In the past few years, there have been several high-profile cases of denial-of-service attacks that affected thousands of people at once. In 2015, an attack on Twitter knocked the social media company offline for about an hour.
A year later, a similar attack took down Amazon’s cloud computing service and Netflix during Thanksgiving weekend.
But what exactly is a denial-of-service attack? What does it mean when you see your Wi-Fi slowing down? We’ll answer those questions below so you can protect yourself from getting caught up in one.
Here’s If Someone Can Slow Down Your Wi-Fi:
Wi-Fi is limited by the laws of physics, and the speed of the connection can vary depending on how many people are using it at once. It’s also true that some people may have better service than others because their routers are placed in better locations or because they have newer hardware.
How Come My Wi-Fi Is Slower Sometimes?
Different factors affect the speed and stability of your connection to the Wi-Fi router. While mileage may vary, the throttling down of speed can cause unpleasing results.
Router Firmware and Hardware
First of all, your Router might be old and not up to par with the current standards. Often, routers more than five years old no longer have firmware that meets the latest systems.
You may need to change your Wi-Fi router for this.
Another possible culprit would be the hardware used by the Router:
- The cables used to connect the Router from outside may have some physical wear that can affect the stability of the connection.
- You may also want to check the Router’s antenna to see if it is strong enough to send a signal to your house or office.
Router Placement
The second factor to consider is the placement of the Wi-Fi router. While it goes without saying that the closer you are to the Router, the faster your connection is, there are other considerations.
While you can be close to the Router, the speed is hampered when there are obstructions between you and the Wi-Fi router.
Like any other wireless device, Wi-Fi connections can be interrupted when metal, wood, concrete, or drywall blocks the signal between your devices and the Router.
If the obstructions are thick, they can cause your signal to drop, even when not too far from the Router.
It’s recommended that you try and minimize these obstructions. If not, stay clear.
In relation, the height of the Router’s position also affects the speed of your connection. The lower the placement, the higher chances that you’ll experience slow connections. Some people mount their routers in high places, such as walls or shelves, which also lessens obstructions.
Check also: Common issues with Sky Broadband.
External Factors that affect Internet Speed
There are also factors outside your Router that can affect the speed of your connection.
The first thing to look at is how many devices are connected to your Router. Most routers issued to residences are not designed to handle a large volume of connections, unlike those found in malls or even offices. And even routers used at home have different capacities, too.
That said, if you have plenty of devices connected, you are bound to have a slowdown in the performance of your Internet connection.
And if those devices are also using Internet-reliant apps, then all the more, you can expect a slow connection.
It would be best to reduce the apps you use and possibly the number of devices connected to the Router.
Note that smart home devices also eat up space on your Router, which can slow down your Internet connection. It would help if you streamlined these devices to ensure a smooth connection.
Another external factor is Digital Interference. This interference happens when other radio signals mix with the Wi-Fi signal. Because there’s an overlap, your Internet connection gets hampered.
Likewise, suppose you are situated in a building. In that case, there’s a high possibility that fellow tenants are using the same Internet service provider and are likely to be using the same frequency.
Since many devices use the 2.4Ghz frequency, it’s better to use the 5Ghz band since it is specific for Wi-Fi use. This fix comes in handy to connect to less crowded channels.
And lastly, Internet service providers can legally slow down your Internet speed.
Unfortunately, if your service provider finds that you are using too much bandwidth, they can opt to slow down your connection. The United States Supreme Court had ruled in favor of striking down net neutrality, which legalized speed throttling for consumers using too much bandwidth.
It can also be old devices on your network slowing down your Wi-Fi.
Check also these two articles:
Can Strangers Access A Secure Wi-Fi network?
In theory, security can only be accessed by people given proper authorization through a password. But it’s a different matter if your Wi-Fi password is easy to guess.
If you’re looking to have a secure connection, the best solution is to hide your network.
Hidden networks are Wi-Fi connections that are not detected by scanning. You can access them by manually typing the name of the network and the password. Once you gain access to hidden networks, you will automatically connect to them without being prompted for the credentials.
Only when the password or network name is changed will you lose access to the hidden network.
Can Other People Affect My Wi-Fi Speed?
Having many people connected on a single router will slow down your connection. Especially for household Wi-Fi networks, these routers are not designed to handle a large volume of connections. These routers have a limit on the number of devices.
How Do I Check If Someone Interferes With My Wi-Fi Connection?
It’s hard to check if any device’s interfering directly with your Wi-Fi connection. But you can check if there’s an unauthorized device connected to your network. The following the following steps can show you if someone is interfering or if it might be another issue:
Wi-Fi Detective Apps
You can download Wi-Fi detective apps that can search your network and list all connected devices to your network. These apps install on your smartphone and list the names of the devices currently connected to your Wi-Fi. Once you identify the unauthorized device, you can then disconnect it.
Using your Wi-Fi router’s interface
Newer routers would have a smartphone app to look for devices connected to them.
You can use this to scan for any unauthorized device connected to the Router.
Using a dual-band router, you will see which frequency each device is linked to.
If your Router does not have an app, you can log into the control panel using a web browser. You need to have your Router’s admin username and password for this step. Take note that this is different from your log-in credentials for your Wi-Fi.
To log into the control panel, you need to enter the Router’s IP address, usually http://192.168.0.1/. You may verify this with the user’s manual of your Router. Once you log into the control panel using the admin username and password, look for the Network Map, User Log, or Client List, which will contain the list of devices connected to the Router.
Once you get the list, you can remove unauthorized devices. You will get the option to block, ban or remove the device.
A quick way to remove all devices from the network is to change the Wi-Fi password.
Can You Control How Much Internet Speed A Device Can Have?
Some routers allow you to control the priority of a device when it comes to bandwidth. The process differs per device, so you need to check with the router manufacturer to see if it allows prioritization of bandwidth.
For the most part, you will have to set this under the QoS section in the Router’s control panel.
You can set which device gets high priority with the bandwidth and which gets low priority. This feature is good, especially if you need to reduce the connection of a device that isn’t too reliant on an Internet connection.
Can You Stop Neighbors From Interfering With Your Wi-Fi?
While there is a strong possibility that existing wireless connections may overlap with your