If you’ve been a Windows user for some time now, you must have experienced slow connection or slow browsing issue at some point. The problem can happen all of a sudden, even for those users with blazing fast internet connection speeds. We hope that this post will help Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 users fix this frustrating issue.

Keep in mind that Windows does have its own built-in network troubleshooter so make sure that you use it before attempting any of our suggestions below. You can open this network troubleshooter by doing the following:

Open the control panel (tips on how to do are provided below).
Type troubleshooter in the search box above.
Click Troubleshooting.
Go to Network and Internet.
Click Connect to the Internet.

Know your internet connection type

The first thing that you must do as an internet user is to know what type of internet connection you have. There are usually three types of internet connection today: dial-up, DSL, and cable. Should you have a choice, always pick cable as it tends to be faster in general. With today’s highly bandwidth demanding contents, using dial-up is not recommended so we suggest that you stick to either cable or DSL.

Depending on your area and Internet Service Provider (ISP), there may be a FiOS (Fiber Optic Service) service available so make sure to talk to your ISP about it. FiOS is faster compared to both DSL and cable which still uses copper wire technology. FiOS connects hosts using light over an optical network and it can provide extremely fast internet connection.

Check your internet connection speed

One of the usual reasons for slow browsing issue many PC users encounter is slow download speed. It is thus necessary that you check if your machine is getting the estimated download speed to know if the cause of your problem is related to it.

There are three terms that you must be familiar with when it comes to slow connection issue troubleshooting: ping, download speed, upload speed.

Ping refers to how fast your machine gets a response after sending out a request. Ping is often used by gamers to measure how fast response time of a server is when an application sends a request. A fast ping is ideal when using applications that require fast responses, like when playing an online game. The lower the number of ping figure is, the better. Ping is measured in milliseconds (ms) so the lower the ms unit you receive, the better it is when you’re playing online.

Download speed is what usually matters, especially for the huge majority of internet users around the world. Download speed is the rate your machine receives data from remote servers such as websites. The faster the download speed you’re paying your Internet Service Provider (ISP) for, the faster it is for your computer to pull data from websites. If your browser appears to linger longer when trying to load a website, download speed may be slow.

Upload speed refers to how fast your computer sends out data to a website or remote server. This speed is important when you want to save something to a cloud service, or when you are simply trying to save your photos or videos to a social networking website like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, etc. It’s also good to consider upload speed when you are fond of video chatting.

Keep in mind that carriers often offer higher download speed over upload speed. To check what your connection’s ping, download speed, and upload speed are, simply visit a website that offers free speed test like speedtest.net. If you find out that you’re getting lower values for download and upload speed than what your carrier has promised, make sure that you talk to them about it.

Signal interference (tips for laptop or wireless users)

Wireless connection is prone to suffer from signal interference compared to users that link their machine to their modem directly by wire. In general, a wifi connection of a laptop can be affected by a number of factors like where it’s located and whether or not there are wireless devices in the vicinity. Wifi connection uses the same frequency that also being used by other common devices such as cordless phones, microwave ovens, gaming consoles and controllers, among other things. If a wireless device that uses the same frequency your wifi is is operating on, interference may disrupt your internet or even block all connection.

The same can be said of your wireless router. Make sure that your router is not behind a thick concrete wall or glass to avoid degrading internet connection. If possible, make sure that your computer is as close as possible to the router, especially if you’re experiencing slow connection trouble.

Make your browser/s faster

Slow connection issues can also be caused by a bad browser or if browsing history cache has become too big. If a speed test confirms that your ISP is providing you with a fast download and/or upload speed but loading a website remains slow, your next move would be to check your favorite browser. There are a few things that you want to do as enumerated below:

delete browsing history
disable toolbars or extensions
reset a browser’s settings to default.

The exact steps vary by browser so we will provide the steps only for a few popular ones.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer (IE) is the browser from Microsoft and usually comes as the default browser in machines that run Windows operating system. To improve your browsing experience, make sure that you do the steps below.

