Is Your Internet Connection Being Throttled?

A laggy internet connection is the last thing you want when playing online games. It can also ruin an online movie and even cause problems while making rapid searches on Google. This is sometimes caused by deliberate internet throttling – and your internet service provider (ISP) is to blame.

It’s a harsh reality that ISPs intentionally throttle internet connections to relieve themselves from bandwidth congestion. Moreover, it cuts down their costs. Fortunately, there are ways to beat them at their game and get reliable speeds back. But first, let’s take a look at the basics of internet throttling and how to identify it in the wild.

What does ‘Internet Throttling’ mean?

Internet throttling occurs when your ISP purposefully regulates the speed of your broadband web connection. This method is typically an open technique utilised by ISPs to direct a system’s movement and ease network congestion.

Internet throttling can be difficult to identify as it can take numerous structures, confusing anybody searching for an identifiable example.

Why do ISPs throttle your internet?

There are a few reasons why an ISP would make their clients hate them by slowing down their connection. Some legitimate reasons to throttle your internet connection are listed as follows:-

• Administration of frequent requests during congestion
• Authorisation of exceeding web searches
• Traffic prioritisation and streamlining
• The counteractive action of DDoS attacks

Sadly, there are additionally other, less authentic reasons that an ISP may select to throttle certain movement.

Sceptical reasons for internet throttling

Comcast’s throttling of torrent activity utilising the BitTorrent protocol in 2007 is an incredible case of an ISP using questionable tactics behind restricting bandwidth capacity. They expressed that their activity was proposed to ensure different clients.

The FCC determined that Comcast was attempting to compel clients to quit downloading movies and various files through BitTorrent to expand utilisation of their own paid streaming services which they promoted as an option.

That, obviously, isn’t the only example of an ISP engaging in this practice. A brisk Google search query can uncover just to what degree network access suppliers endeavour to stack the deck to support them.

Is bandwidth throttling legal?

Since the implementation of the FCC’s 2017 net neutrality law, that is a troublesome inquiry to reply. In the European Union, throttling for any reason other than authentic system administration is unlawful under the location’s internet controls. In Australia, deliberate bandwidth throttling is commonplace as a means to prevent network congestion.

How to tell if your internet is being throttled

At the point when an ISP throttles activity, it might:

• Occur amid times of surfing
• Just target particular sorts of activity
• Occur randomly
• Influence just parts of an ISP’s sponsor

In the event that an ISP is applying to throttle all web activity, you can recognise it by seeing that your connection throttles only during a certain activity. You can utilise the Internet Health Test that recognises whether your ISP is throttling your connection or not.

The Internet Health Test sees any indication of congestion between your ISP and the transmission. It does this by running a few short speed tests to several measurement servers on different networks to compare how your broadband connection performance varies to different parts of the internet.

How to stop internet throttling

When you are certain that your ISP is throttling your connection, you’re going to need a workaround. Luckily, the ways that an ISP executes internet throttling can likewise work to the upside of those hoping to stay away from it.

For instance, in a few circumstances, you can crush BitTorrent activity throttling by enabling encryption in the custom programming. That encryption can veil the movement to keep the throttling component from actuating.

To make sense of what sort of activity navigates their system, ISPs will consider things like the number of simultaneous associations, the aggregate information exchange rate, the association goal, and the ports being used.

Utilise a proxy

The initial step you can take to prevent from internet throttling is to make utilization of a proxy server. It will go about as a go-between for your data transmission.

Proxies offer methods for steering a few or the majority of your PC’s connection through an outside server. Doing as such conceals the real goal of the activity, and in addition, the port numbers included. Rather, all connections seem to utilize one unique port and to end up in a similar place.

Use a VPN

Depending on how your ISP assesses activity on their system, a proxy server probably won’t stay away from each sort of identification strategy. If that is the situation, a virtual private network (VPN) will be your favoured plan.

The most critical contrast between a proxy and a VPN is the latter makes an encrypted passage from your device to the VPN server. All your web activity at that point moves through that passage.

The one-two punch of an encrypted connection and the VPN server going about as a mediator implies an ISP won’t have the capacity to decide anything huge about your online activity. The main things they can make sense of is the total data transferred and the goal VPN server.

Consequently, with a VPN, an ISP is unlikely to ever throttle your activity. (Except if, obviously, they restrain everything originating from your IP address.)

There is a long list of dependable VPNs available on the internet (you can find a few of our persons recommendations here). Generally speaking, paid services are preferable to free versions since they offer better encryption protocols and more server flexibility.

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Bypass ISP throttling without VPN

So you don’t want to fork out for a VPN? No problem: There’s also a manual solution to bypassing ISP throttling without resorting to a VPN. Here are the steps for Microsoft Windows users.

1. Go into Settings and search ‘Local Group Policy Editor.’

2. In the Local Group Policy Editor, click on Computer Configuration> Administrative Templates> Network> QoS Packet Scheduler> Limit reservable bandwidth.

3. In the left-hand window, click ‘edit policy setting’. Select ‘bandwidth limit (%): 0’ and press OK.

4. Enter the Control Panel. Tap on Network and Internet> Network and Sharing Center> Change Adapter settings.

5. Left click on the Local Area Connection and select ‘properties’ at the end.

6. Check ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)’

7. Press the General tab and edit your DNS server settings as: Favored DNS server: 8.8.8.8 | Substitute DNS server: 8.8.4.4

8. Hit Ok and close all the opened windows.

If done correctly, you could encounter a moderately quicker browsing speed from your browser – especially while streaming and downloading.

Conclusion

If you experience internet throttling, understand that ISPs do throttle connections in the first place. The uplifting news is in the event that you ever wind up influenced by internet throttling, you have choices like a VPN to combat such issues. As long as ISPs use algorithms to keep track of your online activity, countermeasures will dependably exist.