There are some things you can do to help.

Leave your router switched on

It's best to leave it on, even at night. When you switch it off and on a lot, it makes it look like your line's unstable. When that happens, your telephone exchange will temporarily make your speed lower because it thinks your line can't cope with anything higher.

Check your Wi-Fi signal

Using Wi-Fi? If you've got a lot of devices connected at the same time, it'll slow down your connection. If you're using a desktop or laptop, try connecting it to your router with an Ethernet cable. If you're getting a low signal a lot, try these tips to improve it.

Use microfilters

A microfilter is a device with two sockets that you plug into your phone socket in the wall. It'll stop your broadband and phone line from interfering with each other. If you don't use one, your broadband could be slower, not work at all, or you might hear a high-pitched noise when you make phone calls.

You need a filter on every phone socket that you're using in your home (unless your master socket has two sockets with one dedicated to broadband already). So, as well as the phone socket you use for your broadband, make sure you use a microfilter in any other phone sockets that are used for:

Phones

Set-top boxes

Burglar alarms

Fax machines

Try not to use phone extension cables

Extension cables can cause interference on the line, which slows down your broadband. It's better to use Wi-Fi if your router and computer are too far away from each other to connect with a cable. If you do need to use a phone extension cable, make sure it's new, high-quality and as short as possible.

Use the master socket

This is the best place to plug in your router. You'll usually find it where your phone line comes into your home.

Some homes don't have master sockets. In that case, use the one closest to where your phone line comes into your home. Have a look at our video if you'd like to find out more.

Switch off interleaving

Interleaving is what we do to improve your broadband signal and give you a more reliable connection. It can add a small delay to your connection, which can affect you if you do things like online gaming. Switching off interleaving can give you a less reliable service. But if you find your connection too slow and you'd like to switch it off, just give us a call or chat to us online and we'll sort that out for you. (This only works for standard broadband, so you won't be able to switch it off if you've got fibre broadband).