how to get faster internet?

I currently have ATT. $60/mo.

My laptop's internet is slow.
***WIFI card broke a while back, so I am having to use a wifi adapter.

That being said, my laptop's internet speed is coming up as 2.44 Mbps download and 1.45 Mbps upload.

Same speed test on my phone is pulling up speeds of 49.6 Mbps download speed...

Top | Newest First | Oldest First

4meAndyou · F

How's your knee? I had issues with speed, also, on my laptop. I was grandfathered in to a cheap price and a slow speed, and then my laptop just began freezing up. It was driving me nuts. I upgraded my grandfathered service to 5G and still no love.

Finally I took the laptop to the Geek Squad, to see if there was a problem with my wifi, and it turned out that my hard drive was beginning to fail.

It also turns out that all the smoking hot expensive laptops only have a lifespan of three years. I, too, purchased a wifi extender, and now, $300 later, this laptop is operational. I was thrilled to learn that for half that amount of money, I could have purchased a brand new laptop.

But it wasn't until I had the Geek Squad in for a home visit that they were able to fix ALMOST all of it. One thing they did was turn off all apps like Honey, and removed them. Turns out those damage your hard drive. Another thing I discovered was that the wifi extender can't just be plugged in. You have to install it, and it didn't have an automatic install window.

iamnikki · 31-35, F

@4meAndyou my knee is much better. I think my hardware might be failing, I get the blue screen sometimes. Sometimes it'll just beep.
I don't use it much though.

I'll save the important stuff and just buy a new one once it clunks out

4meAndyou · F

@iamnikki Good plan. I had the three year Geek Squad plan, so I lucked out...and it still cost me almost $300 for the wifi extender, the hard drive itself, which are not covered, by the plan and another hundred for them to come out and set up the extender, fix my printer, and see what was slowing this sucker down.

I'm really glad your knee is feeling better. Even with normal use, and no exertion, my wrist has a weird alien baby shaped lump on top.

iamnikki · 31-35, F

@4meAndyou oo. Probably a cyst.my sister used to get those all the time

SW-User

@iamnikki 🤔🤔
Well, based on what your phone is getting I’d say it’s 50mbps service and if that’s the case they’re overcharging big time
I know here in our area for residential service, 50 is the fastest AT&T can deliver. For businesses it’s better
Not sure why..
anyway, I do cable provider internet. I pay about $65/mo for 1gig

iamnikki · 31-35, F

@SW-User I asked and they told me that is the cheapest. I thought that was too much too. So I called back the next day ,spoke to someone else, and verified that

SW-User

@iamnikki call and request their Retention department.. they usually get off their arrogant butt and deal when you threaten to leave their service

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

Switch to a better company.

iamnikki · 31-35, F

@cherokeepatti didn't have many options

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@iamnikki I have Cox and considered switching to AT&T because the rates are cheaper but read too many complaints so I haven’t made a switch.

TrunkZ · 56-60, M

Can you connect your laptop to your router with a cable and run a speed test? If it is faster then your wifi adapter may be the culprit. If it is the same then may be a laptop issue. Is your hard drive an SSD or an older slower HDD?

iamnikki · 31-35, F

@TrunkZ I'll try that.

No clue about my hard drive.

The wifi card broke years ago got it replaced and it's out again. So I bought an adapter for 10 bucks.

TrunkZ · 56-60, M

@iamnikki The other thing you can check is to run task manager while you run the speed test so you can see usage percentages of CPU, Memory, Disk and Network while the speed test is running. It may give insight into where the bottleneck is.

Good luck.