What could be more frustrating than slowing internet speed? Imagine streaming your favorite show and right at the climax scene, you witness something. Suddenly, a wheel starts spinning in front of you and you instantly realize what is going on. A wave of annoyance and frustration hits you and your happy vibe is sabotaged. The situation is even worse if you are a hardcore gamer and just before making your final victory kill, the screen freezes. Yes, your internet just lets you suffer a torturous defeat.
A lagging internet can be more disastrous for professionals, especially when everyone is working from home amidst the global pandemic and rely on the internet for performing their assigned tasks and communicating with their teams. With the internet speed slowing down, you can miss out on an important team meeting and get in trouble later on. If you want to minimize any connectivity issues in the first place, it is better to subscribe to something reliable as Time Warner internet packages for instance, so you can enjoy peace of mind. Subscribing to a good internet plan can minimize the chances of experiencing internet slowdowns or connectivity problems, but you can never eradicate it.
There can be multiple reasons involved. A slowdown could happen if you are browsing during peak hours, or any of the equipment, particularly the router, might be outdated and needs attention, or your provider might be throttling your internet. If that’s the case, here we are with all the details you need to know regarding how to figure out if your provider is stifling your internet. The gist of it is that if your internet is being throttled by the service provider, then you cannot ignore the issue at all, as it is surely going to affect your personal and professional tasks online.
What is Throttling?
Internet throttling refers to the phenomenon in which your provider limits the bandwidth and tends to slow down your connection, thereby affecting your internet speeds, once you have reached your data cap. This practice is extremely annoying for gamers, streamers, or those who need to download large files. You will experience consistent buffering and delays.
Is it Legal for Providers to Throttle Data?
Internet service providers can throttle internet speeds due to multiple reasons. First of all, there are internet plans that come with a certain monthly data limit. As soon as a user consumes that data limit before the month ends, rather than disconnecting the internet service, the provider might slow down your connection speed drastically.
Another factor that might lead a provider to throttle your data is the high demand and peak usage, especially during rush hours, because of network congestion. Usually, the act of internet throttling is legal as the provider mentions it in the fine print details, though most of the users have no clue about it.
How to Find Out About Internet Throttling?
To find out about internet throttling, you can simply begin by running a speed test. There are a lot of speed tests available online, even for free, that can help you find out your current internet speeds. Make sure to carry out a speed test when your internet is not being used and the background tabs are closed. This might affect your speed test results, especially if certain downloads are going on in the background.
How to Prevent Internet Throttling?
In case your internet is being throttled, it is not much you can do to stop it if you want to stick to your provider. However, you can try browsing via a VPN network. Install a good quality VPN as it can prove to be an effective tool for preventing lagging speeds. In fact, you might be able to experience instant improvement in your internet speeds if it works for you.
The best solution would be to switch to a more reliable and steady internet provider that has a strong repute in the market and impressive customer reviews. The best advice would be to opt for an internet plan with no data caps to avoid getting into a data overage situation in the first place. It may cost slighter higher than the internet packages with data caps but it is worthwhile in the long run.
Final Thoughts
Throttling attempts are becoming very common throughout the U.S. and it affects your efficiency and productivity while carrying out your routine online activities. Therefore, if you experience lagging during streaming, gaming, or browsing, you can run a speed test to check out the actual internet speeds. If it’s slower than it should be, try using high quality and fast VPN or switch to a more reliable internet provider offering an unlimited data plan at an affordable price.
