There are countless things that can cause a slow Internet connection. Troubleshooting a slow connection problem is an investigation and it can take some time and testing. We have tools available to us to test some things, you have others. Together we will figure it out, but please understand that it's a process, not a Staples EZ Button.

90% of the time, a reboot of your router fixes the problem. Try that first.

The other 10% of the time, it's one or more of the following:

(in order of closest to you to furthest away from you)

Your Home Network:

• Traffic. Someone is streaming a movie or gaming, a device is downloading a large file, too many simultaneously-connected devices trying to use the Internet at the same time, security cameras, offsite data backups/synchronizing, etc.
• An older router. Routers live about 4-5 years. If you have an older router, it may not be able to manage (route) traffic as well as it once did.
• Old firmware on your router. Make sure your router has the latest firmware (software).
• 5 GHz wifi channel. We broadcast our Internet signal to you on a 5 GHz channel. If your router has a 5 GHz wifi, you must set it to channel 36. Else your 5 GHz wifi and our signal broadcast might 'radar-jam' each other; causing slow speeds.
• An older device. If you have an old laptop or wireless printer operating on the 802.11B standard, and if it is connected to your wifi, it will drag all other devices down to 1.5 Mbps (the fastest it can do).
• Virus(es) or malware/spyware. One or more devices may be infected. Antivirus software doesn't mean you are protected against getting a virus any more that a flu shot guarantees you won't get the flu.
• BitTorrent program. If someone is using a BitTorrent program to download movies/games, it could affect network speeds.
• Unsecured wifi. If you don't have a wifi password on your router, someone may have pirated your wifi and is using up your bandwidth. Using an Internet antenna (like the one on your roof) a pirate can access your unprotected router from up to 15 miles away!
• Interference. Please see this article for all the things that can affect your wifi signal.
• Damaged cable. The ethernet cable from your router to the Internet antenna might be damaged. Birds and rodents are known to eat the outer sheath and damage the inner wires.
• Internet antenna. It could be out of alignment, has lost its line-of-sight to the transmitter (e.g., tree branch or parked RV in the way), components are failing, etc.

Your Neighborhood:

• HAM radio. A neighbor is broadcasting on a HAM radio. HAM radios are known to knock-out 2.4 GHz wifi signals for up to 1 mile in diameter.
• Another WISP. If another Wireless Internet Service Provider has a relay near your house, they may be broadcasting a strong signal on a frequency on/near what we are using to provide Internet to you.
• Doppler tower. Weather towers (Doppler towers) in the USA have priority over certain wireless frequencies. If you live near a Doppler tower (within a few miles) and we are broadcasting to you on a frequency they might use, you could lose Internet for brief periods of time while they scan the horizon for weather patterns).

Our Tower/Relay:

• Transmitter problem. If there is traffic congestion, radio frequency interference, a Doppler tower sweep, failing hardware at tower/relay site (e.g., failing transmitter, switch, router, backhaul, etc.), damaged cabling, PG&E outage, etc.
• Weather related. Solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CME) can distort wireless signals, heavy rain can produce rain fade, etc.).
• DDoS attack. A purposeful intent to cripple a network. These can come from within our network or (most often) from the outside.
• Upstream bandwidth provider. If Cogent Communication or Comcast have a problem on their network or network delivery, we will be affected.

The WWW:

• Websites down. Since the Internet is comprised of trillions of independent sites (e.g., Wells Fargo, Amazon, Facebook, etc.), any one site could be down for whatever reason.
• Web services down. Since the Internet is comprised of trillions of independent services (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, WoW, GoT, etc.), any one service could be down for whatever reason.