Wired broadband by PTCL is available in many parts of the country and PTCL wireless EVO services are spread across vast areas covering both rural and urban areas. Now 3G services from telecoms are making inroads with high speed broadband that penetrates most urban areas of the country.

Although the companies are complying with regulations and ensuring quality supply, it is important for PTA as a regulator to make the process more inclusive for the consumers. One way of ensuring consumer awareness, inclusion and satisfaction would be to collect broadband speed tests from common people.

Recently Canada’s regulator CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Communications) has asked internet users to help test broadband speed. The method is simple, all participants (about 6,200) will receive a ‘Whitebox’ that would be attached with the modem and it will periodically test internet speed when not in active use. The results would help in policy making as well as finding out if the users are getting the speed that was advertised by the internet companies.

Conducting speed tests in similar fashion, PTA can collect accurate and updated speed tests from general population from various parts of the country. The greatest advantage would be to not only hold broadband providers accountable for their services but also ensure that people get the service they paid for.

Another positive sign would be tracking the downtime of the service providers. So many services are unable to maintain continuous internet provision that it would help PTA to tabulate exact performance in various areas and compare it with policies and terms of services the companies signed up. It will not only give more strength to customer complaints, the areas where service issues are greater will cause the company to focus more upgrading infrastructure at its earliest.

Khurram Zahid

The post Tracking Performance of ISPs appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

10 Things That May Slow Down Your Internet Speed
(with solution to avoid those issues)

Browser Health
This is the first thing that you need to check if you are suddenly experiencing slow browsing. Clearing cache and cookies or resetting the browser settings may fix the slow internet problem.

Background Apps
Check for any background apps that connect to internet for updates or remain permanently connected to internet. Closing these apps will make you notice a significant change in your internet speed.

Torrents
Its common to use torrent clients to download movies, software utilities and other things. However, these torrent clients seeds the file even after your download is complete. So, limiting the upload speed or completely removing the completed torrents from torrent client may give your internet a relief.

DNS
You may be experiencing slow internet speed just because of your DNS that has limited cache and greater response time. So consider switching to a better DNS like Google DNS or Open DNS. Speed up your internet : Get a new DNS

Malware
There are greater chances that malware may affect your browsing experience if you are using a computer as compared to smartphones. It may send your personal data or system screenshots using your internet connection. So it is recommended to stay updated and use anti-virus software products to get rid of malwares and other such extensions that pose risk to your online security.

Signal Interference
Many digital devices that we use everyday emits electromagnetic  signals like smartphones and Bluetooth headsets and these signals could interfere with WiFi signals. So it is better to place the router away from such appliances and use wired internet if you can.

Security
If you are using WiFi that most of you will be, take good care of security. Choose a strong password and suitable security protocol so that your neighbors may not access your WiFi and slow down your speed.

Slow Cables
Cables tend to play fairly important role in determining your internet speed. If you are using old cables its time to replace them with newer ones that offer better data transfer rate and at longer distances.

Switches

You probably have noticed ports on the router that allow you to access internet via wired connection. The switches on both end can be of variety of types having different maximum transfer capability. So it is better to use switches with suitable maximum transfer rate.

Router
WiFi can be slower as compared to wired internet. The closer your are to the WiFi hotspot, the better it works. SO consider getting a better router that offers good transfer rate and wide area coverage. In addition, updating the firmware may also be beneficial for a faster browsing experience.

5 Best Routers For Fast Speed Internet

If you have tried all the above and still you are not getting optimum speed, may be its time to change your internet provider and we can help you with that.  Smartchoice.pk has made it easier for you to search, compare and buy internet connection in Pakistan. Click here to see how we can do that.

Khurram Zahid

The post 10 Things That May Slow Down Your Internet Speed appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.

Domain Name System allows you to visit websites via memorable addresses instead of remembering the IP addresses of different websites that you intend to visit. DNS is an important factor to offer you a fast browsing experience. No matter your default DNS address assigned by you Internet Service Provider works well, but you can improve the browsing speed by analyzing the best DNS servers for you via utilities like DNS Benchmark and Namebench. Before analyzing the best DNS servers for your internet, we need to find out the reasons that how other DNS servers may speed up the internet browsing. The reasons to change DNS servers include

• DNS server may be experiencing heavy traffic
• Have a limited cache
• Have invalid cache entries
• Greater response time

There are several utilities that can help you to find the right DNS server for your internet via conducting different tests. These tests also take the geographical location in consideration and provide you the best DNS servers and also notifies you about the performance improvement.

Recommended Read : How to change your DNS with ease

DNS Benchmark

DNS Benchmark is a free software by Gibson Research Corporation. It is just 163KB in size and is available for Windows. It can be used on Linux and Mac OS via Wine utility. Once you download and start the software, you get a welcome screen with content that explains what is DNS and why it is used. It also explains how DNS can be used to speed up the internet. You can select the Nameservers tab from the top and click Run Benchmark to start the test. Once the test is finished you will be able to see the results that can be sorted in the fastest first order. The conclusion tab displays the errors and recommendations based on the test results. It is recommended not to use any internet service while the test is in progress because doing so may produce results that vary greatly. Click here to get DNS Benchmark

Namebench

Namebench is also a free software that to test the best DNS servers. Namebench runs fair and thorough benchmark and is available for Windows, Linux and Max OS. Namebench offers a graphical user interface as well as command line version. Once you download and extract the the software, you get a simple screen to configure the required options and start the test. You can set the location, configure data query source and set number of queries. Once the test is completed it displays the best DNS settings and the improvement percentage that the recommended DNS server will offer while browsing internet. However Namebench test is relatively slow if compared with the DNS Benchmark. Click here to download Namebench

This was all about speeding up your internet by getting a better DNS server. We hope that by using above free software products you will be able to find a better DNS server that will enhance and speed up your browsing experience.

If you planning to change your internet connection, click here to compare internet prices and packages in Pakistan. To check your internet speed, click here to take this free test

Khurram Zahid

The post Speed Up Your Internet – Get A New DNS appeared first on Smartchoice.pk.