Tips and tricks to make your Internet connection feel faster

29.10.2019 3,093 10

Martin Pramatarov

You write down a URL in your address bar and press enter. 1 second passes, it is ok. 2 seconds pass and you start feeling a bit annoyed. 3 seconds – you just want to throw your device against the wall. The slow Internet connection is so painful. Is there anything you can do about it?

While the easiest thing is to just pay for more expensive Internet services, sometimes you won’t have this option.

Here are some tricks and tips that can help you in any situation. Apply some (or all) of these tricks and you will most definitely feel the difference. All of the tips will make your Internet feel faster.

Block ads and scripts

Your browser experience is damaged by countless ads and background scripts. You can stop them very easily. This will definitely speed up your Internet. There are plenty of extensions and add-ons that can help you with that.

The downside is that an ad blocker can prevent you from accessing certain websites, but you can add them as exceptions.

No images!

This is one radical approach, but if you have a particularly slow connection, it can be a lifesaver. You could still read the text on the web page, which is very light. It is good for reading news and responding to e-mails.

For Google Chrome: Go to “settings”, “advanced”, then “site settings” and disable the “Images.”

For Mozilla Firefox: Open “about:config” from the address bar and switch the permissions.default.image value to two.

The image-disabling option is available on other browsers, as well.

Use a mobile browser with a data-saver functionality

Forget about your computer for a second and use your mobile device. Browsers like Opera Mini or Google Chrome are generally supported. They have a feature for data-saving. All of the information that you require will pass through their servers and get compressed. You will have a lighter experience.

Tweak your router

There are many things that you can do to your router to improve the Wi-Fi signal.

You can simply move it to another spot and dramatically improve your current situation. Sometimes some thicker walls can stop the signal, other times there is interference with other signals. Go around and perform some Internet speed tests to find the best spot.

You can also change the channel, the standard or the frequency of your router. Use a channel that is shared by few other devices around you, set it up to a faster standard like 802.11n or better and if your devices can handle it, use the 5Ghz frequency.

And for the most adventurous of you, you can modify your existing router. Do it only if you really know what you are doing, because this will void your warranty. You can change the antennas with bigger and better ones. Another thing is to change the firmware of the router with one that has better performance.

Change the DNS settings

The DNS reads the URLs and looks for the destination of each query (IP addresses of the hosts). The DNS settings will be provided by your ISP, but you can change that. You can use the free options from OpenDNS or Google. The change will let your computer resolv the URLs faster which will lower the waiting time. It won’t increase the download or upload speeds.

Windows 10: Go to “Settings”, “Network & Internet”, “Change adapter options”, “Properties” and then go to IPv4 and IPv6 settings and put the new DNS addresses.

macOS: “System Preferences”, “Network”, go to the Wi-Fi or cable connection, select “Advanced” and there type the numbers in the DNS tab.

Go ahead and use some of these tips. Enjoy a better experience while browsing the web! Make your Internet connection feel faster!