This tip relates to the ‘channel’ that your wireless connection is transmitted on. The channel indicates the radio frequency that your connection is broadcast over.

With almost every household being connected to the internet, and with the abundance of ‘free router’ offers available from broadband providers these days, it’s likely that most of your neighbours will have wifi connections too, meaning that your signal can be drowned out, or at least interfered with by your neighbours networks.

The trick, is to find out which channels your closest wifi networks use, and to change your frequency to a clear channel.

We’ve outlined some simple steps below to help you to optimise your broadband connection.

1. Download a piece of software called Inssider, for Windows or ‘the package manager’ for Linux. This will show you the channel of any ‘in range’ connections.

2. Login to your router’s administration area (the specifics of this can be found, by doing a quick Google search for ‘your router make + model’ + ‘administration login’) Here you should find out the IP address, and default username and password that you need to login to the admin area of your router

3. The final step, is to find out how to manually change your wireless channel. This is possible on most routers, and again, try searching for your routers make and model, plus ‘change channel’ – to find more detailed instructions

4. Run our broadband speed test again to see how much quicker your connection is.

Let us know how much success you’ve had with this this top broadband tip

Firstly, it’s worth checking what speeds you’re currently achieving by going to our broadband speed test page and making a note of your results. When you’ve done that you can start implementing the recommendations that we’re going to be putting forward every day this week, starting with the easiest of all … where to put your wireless router;

Get better speeds by carefully positioning your wireless router

Your wireless router will work best when you’ve got a clear ‘line of sight’, meaning that there are no obstacles between your router, and your wireless adapter (whether that’s in your laptop, desktop, phone or tablet). We all know however that this isn’t always possible, and we’re not suggesting that you should start knocking down walls, but it’s worth considering that when choosing a suitable location for your wireless router, you choose a position which will give your wireless signal a route of little resistance to your computer.

Another tip for today, given that it’s our first post in this series:

Plug your router into your telephone master socket

If you’ve got the option of plugging your broadband router into a master socket or an extension socket, then always go for the master socket. The extra cable that your broadband data will have to travel through, when plugged into an extension socket, will degrade the quality, and speed of your connection. This is however one to balance against what you’ve learnt in our first step. If your broadband master socket is hidden away in a cupboard or behind lots of walls, then you may be better off using the extension socket, as cables go through walls better than a wifi signal. Check which works out best for you by using our broadband speed test

Here at Broadband.org we’ve got a wealth of experience in weeding out the best from the rest, and have put together a brief guide to help you to find the best broadband deals.

The first question to ask yourself is how will I be using my connection? This will help you to establish exactly what you’re looking for, and essentially what a good broadband deal means to you.

The main things to think about are:

How much data will I be using on a monthly basis?

A lot of the cheaper broadband deals will have a ‘download limit’ or ‘usage cap’, this is essentially saying that you’re only allowed to browse a certain number of websites, or download a certain amount of movies or music. This doesn’t neccessarily mean however, that you’ll have to limit your usage.

If you just plan on browsing the internet in the evening, or perhaps downloading the odd music file, then the chances are, you won’t actually need a huge amount of data, and a broadband deal with a lower download limit will suffice. If you think that you’re more of a heavy user, and will be sending large files perhaps, or even streaming movies or a lot of videos, then a package with a much higher limit, or even unlimited usage may be better.

We recommend checking out our broadband usage calculator, which will help you to decide how much data you’ll be using. This will help you to find a good broadband deal for your needs.

What will I typically be using my connection for?

This question follows nicely on from the previous one. Once you’ve checked out the usage calculator, you should also have a good idea of what you’ll be using your broadband connection for. Answering this question will enable you to decide what kind of speed of broadband connection you’ll need.

For example. If you’ll be using the internet to watch lots of You Tube videos, or perhaps streaming videos or music (even from your television or games console), or even playing games, then you’re going to need a fast connection, so that you don’t experience buffering. Generally, a connection of 8Mbps + will suffice for this kind of usage. Please also remember that the speed of connection that you actually receive will depend on your distance from the telephone exchange and the quality of your internal wiring (amongst other things).

If you’re just going to be browsing web pages or sending and receiving emails, then you’re not going to need blistering fast speeds, so even just 4 or 5 Mbps will suffice.

How many people will need to use the connection?

Again, this question will really be answered whilst you’re considering the two questions above. The number of people using the connection will probably influence the amount that’s being downloaded, so you’ll need to consider that whilst deciding what download limit (if any), you’ll need. Secondly, with lots of people using a connection, you need to consider that the speed that comes down your connection and into your house, will be divided between everyone using the connection. So a 2Mbps connection, with 4 people using it, will probably provide a slow browsing experience.

Finally, if you have multiple computers, or more than one person who would like to use your connection, you’re probably going to need a wireless router, which will broadcast your connection throughout your premesis. Most packages come with wireless routers these days, however it’s always good to check (and if you don’t need a wireless router, you might even be able to find a cheaper deal without).

So there  you have it, three fairly straightforward questions that everyone needs to think about when selecting the best broadband deal for them. It depends on your individual needs, so don’t neglect to consider these questions before selecting your broadband package.

You can rate each provider using our 5 star system for customer service – speed and reliability as well as an overall rating . The reviews section is new and we need some reviews to get it started so if you could submit a review for your provider then that would help alot

thanks

Broadband Org team

as well as looking alot better than our old version you can now test both download and upload speeds with more accuracy -

You simply click to start the test and the download speed test will start the dials on the speedo will move and left one shows current speed and the right shows the percentage progress of the current test. once the download speed is done the process is repeated for the upload speed and after that your results are displayed

Remember before you run the test to close down any application that uses the internet like email / messenger / torrents as this can slow your speeds .

We are still testing the checker and there may be a few glitches ( it doesnt work on Mac safari at the moment) . If you have any feedback please leave us your comments