How important is your router?

It seems almost daily that internet service providers are advertising their latest internet deals that offer greater connectivity and boast higher speeds. It all sounds great and it's easy to set up but when you actually get the new system up and running one thing can become alarmingly obvious - there is barely, if any, difference in speed between your old set up and the new.

There are several factors to consider when trying determining an apparent lack of internet speed. One of these factors is your location, which can have a big bearing on the speed of your internet. You're unlikely to experience any lull in location affected performance if you live in a built up area, however, if you live out in the country with only the cows for neighbours then you're unlikely to be near a DSL hub. This hub transmits data at high speed and allows internet connection. If you’re a long way from one then your internet speed could be compromised.

Your internet speed can also be affected by the amount of people using your network at the same time. Your speed shouldn’t be too badly affected if it’s just you and your family using the network but if people outside your house are able to hijack your network then performance can really be hit. To stop others from moving in on your network it’s important to keep it password secured.

Another thing that can affect your internet speed is your router. This often becomes a problem after upgrading internet speeds. When upgrading, it's important to make sure that your router has the capacity to be able to cope with the new speeds. If you upgrade your internet from 10 mbps to 60 mbps then it's important to check that your router is suitably equipped to keep up. A lot of standard routers have a maximum capability of just 50mbps, so can't deliver the extra 10 mbps even though your internet can.

If you need a new router then you might want to think about getting one with a slightly higher capacity than your current internet speed, this will allow for any more upgrades you get.

A quick way to find out whether your internet is running at the speed it should be is to take an internet speed test. A speed test will let you know quickly and freely whether your internet is at the speed you thought. You can find quite a few speed tests online and they only take a couple of minutes to complete, it’s well worth the hassle.