Not having the internet in the 21st century keeps you away from a lot of information; but having a slow internet connection can be real frustrating especially when the slow connection is a result of your gadget configuration/settings. Thankfully, you can troubleshoot a slow Internet connection and here are some ways to speed things up.

Unnecessary programs
You could have some programs running in the background on your computer. These programs are having a share of your internet connection for some reasons like checking for updates and stuffs like that while also taking up bandwidth that you are supposed to use for more important tasks like booking for your faulty gadget to be fixed or reading a blog post on naijalaptopfix.com, maybe also checking your e-mail. There are a number of ways to reduce the number of programs running in the background.
Setting up your browser to block ads in their many nefarious forms, from popups to auto-playing video ads would be a nice idea too. You can do this through the installation of a browser extension that blocks ads. A good ad-blocker is Ad Block Plus. But there are many to choose from and each browser has a slightly different way to attach an extension.

Don’t clear that cache
Your friends, family, and some Internet article may recommend that you clear your temporary Internet files, cookies and cache in order to speed up your Internet. While clearing out these files may help your computer to run faster, it will actually make your Internet run slower because your cache contains those parts of websites that remain static. These could be anything from graphics to HTML files to CSS style sheets. The reason your cache holds these items is that when you go to a website, especially one you visit regularly, your computer only needs to download those parts of the site that are new or different. The old parts of the site that haven’t changed will be pulled from your computer’s cache. The bottom line is that you need less bandwidth to download the website and it will appear on your screen faster.
If you continually erase your cache, your computer will have to start from scratch each time you visit a website, even if it’s a website you visit frequently thereby creating a slower connection.

How about your wireless settings?
Your Internet might be working fine right up until it reaches your router. There are many things that could be affecting your wireless connection. Perhaps your wireless router is far from you and this means you might need a Wi-Fi booster or range extender. Or the fault might lie in your router’s location.
Another possibility is that your router channel needs changing. Routers operate on different channels and some of those channels are shared by your neighbors, cluttering up the wireless frequencies. The trick is to find a channel that no one else uses. There are tools to analyze your nearby WiFi channels to help you make a good choice. WiFi Analyzer is one.
Another quick fix, or at least a patch until you solve the problem, is to connect an Ethernet cable. Obviously, this only works if the router is nearby. If it is, just walk right up to it, connect the cable from the router to your computer, and get ready for dramatically better performance.

Internet connection data plan
Unfortunately, you get what you pay for. Sometimes your Internet is slow because the plan you’ve subscribed to offers very limited speeds. You need to know the specs of the internet subscription you are opting for. You’ve got to know that some data plans allow for only 2G while some allow 4G. This could be the reason why your connection is very poor.

Pin point summary
When you’re traveling, you may be forced to work with slow Internet connections. Here are a few tips to get you through the trip:
1. Use a wired connection whenever you can.
2. Remember those background apps, the ones you removed from startup? Now’s the time to close some more — any ones that you didn’t shut down earlier.
3. If you haven’t taken the advice about ad-blocking extensions yet, here’s a second chance. Ads will absorb whatever little bandwidth you have.
4. Try the Opera browser. It has a turbo mode for faster speeds that works by compressing pages and shaving pixels.
5. Finally, work offline whenever you can. Many online apps have offline modes. Do your work offline, and then connect briefly to send that email, cloud that document, or log in to that account.

Source: http://naijalaptopfix.com/blog/slow-internet-connection-here-are-top-fixes-you-can-try-all-by-yourself/

Nice write up