Delete browsing history in Internet Explorer . Regularly deleting your browsing history helps protect your privacy, especially if you’re using a shared or public PC. To delete this browser’s history, follow these steps:

Pull up Internet Explorer.
Select Tools button (the one that looks like a gear icon).
Click Safety.
Click Delete browsing history.
Choose the types of data or files you want to remove from your PC, and then select Delete.

Remove unnecessary toolbars or extensions in Internet Explorer . In general, a toolbar is a row of boxes located on top of an application that offers shortcuts to various functions. You will often find common functions like changing a text into bold, or changing the font or font size, among other things, in images that correspond with the function they control. If you notice some unwanted toolbars showing suddenly in your browser, that may be the reason why you’re having a slow internet connection issue. To remove a toolbar, do the following steps:

Pull up Internet Explorer.
Select Tools button (the one that looks like a gear icon).
Choose Manage Add-ons.
Look for the dropdown that allows you to show All add-ons.
Find the add-on or toolbar you want to remove and click on the Disable button.

Reset Internet Explorer browser to its factory settings. If nothing appears to improve after you’ve cleared browsing history or disabled unnecessary add-ons, the next best thing to do is to reset all browser settings to their default mode. Here’s how it’s done:

Pull up Internet Explorer.
Select Tools button (the one that looks like a gear icon).
Click Internet options.
Select Advanced tab.
Click Reset.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox from Mozilla Foundation is another popular PC browser so we want to provide steps on how to troubleshoot it here. To improve your browsing experience, make sure that you do the steps below.

Delete browsing history in Mozilla Firefox. Regularly deleting your browsing history helps protect your privacy, especially if you’re using a shared or public PC. To delete this browser’s history, follow these steps:

Pull up your Mozilla Firefox browser.
Click the menu button (an icon with three horizontal lines on it) located on the upper right hand side.
Click history.
Click Recent History.
Select how much history you want to clear.
Click the drop-down menu next to Time range to clear to choose how much of your history Firefox will clear.
Next, click the arrow next to Details to select exactly what information will get cleared.
Finally, click the Clear Now button. The window will close and the items you’ve selected will be cleared.

Remove unnecessary toolbars or extensions in Mozilla Firefox. In general, a toolbar is a row of boxes located on top of an application that offers shortcuts to various functions. You will often find common functions like changing a text into bold, or changing the font or font size, among other things, in images that correspond with the function they control. If you notice some unwanted toolbars showing suddenly in your browser, that may be the reason why you’re having a slow internet connection issue. keep in mind that disabling an extension or theme will turn it off without removing it. You can either disable add-ons first then observe how everything works, or you can simply remove them altogether. To disable to disable extensions and themes, follow these steps:

Pull up your Mozilla Firefox browser.
Click the menu button (an icon with three horizontal lines on it) located on the upper right hand side.
Choose Add-ons to open the Add-ons Manager tab.
In the Add-ons Manager tab, select the Extensions or Appearance panel.
Select the add-on you wish to disable.
Click its Disable button.
Click Restart now if it pops up. Your tabs will be saved and restored after the restart.

To re-enable the add-on, find it in the list of Add-ons and click Enable, then restart Firefox if required.

If you want to remove a toolbar, do the following steps:

Pull up your Mozilla Firefox browser.
Click the menu button (an icon with three horizontal lines on it) located on the upper right hand side.
Choose Add-ons to open the Add-ons Manager tab.
In the Add-ons Manager tab, select the Extensions or Appearance panel.
Select the add-on you wish to remove.
Click the Remove button.
Click Restart now if it pops up. Your tabs will be saved and restored after the restart.

Refresh Mozilla Firefox. If nothing appears to improve after you’ve cleared browsing history or disabled unnecessary add-ons, the next best thing to do is to reset all browser settings to their default mode. Here’s how it’s done:

Pull up your Mozilla Firefox browser.
Click the menu button (an icon with three horizontal lines on it) located on the upper right hand side.
Click Help or the question mark icon.
From the Help menu choose Troubleshooting Information.
Click the Refresh Firefox button in the upper-right corner of the Troubleshooting Information page.
To continue, click Refresh Firefox in the confirmation window that opens.

Firefox will close to refresh itself. When finished, a window will list your imported information. Click Finish and Firefox will open.

