Sometimes it happens that you are getting slow internet speeds without any reason. You may not be downloading anything and still, it will take ages to load up a web page. This happens when your ISP intentionally slows down your internet connection or throttles your internet connection.
Internet throttling is a real thing and is done by different ISPs around the world. ISPs throttle the bandwidth to minimize bandwidth congestion.
ISPs can throttle your internet connection in different ways, such as throttling all of your internet traffic or only when you are using a service that uses a lot of bandwidth such as video streaming or peer-to-peer traffic i.e torrenting.
Before you jump to any conclusions whether your internet connection is throttled or not, you should first confirm if your internet is being throttled or not.
Here are a few things that you can do to confirm if your internet is being throttled or not.
Performing a Speed Test
The first thing that you should do to confirm whether you are getting the speeds that you are paying for is to perform a speed test. A speed test is a simple test that takes only a few seconds to be completed and it determines the download and upload speed of your internet connection.
Speeds tests are an important metric to find out if you are getting the speeds that your ISP promised you because on paper it may say that you are receiving full speeds but you actually may not be getting full speeds. So, a speed test can help you to find out about the stats of your internet connection.
From the results of the speed tests, you can find out if you are really getting the speeds that you are paying for, or is your ISP intentionally slowing down your internet connection.
Performing a Netflix Speed Test
The next thing that you should do is perform a Netflix speed test. Netflix speed test can be performed through Fast.com. Netflix is a video streaming service and takes a decent amount of bandwidth. Most ISPs throttle the connection for their users only for Netflix just because it consumes a hefty amount of bandwidth.
This is a speed test website that is only for Netflix connections only and it determines the speed of your internet connection for Netflix streaming. You can compare the results from this website with the results of other speed tests.
If you found this to be lower than the results of other speed tests then it is most likely that your internet is throttled by your ISP.4
Using a VPN
The last thing that you should do to confirm if your internet is being throttled or not is to use a VPN and bypass the throttling. A VPN can help you a lot to find out if your internet is being throttled or not. When you use a VPN then it encrypts your internet connection & activity and hides it from your service provider. In this way, your service provider is unable to find out if you are using high-bandwidth services or not.
If after using the VPN you found your connection to be better than before and are getting good speeds then it is almost certain that your ISP is intentionally slowing down your internet connection.
Data Caps
Every online activity uses the internet, from loading a web page to streaming a video to playing online games, every activity uses the internet. Sometimes you will experience slow internet speeds towards the end of the month or when you have hit the data cap. This kind of throttling is in fact useful because if you are still getting the same speeds even after exceeding the data cap then you will have to pay extra.
Your ISP tracks how much data you are using and if you hit your data cap then the ISP will throttle your internet connection so, you don’t go overboard. If this is something you’re experiencing then you can contact your ISP regarding this.