Why does my broadband slow down at night?
The nightly broadband slow down on many connections is caused by numerous factors, some of which you can control
You might have noticed your home broadband’s average download and upload speeds fluctuating over the course of a typical day.
In theory, this might seem surprising.
Your router and devices don’t change, nor does the capacity of your internet connection, and nor do typical online activities.
However, the connection between your device and the servers powering apps and websites are part of a global network.
Data sent from a social media server or ecommerce website will bounce around a vast network of cables and connection nodes, particularly if it originates overseas.
Plus, there’s more digital traffic at some times of day than others. This is a phenomenon known as the internet rush hour, and ISPs have wrestled with it for decades.
It used to be unbearable on Nineties dial-up, when mid-evening connections slowed down to one or two kilobits per second (Kbps) of data.
By comparison, modern broadband speeds are measured in Mbps – a thousand times faster – and a full fibre connection should be at least 100Mbps.
With gigabit home broadband not uncommon nowadays, you’re far less likely to notice home broadband slow down in the evenings.
However, it’s still useful to consider what causes this nightly phenomenon.
Fly by night
Internet rush hour takes place in the UK between 7pm and 11pm, as it has done for many years.
Millions of people are online at home – children gaming, parents scrolling, families streaming – often all at once.
European and African citizens are still online and Americans are working, while Chinese users are waking up and logging on.
While most data sent and received in the UK won’t leave our shores, it will if a VPN or the Tor browser is involved, or if the services you’re accessing are based overseas.
As such, the nodes distributing individual data packets become increasingly congested, causing fractional but cumulative delays.
Some ISPs may deliberately throttle traffic during the internet rush hour to prevent sudden outages or unexpected delays.
They might restrict peer-to-peer file sharing or video streaming services, if either is placing a heavy burden on connections in densely populated areas.
However, under Ofcom regulations, ISPs must be transparent about throttling, and full fibre services are rarely affected since they typically have bandwidth to spare.
There are numerous other factors which might cause broadband slow downs; routers overheating, smart devices updating, neighbouring properties taxing their own connections…
Your location is also a potential issue.
Research published in May suggested Wigan, Galashiels and Harrogate endure the biggest peak time drop-offs, with Scotland and Wales faring worse than England or Northern Ireland.
Beneath, between, behind
If you’re worried about falling behind on streaming/working/online gaming during the internet rush hour, there are some ways to speed up home internet connections.
Download streaming media content in advance, such as the next three episodes of a box set, ready to be enjoyed interruption-free later on.
Similarly, schedule data-intensive uploads overnight – device updates, synchronising cloud storage, uploading large files and so forth.
More general tips may also optimise your connection, with particular benefits at peak times.
Routers often benefit from being turned off and back on again, purging their memory and cooling down their circuitry.
Coordinate family activities to prioritise critical activities. A monthly Zoom call with relatives abroad should take precedence over yet another game of Splatoon.
Finally, investigate whether your home could receive faster broadband speeds.
Greater line speeds offer more unused capacity, improving peak-time resilience, while faster connections tend to be symmetrical, so uploads don’t affect their performance.
