Last updated: January 2, 2023
Some time ago you took the plunge and opted for the optical fiber. Like more and more French people, you will therefore be able to benefit from very high speed internet at home.
Except that if it's on paper, in reality, you still have network problems and perhaps even the situation has gotten worse for some time. In fact, you are unable to get full internet speed through your fiber optic connection.
So, if you are wondering why your internet speed keeps dropping, we will walk you through this article to fix your fiber optic connection issues.
Prefer wired connections
This is not repair advice for your WiFi which is not working, but consider connecting your wired devices using a Ethernet cable when you can. Obviously on mobile phones for example it is not playable.
However, whether you have a desktop computer or a portable radiator, it is clearly better to connect it directly to your wired box rather than using WiFi, which as you see at home tends to have problems quite easily .
The only problem is that the wired connection is not the most practical and sometimes requires pulling a cable to your desk. But it is clearly the solution that allows you to have the most stable connection possible when you browse the net.
Start by speedtesting your fiber connection
Now that we have seen this prelude, let's focus on your problem. The first thing we will try to see is if the problem really comes from your internet connection and nothing else. To do this, first test whether the slowdowns occur on several sites.
If this is not the case, it may be the site you are viewing that is having problems and not your internet connection. On the other hand, if it's a general problem, it could be your WiFi.
In this case, go to Fast.com for test the quality of your internet connection and you should see that this is well below what was announced by your operator. If not, it may be your machine that has a problem.
For example, you may have a WiFi card that is starting to fail. The fairly simple way to check this is to use another device connected to the same network and see if it too experiences these slowdowns. If this is not the case, your device may be the problem.
Check that nothing is consuming too much of your connection's bandwidth
If you ever experience slowdowns on your WiFi connection, one of the checks to do, especially if you live with family and several people use the Internet at the same time, is to see if some of them are not using a lot of bandwidth.
In fact, it is not expandable and if some people use a lot of this bandwidth, for downloading for example, we can understand quite quickly that for you, there is not much left and that you are experiencing slowdowns.
If the problem comes from there, two solutions are available to you. The first is to convince the person downloading to continue later. Otherwise, you will simply have to wait for this download to complete to be able to enjoy your connection at full power again.
Avoid proximity to certain devices
Now that we have eliminated all the problems other than those coming from the device itself or the people with you, it is time to take an interest in the box itself and the first thing to do is be careful, these are the waves that could interfere with the Wifi of your fiber.
Indeed, Wifi is precisely a wave system and in the presence of similar waves, there can be a interference that will affect the quality of the internet connection that you are going to have. Thus, for example, it is recommended to always keep the boxes away from microwaves.
But they are not the only ones. Indeed, the other great classic of interference is baby monitors and Smart TV. But more generally, we advise you to keep your box away from any device operating wirelessly.
Attention to metal structures
If you use your box in a house, this problem will not generally arise. However, if you use your box fan in a commercial premises, this is much more likely. In fact, these premises are often made from an iron structure.
Now, this iron structure, it makes what is called a Faraday cage. We are not going to go into the details of the physical functioning of this Faraday cage, just know that it blocks the waves and therefore reduces the efficiency of the fiber.
This, for example, explains why in some stores you do not have a mobile network. Therefore, if your box has to cross too much iron, you may have performance problems.
Place your router in a central position in your home
Finally, the last thing to take into account when you install a box is that the theoretical WiFi range is not infinite. Indeed, it is 35m and on paper, it is good for almost all houses.
Except that thick walls for example or metal structures as we have just seen before can come to spoil the party and in this case, the range at which the Wifi will be effective will be much less.
Therefore, what we advise you to do is to place your Wifi box in a central position in your home. This way, you should be able to enjoy good network quality no matter where you are.
Conclusion
There you go, now you know everything you need to know about the placement of your Wifi box to make sure you can take full advantage of the loading speed you have with fiber optics.
If, despite everything we have just told you, you still have problems, we advise you to contact your internet service provider to see if the problem does not come from the line or from your installation. In this case, your ISP will quickly send a technician to resolve the problem.