There is always someone hogging all the bandwidth on a home network. How can you find out who it is? It's not always easy, but by following a few simple steps you'll find the bandwidth hog and speed up your Internet speeds. Zero cost, Zero Download.
PRLog - May 18, 2015 - SYDNEY, Australia -- If you have read my previous blog post on how to diagnose Internet speed problems you may have determined that it is something, or someone, on your network that is causing all the traffic. That is, you have a phone, tablet, laptop or PC/Mac that is ‘hogging your bandwidth’.
This is a relatively easy problem to solve, and involves the tried and tested method of removing variables.
Turn all your devices off except for one PC/Mac
We do this to remove all the variables on your network. If you only have one PC or Mac running and everything else is shut off, then theoretically you have narrowed down the potential problems to one. Once you have done this, it is a good idea to reboot your modem.
Reboot your modem (turn it off and on)
Why do I have to reboot my modem you ask? So that we can check which devices are connected to it, if you don’t reboot the modem some of the devices that you have previously switched off may still appear in its ‘devices list’. In most modem/routers there is a section where it shows all the devices that are connected to it, below is a screenshot of my connection list:
Here we can see that I have 14 devices connected to my modem/router, you should only see one. However, if you cannot see this section on your modem/router interface, or it is a little bit out of your depth, then it is something that you can skip. As long as you have confirmed that all other devices on your network are off.
Confused?
Close down all unnecessary programs on your PC/Mac
We need to close down all unnecessary programs on our PC/Mac because they may be causing traffic in the background and we want to limit, as much as possible, all traffic on our Internet link. This means closing everything except for your browser, including all background tasks; on a PC that means right clicking on all those little icons on the bottom right of your taskbar and clicking exit/quit, on a Mac doing the same thing on the top right-hand status bar of the screen. Also, if you have multiple tabs open on your browser, then close them as well, we only need one for now.
Perform a speed test
Next we want to head over to speedtest.net and check our Internet speed. I use this site because it is reliable and you can select to test from multiple hosts. When you do a speed test it is important that you select from the correct host; for example, I am with Telstra, so I select a Telstra host that is closest in geographical location to where I am. Head on over and perform a speed test:
speedtest.net
Take a screenshot or take note of your download speed and your upload speed. This is what I got below:
This is about normal for me as I am in regional Australia, so I would expect to see the speeds throughout the day.
What speed should I expect?
Well, if you are on an ADSL2+ connection, for example, your speed is inversely proportional to your distance from the exchange. That means, the further you are from the exchange the slower your Internet speed. TPG have a good graphic which can be found here.
I am around 3km from the exchange, so I can expect approximately 8Mb/s. However, I’m only getting around 5.4Mb/s at a peak. A Telstra engineer pointed out to me that there is approximately a 2Mb/s drop in speed once you leave the exchange. So if I add on 2Mb/s to my peak of 5.4Mb/s I get 7.4Mb/s, which is approximately what the graph shows.
Are you now seeing the speeds you would expect?
If you are seeing the speed you expect, then we can move on to the next step, which is switching on each individual extra device and performing the same test. If you are not seeing the speed you expect, then I recommend following the steps in my other guide (you can skip most of the steps because you have already covered them here) to diagnose problems you might be having with your ISP.
Switch on one device at a time and test it
This step might be a bit painstakingly slow, especially if you have as many devices as I do, but it is important to determine in isolation which device on your network is causing the most traffic. Switch on the first device, let it rest for a while (like a good roast), and then perform another speed test from your PC/Mac. If the speeds are okay, then you can move on to the next device after turning the previous device off. Keep doing this until you see your speed decrease and you have pinpointed the device causing the problems.
What can cause traffic congestion, or traffic hogs?
Well, for example, my Samsung Galaxy note edge consumes bandwidth because I have automatic photo & video upload to Google+. I also have Windows PCs that do automatic updating, as well as various programs that update themselves in the background. Worthy of note, all of these behaviours can be configured and either stopped or scheduled to run overnight. So if your network is being congested by your devices behaving in this manner, it is a good idea to stop automatic backups/uploading or schedule their behaviour.
Did you work out your problem?
If so, great! The isolation method works 95% of the time, and it is something that most network engineers use all of the time in complex networks. Now you are in a position to help your friends and family if they have similar problems (and I bet they do!).
Didn’t fix your problem?
Drop us a line, one of our support staff will try and help you. We hate to see people having a bad time on the Internet!
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How can I find bandwidth hogs on my home network?
May 18, 2015 at 21:10 PM EDT
