the yr by heading about to CyberGuy.com and browsing “best mesh networking winners” by clicking the magnifying glass at the prime of my website. 

Follow these steps to improve your WiFi and internet connections.

Stick to these methods to boost your WiFi and internet connections. (Fox Information)

Improve the placement of your router

MY BROWSER IS Super Sluggish, HOW DO I Repair IT?

This 1 may well look super trivial, but all over again – a very simple change could make a globe of difference. If your WiFi router is sitting down driving a sofa or hidden in a drawer, you are blocking the indicators from getting out as strongly as they can in the course of the property. Make sure your router is positioned in a centralized place in your residence with absolutely nothing masking it for the strongest relationship.

Even though you might be using the time to put your router in a safe spot, look at if the router alone is that safe and sound. Test out our

… Read More... Read More

Nanoscale Pc Operates at the Speed of Light-weight

March 2, 2022 Floo

February 18, 2022&bullet Physics 15, s23

Predictions reveal that a nanometer-sized wave-primarily based computer system could resolve equations in a fraction of the time of their larger sized, electronic counterparts.

Booting up your laptop could appear like an instantaneous course of action, but in fact, it is an intricate dance of indicators currently being transformed from analog wave forms to digital bytes to photons that produce details to our retinas. For most computer system makes use of, this conversion time has no impact. But for supercomputers crunching reams of facts, it can generate a really serious, electricity-consuming slowdown. Researchers are seeking to fix this challenge applying analog, wave-based pcs, which work solely working with light-weight waves and can conduct calculations speedier and with less strength. Now, Heedong Goh and Andrea Alù from the Innovative Science Analysis Centre at the Metropolis College of New York current the design and style for a nanosized wave-centered laptop or computer that can fix mathematical difficulties, this sort of as integro-differential equations, at the speed of mild [1].

A person route that researchers have taken to make wave-based mostly analog pcs is to structure them into metamaterials, resources engineered to use mathematical functions to incident light waves. Previous styles used substantial-location metamaterials—up to two sq. ft ( $\sim . 2$ $m^{2}$ )—limiting their scalability. Goh and Alù have been ready to scale down these structures to the nanoscale, a size scale suited for integration and scalability.

The duo’s proposed laptop is made from silicon and is crafted in a complicated geometrical nanoshape that is optimized for a offered difficulty. Gentle is shone on to the laptop or computer, encoding the enter, and the laptop then encodes the answer to the issue onto the light it scatters. For illustration, the duo finds that a warped-trefoil composition can provide solutions to an integral equation known as the Fredholm equation.

Goh and Alù’s calculations point out that their nanosized wave-dependent desktops need to be ready to address challenges with near-zero processing delay and with negligible energy intake.

–Sarah Wells

Sarah Wells is a freelance science journalist based mostly in Boston.

References

H. Goh and A. Alù, “Nonlocal scatterer for compact wave-based mostly analog computing,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 073201 (2022).

Tag: Speed