Wi-Fi speed
Poor speeds can have a wide range of effects on your browsing experience, from videos buffering slowly to pages hanging or timing out.
In this article are some steps you can try yourself to improve your speeds, and details on how to contact us in the event the issue is not resolved.
Troubleshooting steps
It's important to manage your expectations when using Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi evolutions are defined by the 802.11 specifications, and the theoretical top speed your device is capable of will depend on the standard it was designed to meet. Older standards have lower theoretical maximum speeds, so if your device is more than three years old you may find it not as capable as a newer device. Mobile devices have less powerful networking cards in them, thus will suffer poorer speeds.
You can check your account to see the maximum speeds available at your accommodation. Please note that the speeds offered are an 'up to' service, and we can only guarantee speeds over Ethernet due to Wi-Fi's inherent instability and susceptibility to interference.
You should close all running programs, leaving a single browsing window with speedtest.net loaded, and see if that has any effect on the speeds. Make sure to check for any downloads you might have running in the background, such as Steam.
You can also try flushing your device's DNS cache. This is a temporary database that stores addressing information about the sites you've recently visited:
- For Windows:
Press and hold the Windows key (
or 
) and press the letter "R" > In the box, type "cmd" and press Enter > In this new window, type 'ipconfig/flushdns' and press Enter. - For Apple Mac:
Perform a Spotlight search (cmd ⌘ + space) for Terminal > Open the program and type 'sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder', then press enter.
Lastly, you should make sure your device is free from any viruses or malware. Any free Anti-Virus software will work for this, such as AVG Free or Avast.
Contact the ServiceDesk
If the issue persists, we will need to speak with you in order to work out the best way to improve the connection. You can either call us on 0333 123 0115, or alternatively you can email us some information, and we’ll contact you.
First, we'd like you to record the speeds you get throughout the day, by running three speedtests and recording the ping, and the upload and download speeds. For example, you might run one at 10am, one at 2pm, and one at 10pm.
The below instructions will create a Wi-Fi report that will tell us about the Wi-Fi signal in the area, and identify any interference or configuration issues:
The below instructions will create a report that will tell us about your device, and will help us identify any configuration issues and trace your issue on the network. Please try and connect to then then follow these instructions:
The following steps are for Windows 8 devices onwards. If you have an older device, you can skip this section.
- Press and hold the Windows key ( or
) and press the letter "R" > In the box, type 'Control Panel' and press Enter. - In this new window, click "Network and Internet", then "Network and Sharing Center". Click "Troubleshoot Problems" at the bottom of the Window.
- Select "Network Adapter", then click Next on the window that appears. Select the Wi-Fi option then click Next again.
- Your computer will now attempt to scan for any issues. Once finished, click "Skip this step". Wait for the Troubleshooting Process to finish and then select "View Detailed Information".
- Please note that we are not interested in the initial troubleshooting result - it is this detailed report that we are after.
- Scroll down slightly and expand "Detection Details" using the arrow on the right.
- On the keyboard, press Ctrl+A to select all of the text, then Ctrl+C to copy this text.
- Open Notepad and then Ctrl+V to paste the report. Save this Notepad file in a location you will be able to find it again with the filename "BSSID".
- Click the Apple icon (top left) > Select About this Mac > Select System Report > Click Network > Click Wi-Fi.
You can check you have the right page by looking at the top line, which should say "Software Versions".
- Select and Copy all the information shown here and Paste it into a TextEdit document, then Save it with the title WifiReport.txt.
Finally, consider the following questions:
- How does this affect your use of the internet? Do you notice it more on certain websites or applications?
- When did you first notice this issue?
- Are multiple devices affected?
- Do the speeds improve if you move out of your room, or closer to your nearest Wi-Fi access point?
- Are you able to test the Ethernet connection? Does that exhibit the same issue?
Please send these screenshots as attachments, along with the answers to the above questions in an email to us, and we will endeavour to get in touch as soon as we can. Alternatively, you can contact us using the form below, and send the attachments when prompted later on. You must include either your Username or Account ID in the email.