Why My Internet Slows Down At Night?

Why My Internet Slows Down At Night?

You must have noticed that at night, especially during weekends, the internet speed slows down. Your movie on Netflix starts buffering or you experience a lag in your gameplay. You do not get the internet speeds that you signed up for. If you have signed up for a 100 Mbps internet plan that works for all your online activities, you might be receiving only 25 Mbps or lower.  

Slow internet speeds at night time is very common. This can be attributed to network congestion. Just like traffic, if there are more cars on the road, the average speed on the road of cars will be less as compared to if there are fewer cars on the road. Similarly, if more users are using the internet, the speed of the internet will decrease.

In this article, we will explain why the internet slows down during nighttime and what you can do to make sure that you get enough speed even during network congestion.

Reason for the Internet Slowing Down at Night Time

Peak Hours

Generally, the speed of internet connections is known to slow down during the evening. This goes on between 6 pm and 11 pm. It is because at this time people get free from their daily routines such as work, office, and classes. Therefore, the number of users of the internet during this time increases.

People tend to stream movies, listen to songs, play online multiplayer games, download files and scroll the internet for leisure and research usually when they get free from their daily routine. This puts a strain on the speed of the internet during peak hours.

You must have noticed that the internet works smoothly before 6 pm and it somehow gets better after 11 pm. That is because fewer people are engaged on the internet around these hours of the day. Hence, the time between 6 and 11 pm is considered peak hours for when the internet speed slows down.

Network Congestion

The term network congestion has been mentioned above with the example of traffic on a road. When there are more users on the internet, they are a lot of transferring of information from internet servers to the devices that use the internet. This can lead to congestion in the network. When the transfer of data or information exceeds the bandwidth capability of the internet providers, it affects the speed of the internet.

Another way to understand is that when there are multiple devices plugged into your network connection, the speed of the internet you get on your device is less as compared to if there are fewer devices plugged in. That is because the speed of the internet is equally distributed to all the devices and nodes. Therefore, the more devices that are plugged in, the less will be the internet speed.

These are just the main factors due to which you experience the slow speed of the internet at night as compared to normal hours. If you face this issue, then you must know how frustrating slow-speed internet is.

How to Counter Slow Internet Speeds at Night Time

Now we will discuss how to avoid this problem at least to a limit that it does not get frustrating for you.

Get Cable or Fiber Internet Service

You are very likely to experience network congestion issues if you have satellite or DSL internet service. Our advice is that you change your internet provider to cable or fiber internet service. Check out Xfinity internet which offers fast internet speeds and reliable connections around 36 states in the US. Dial the Xfinity phone number for more information.

DSL and satellite internets have very less bandwidth than cable and fiber internet service. but cable and a fiber internet connection can carry more bandwidth.

This is helpful if you face network congestion because of your internet provider.

Upgrade Internet Speed

You may feel like that speed or plan you have chosen for your home is good but still face slow internet at night time.

You may get the full speed as per your plan during normal time but during peak time it can get affected.

By upgrading the speed of your internet plan, you can avoid the peak hours network congestion, you will still face the congestion, but with more speed, your internet will be faster than it was previously during the peak hours.

Managing Other Devices

If all the devices in your home are busy with their online activities at the same time, then you will surely face this problem. You can avoid this by managing your devices and deciding when to use which device.

 If you want to stream a movie on Netflix and files are being downloaded on other devices at the same time, you are likely to experience buffering while watching your favorite movie. How about you pause the download so that you can stream your movie in high quality?

Moreover, if there are many users in your home with different routines, you can manage in such a way that if you need to do something online that requires a lot of bandwidth, you can do that task when the others aren’t using the internet.

Additionally, you can schedule to download large files when there are not many users connected to the internet, ideally after 11 pm.

Final Thoughts

In summary, the internet speed slowing down at night time is a very common problem and also inevitable. The only way to avoid it is to upgrade to a better internet plan and manage your devices.

Will Smith

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