ADSL Modems Need Lovin’ Too

Recently I upgraded the security on the home wireless network to a much higher level of encryption, and around the same time, I found internet pages and emails taking significantly longer than they used to to upload/download.

For a while there I thought it was because of the encryption, but I finally decided to do a little more testing.  First thing was to measure the internet connection speed (as I mentioned recently).  The speed was down to around 190Mbps, which is a bit under 1/2 what I was previously experiencing.  So before doing anything else, I rebooted the modem (pulled the power cord out, waited 30 seconds, then plugged it in again).

Did another speed test – hmm 430Mbps.  Guess the encryption wasn’t the problem.  The modem, like any other computer (like) device, benefits from the occasional reboot!

So the conclusion from all this, if there is something that seems to be going a bit pear shaped, and unexpected in the device’s performance, try a simple reboot before escalating the problem.  So many issues are resolved simply by letting the device do a clean restart.  I’ve found this hold true for other (particularly modern) digital devices, from mobile phones, even the digital TV.

Testing Broadband Speed

I find that it is occasionally useful to test the upload and download speeds that my ISP (Internet Service Provider) is actually providing to me. My plan is an ADSL Broadband 512/128 (download/upload), but that is never achieved in real life. (The 512kbps is still significantly faster than the 56kbps of a typical dialup)

The current place that I use to test is www.speedtest.net, which has a clean interface and seems to work well.

These are the actual results from my ISP. The website also allows you to compare your results to others in your general area (comparing ISPs), as well as others using the same ISP as you.

It is good to check the performance of your ISP occasionally, keep them honest!