Opera Browser

Developed by Opera Software, Opera is another popular browser that millions of users are using. If you are using this one, this troubleshooting may be helpful.

Delete browsing history in Opera browser. Regularly deleting your browsing history helps protect your privacy, especially if you’re using a shared or public PC. To delete this browser’s history, follow these steps:

Pull up your Mozilla Firefox browser.
From the main menu, select More tools
Select Clear browsing data.
Select the time period from which you’d like to remove history items using the Obliterate the following items from drop-down menu.
Tick the checkboxes next to the specific browsing data you’d like to remove.
Click Clear browsing data.

Remove unnecessary toolbars or extensions in your Opera browser. In general, a toolbar is a row of boxes located on top of an application that offers shortcuts to various functions. You will often find common functions like changing a text into bold, or changing the font or font size, among other things, in images that correspond with the function they control. If you notice some unwanted toolbars showing suddenly in your browser, that may be the reason why you’re having a slow internet connection issue. To remove a toolbar, do the following steps:

Pull up your Mozilla Firefox browser.
Click on Menu icon.
Select Extensions.
Click Manage Extensions.
Find the relevant extension, and click on “Disable” or “Uninstall”.

Reset Opera browser to its factory settings. If nothing appears to improve after you’ve cleared browsing history or disabled unnecessary add-ons, the next best thing to do is to reset all browser settings to their default mode. Here’s how it’s done:

First of all you need to “Show/display the hidden files by going under Control Panel>Folder Options>View tab>Select Show hidden files, folders and drives.
Close Opera.
Go to C:\Users\user_name\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera\
Locate and delete the Operapref.ini file.
Restart Opera and the file will be rebuilt.
Opera is back to the default settings (all customization is gone)

Google Chrome

Developed by Google, Chrome is considered the number one browser in the world in terms of popularity. If you are using this one, this troubleshooting may be helpful.

Delete browsing history in Google Chrome. Regularly deleting your browsing history helps protect your privacy, especially if you’re using a shared or public PC. To delete this browser’s history, follow these steps:

Pull up Google Chrome.
At the top right, click More More.
Click History and then History.
On the left, click Clear browsing data. A box will appear.
From the drop-down menu, select how much history you want to delete. To clear everything, select the beginning of time.
Check the boxes for the info you want Chrome to clear, including “browsing history.”
Click Clear browsing data.

Remove unnecessary toolbars or extensions in your Google Chrome browser. In general, a toolbar is a row of boxes located on top of an application that offers shortcuts to various functions. You will often find common functions like changing a text into bold, or changing the font or font size, among other things, in images that correspond with the function they control. If you notice some unwanted toolbars showing suddenly in your browser, that may be the reason why you’re having a slow internet connection issue. To remove a toolbar, do the following steps:

Open Chrome.
Click More.
Select More tools and then Extensions.
Next to the extension you want to remove, click Remove Remove.
Click Remove.
If an extension has an icon in your Chrome toolbar, you can right-click the icon and select Remove from Chrome.

Reset Google Chrome browser to its factory settings. If nothing appears to improve after you’ve cleared browsing history or disabled unnecessary add-ons, the next best thing to do is to reset all browser settings to their default mode. You can restore your browser settings in Chrome at any time. You might need to do this if apps or extensions you installed changed your settings without your knowledge. Your saved bookmarks and passwords won’t be cleared or changed.Here’s how it’s done:

On your computer, open Chrome.
At the top right, click More More and thenSettings.
At the bottom, click Show advanced settings.
Under the section “Reset settings,” click Reset settings.
In the box that appears, click Reset.

Update network drivers

Sometimes, slow downs in browsing or even freezing issues have been attributed to outdated network drivers. For this reason, you want to ensure that your computer’s local area network (LAN) as well as other network drivers that may be installed are all updated.

There are a number of ways to update network drivers but the most common way is by going under Control panel. And speaking of Control panel there three ways to open it. Here’s how:

Windows key + X button. This opens a menu in the lower-right corner of the screen, with Control Panel listed among its options.

Windows key + I button. This opens the Settings menu of the charms bar on the right edge of the screen, which also features Control Panel.

