How Can You Spot Network Throttling?

You might have heard the term “Internet Throttling” or “Bandwidth Throttling”, which is when your internet service provider intentionally slows your internet connection for certain internet activities or limits your bandwidth after you have reached the monthly data limit. Internet throttling is quite a common practice these days and it is meant to prevent users from over-exceeding their data usage.

For users, internet throttling is highly annoying, as it can prevent them from performing online activities like gaming, video streaming, and downloading. Once your ISP starts throttling your network, you will notice your internet speeds getting slower, videos starting to bugger, and lags in online gaming and file transfer.

Although most internet service providers claim that they don’t throttle the internet connection unless users reach their data limit, they still throttle your internet connection to some extent. If you are experiencing buffering in video streaming, delay in internet activities, or lag in online activities, it could be that your internet connection is being throttled by your ISP. So how can you tell or spot if your internet network is being throttled by your ISP? That is what we are going to find out, as we discuss how you can spot if your internet connection is being throttled.

How to Spot Network Throttling?

Perform a Speed Test

The first thing that you are going to do to spot if your internet connection is being throttled by your ISP or not is to perform a speed test. A speed test provides you an overview of the current internet speeds of your internet connection including your download and upload speeds. When you are running a speed test on your network, make sure that your internet connection isn’t being used on other devices for activities like video streaming or downloading large files which can influence the results of the speed test.

There are various websites from where you can perform a speed test. For more accurate results, you can also consider using an ethernet connection directly from your Netgear router or modem before running the test. Once the test is performed, take a snapshot of the speed test results.

Perform a Speed Test on a VPN

The next thing that you are going to do is perform a speed test on a VPN. Download and install a VPN on your device and perform the test again from the same website. When you perform a speed test on a virtual private network, you will get to know whether your network is intentionally being throttled by the ISP or not, as a VPN can bypass the throttling of the ISP.

Some ISPs have specific systems that can tell when you are running a speed test and pause throttling while the speed test is being performed. In such instances, a VPN can come in handy, as it masks your internet activities and provides you with more accurate speed test results. Once the speed test on the VPN is performed, take a snapshot of the speed test results from the link.

Compare the Results of Speed Tests

Now, take your results from the first speed test (without VPN) and second speed test (with VPN), and compare the results. If the results are more or less the same, it is a good indication that your internet speeds are not being throttled by your ISP. However, if your VPN speed test results are much faster than normal speed test results, it indicates that your ISP is throttling your internet speeds.

Keep in mind that using a VPN slows down your internet speeds and even after that, the VPN results are still faster than the normal results, it is a good indicator of your internet network being throttled.

Compare Speed Test Results With Advertised Speeds

In case both of the speed test results are similar to each other, compare your speed test results to the internet speeds advertised by your ISP in your internet plan. Generally, you should receive internet speeds that are similar to or exceed the advertised speeds by ISP. If there is a significant difference between the speed test results and advertised speeds, you should talk with your ISP or consider switching ISP.