Two Common Phone and Broadband Problems

When you get a phone and broadband package you expect certain things.  The first thing that you expect, obviously, is to be able to get on the internet.  There is nothing worse than an intermittent broadband connection other than, perhaps, a slow broadband connection.  These are two of the most common problems people have with broadband.  It is best to know how to troubleshoot these two issues so you can easily fix the problem in the future.

Intermittent Phone and Broadband

Are you having persistent problems connecting to the internet?  Does your broadband connection constantly cut off for a period of time?  If you are constantly having these problems then you should contact your service provider immediately.  Of course, before you do this you should see how your phone line is doing.  If the phone is not working correctly then you should contact your phone service provider first.  It is ideal when these two providers are the same because they will be able to fix the phone and broadband at the same time. 

You have to contact the technical support department of the service provider.  Of course, if you are having phone problems you may have to use your mobile and suffer from high premiums.  If you are not looking forward to contacting technical support then you can try a few things first.

Intermittent internet can be caused by the location of your router.  You should check how close your router is to the master phone socket.  If you are using an extension socket for you router this could be the problem.  Internal wiring is one of the major causes of poor broadband connections.  If you only have one phone socket in your house then that is the master socket. 

If you have more than one phone socket you may wonder which one the master is.  The master phone socket generally has a company logo on it.  You may think this is not a very important step but it is.  If your service provider sends out a technician and they find it is your wiring that is the problem you are liable for charges.  These charges will include the call-out fee, and possibly extras for any work that is carried out.

If you have noise on your phone line then you should look at the micro-filter.  Noise on the phone can be caused by the filter not working correctly as it separates the phone and broadband signals.  If you happen to have a spare filter you should try that one and see if there is any change to the phone and broadband.  You should have a spare somewhere in the house as you are generally sent two of these items with your router.  You also need to see if there are any other filters before this micro-filter.  If there are then they could be causing the problem as they may be affecting the way the micro-filter is working. 

You should check to see if there are filters on any of the extension phone sockets.  Even if you have a filter on the master phone socket the extensions could cause a problem if they do not have a filter.  It is recommended that you have a filter on every phone socket in your home.

Slow Broadband Speeds

Problems with the speed of broadband are actually the most common problem experienced by home broadband users.  There are a number of factors that cause broadband speeds to drop.  Before you look at these factors you should consider what speed you are actually getting.

You should check the speed with a broadband speed checker to verify the speeds you are getting.  If they are not that far below your advertised speed for the package you are on, there may be nothing you can do.  The reason for this is that advertised speeds are not actual speeds; most people will not get the advertised speed.  If you have an ADSL connection you could get half the advertised speeds.  Cable and fibre optic broadband users should get much closer to the advertised speeds. 

If you are getting very slow speeds you should consider the follow factors:

·         Multiple devices – If you have a number of devices connected to the broadband your speeds will be slow.  The reason for this is that the broadband is sharing the speed between all of the devices.  If you have more than one device connected to the connection you will suffer significant speed reductions.

·         Multiple users – If you do not secure your broadband connection you can have multiple users that you are not aware of.  Everyone is looking for a free broadband solution and your unprotected connection is ideal.  When there are multiple users the connection shares the speeds between all the users. 

·         Wireless routers – While wireless routers allow you to connect to your broadband from anywhere in your home, they do slow down your internet speeds.  Before you call your provider demanding a new router you should connect to the router via Ethernet cable to test the wired speed.  If there is a large difference then you should look at getting a new router.  If there is little difference you should see if anything in your home is affecting the wireless signal.  Devices close to the router that work on the 2.5GHz range affect the signal.  Mirrors, thick walls and bad computer components can also degrade the signal, thereby slowing down the broadband speeds. 

·         Old routers – If you have an older router but a fast broadband connection you should look at the router specs.  Many older routers are unable to handle the current speeds of broadband.  You should get a Wireless N router which is able to cope with speeds of 100mb per second and more.  If you have a Wireless G router it will only be able to handle speeds of up to 20mb per second.  If you are looking for speeds greater than this you will not get them because the components of the router are unable to cope.

Sam Jones knew that getting the right phone and broadband deal was essential.  He was able to do this at the touch of a button by using sites such as uSwitch to view the latest deals.

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