Virgin Broadband is designed for maximum efficiency, but there are still a few things that can affect the speed of your connection - like how many people are using a site at the same time as you, and how powerful a web site’s server is. Here’s a list of things you can do to help make sure you always get the fastest surfing speeds possible:
- It is always a good idea to close the programs you aren’t using on your computer when you are on the Internet. Unused programs, especially those that use graphics or video and audio, can sometimes clog up broadband connections and slow down your surfing speeds.
- Try to do one thing at a time while you are on the Internet. If you download files, use a web browser, send e-mails and read newsgroups all at the same time, none of them are likely to be as fast as they could be!
- Optimise your web browser. For tips on ensuring that your web browser is set up to download web pages with maximum efficiency, click Optimising your web browser.
- Free up space on your computer by carrying out some quick and easy clean up tasks. Your computer can sometimes become cluttered with unnecessary files that effect broadband performance. Go to Optimising your computer for details on how to get rid of them.
- Always run the latest available versions of programs that use the broadband connection, such as mail or news programs. This kind of software is usually getting tweaked all the time to improve it’s performance over broadband - go to the web site of the company that produces the software, and check what upgrades are available.
- Turn off file sharing programs (also known as Peer to Peer software, or P2P). Examples of this kind of software are Napster, Kazaa, iMesh, eMule, bit torrents and BBC iPlayer. This type of software can consume a large chunk of your connection speed. Remember, too, that your broadband speed can only be as fast as the connection of the person you are downloading from.
- Reboot your router regularly – you know how rebooting your computer can sometimes improve things? The same is true of your router. We suggest that once a month you do a reboot of your router, and every device it connects to (including your computer). For details, go to How to check and reboot the router.
- Check that your computer has the minimum system requirements for broadband. Your Virgin Broadband service cannot run smoothly unless your PC or Mac meets the requirements for a broadband connection. (Just to let you know, we no longer support users of Windows 98 and Windows ME.)