Windows key + R button. This is the simplest way to open Control panel.

Now that you know how to pull up Control panel, you then need to update your network drivers.

Open Control panel.
Select Device Manager.
Select Network adapters and click on the drop-down arrow to show the network adapters.

Right click on the network adapter like the one shown above.

Select Update Driver Software.
Select Search automatically for updated driver software.
Wait for the PC to look for the driver online.

Viruses, malware, spyware can affect internet connection speed

Two of the most common reasons for internet connection speed issues can be blamed on viruses and spyware. Spyware are generally designed, as its name suggests, to spy. Spying is usually directed on your web browser by monitoring your internet use, keystrokes, etc. This spying activity tends to interfere with your browser and it can sometimes monopolize your internet connection. Sometimes, multiple spyware software can run simultaneously often resulting to severe slow connection issue or total loss of connectivity altogether. To fix the issue, you should install a good antispyware software.

Viruses, on the other hand, can also lead to poor internet connection, especially if such virus has already propagated itself in the hard drive. Some viruses can propagate at very fast rate that in a matter of minutes, your hard drive may be overwhelmed, effectively cutting down your computer’s performance. Most of the time, virus infection can result to overall slow computer performance or slow internet connection. Like spyware, viruses are best addressed by installing an antivirus software.

Delete DNS cache

Sometimes, the reason for slow connection or slow browsing issue can go beyond the usual list of causes and requires more advanced troubleshooting. If your issue remains even after doing all the steps above, the next step that you can try is to ensure that your computer contacts the right DNS or domain name server whenever it requests to access a website. DNS is basically a remote server that compiles domain names and associates each domain name to an IP address. Each website has a unique URL or universal resource locator, also known as the address that you type in the browser’s address bar. Each URL in turn is assigned a specific IP address so computers all over the web can identify it. DNS is system that collects URLs and associates each one an IP address. Thus, DNS makes it easier for users to simply just type in the URL such as Facebook.com instead 31.13.95.36 IP address.
Sometimes though, the DNS your computer is talking to can become problematic due to a number of reasons. Hackers and malwares regularly attack DNS computers so it’s unavoidable that some users may encounter problems related to it. One of the common issues that results from a DNS-related issue can slow browsing or being unable to open websites at all. In your case, you want to ensure that your machine is communicating to a valid DNS all the time. To do that, follow these steps:

Log in to your computer with the account that has the elevated privileges. To determine the type of your account, kindly check this link.

Click Desktop tile from the Start screen to go to the desktop window.
Once on the desktop screen, hover the mouse to the bottom right corner of the window.
From the displayed options, click Search.
On the opened Search pane in the right, ensure that Apps category.
On the same pane, type CMD in Apps field.
From the displayed results on Apps window, right-click Command Prompt.
From the displayed advanced options at the bottom of the window, click Run as administrator.
On the displayed User Account Control box, click Yes to provide the administrator approval to open the command prompt with the elevated privileges.
On command prompt window, type IPCONFIG/FLUSHDNS command and press Enter to delete the DNS Cache.
Close the command prompt window when done.

Contact your Internet Service Provider

Should the problem persist after you’ve exhausted all troubleshooting, it’s not a bad idea to let your Internet Service Provider know about it. The problem may actually not on your end but on theirs. They may be having technical difficulties so you want to contact them or visit their website for information. Keep in mind that there are many moving parts when it comes to the complicated digital world today. There’s a chance that somewhere along other connectivity points, other factors may be playing a role in the slow connection issue you’re having.

Some ISPs may require that you install a special software in order to connect to their services. If you happen to have such software, make sure to contact your ISP to see if such app needs to be checked.

We are here to help

If you are having a problem with your Windows computer, don’t hesitate to let us know about it. We understand how frustrating computer problems can be so, more so if you can’t find the right solutions at all. Our blog exists to help PC users and Windows community deal with their problems effectively. To engage with us, just fill out the questionnaire in this link and wait for our articles to be published. In order to help as many people as possible, we only provide our solutions via posts so please don’t expect that we will respond to your emails or private messages. By making all posts public, we can share our solutions to other users in a more efficient manner. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.