If you're experiencing slower than expected response times with your Internet connection, here are several tips to help improve your speed. Following these steps in order can help you identify the problem.
How to Improve Your Internet Speed:
Try our Automated Troubleshooting tool
- Log in with your Frontier ID and use our new Automated Troubleshooting tool. (Don't have a Frontier ID? Create one now.)
- If your speed is still slow, continue to step 2.
Is it one site or every site?
- If you're seeing slow speeds on a particular web site, try visiting two or three other sites and clicking different links.
- If the other pages seem fine, there may be a temporary problem with the site that's being slow for you.
- Many web sites have much higher traffic in the evening when more people are home from work. Try the site at another time to see if it's faster.
- If every web site is slow, continue to step 3.
Who else is using your home network?
- If your household has several wireless devices sharing your home network, your family's activity may cause your connection to slow down.
- Find out if someone is:
- Streaming media
- Downloading large files
- Online gaming
- Broadcasting live video
- Having a lot of traffic at one time might call for an update to your modem or an upgrade to your Frontier speed contract.
- If no one else is tying up your network, continue to step 4.
Is the problem on one device, or all devices in your home?
- If your computer's Internet speed feels slow, test some other devices on your home network.
- Is another computer faster? Is your mobile device running OK?
- If all devices are slow, that points to a network issue. Skip to step 7 to reboot your equipment.
- If only one device is slow, the problem is with that device. Continue to step 5.
Is your device configured properly?
- Is your slow device new? These support articles may help you:
- If your device is using a wireless connection, is it too far from the router? Is something blocking the signal? If possible, try connecting the device directly to the router using an Ethernet cable.
- There is a chance your device may have a virus. If you have anti-virus software installed, run a full scan on your device to look for problems.
- Updating and refreshing can give your device a boost.
- Try clearing your web browser's cache.
- Disable unused add-ons to your browser.
- Update your browser to the latest version (they're all free).
- If you haven't rebooted your computer or mobile device in weeks, try that.
- If your device is using an older version of Windows or another older operating system, consider upgrading.
- If you're still having problems with your Internet speed, continue to step 6.
Is background activity slowing you down?
- If you use a file-syncing service like Google Drive or OneDrive, they might be moving data in the background. Quit or pause those services while you’re working.
- If your computer is set to automatically download software updates, you can schedule these when you’re not using your computer, like in the middle of the night.
- While you're checking on these updates, also be sure to clear your cache. That will help with site loading times.
- If your speed is still slow, continue to step 7.
Reboot your Frontier equipment
- It's easy to reboot your router or modem, and it can fix a number of problems. See detailed instructions.
- Re-test your Internet speed a few minutes after the reboot is complete.
- If your speed is still slow, continue to step 8.
Contact us for technical assistance
If none of these tips has solved your problem, we're here to help. Please call 1.800.239.4430, or go to our Contact Us page to schedule a call or chat live with a representative.
