Frequently Asked Questions

Question:

How can I improve the speed of my Internet connection?

Answer:

My first suggestion would simply be to ask your ISP for more bandwidth. However you can also improve your Internet connection without adding a single byte to your bandwidth by simply running antivirus and anti-spyware to rid your machine of spyware or viruses/Trojan horses that ultimately slow your machine down.

Be aware that TCP downloads (large http websites or downloads) are designed to grab as much bandwidth as possible and therefore you need a means of prioritising and throttling your different type of traffic.

We at Max WiFi advocate a configuration system called QoS (Quality of Service) and believe it should be implemented on every type of network irrespective of its complexity.

This configuration allows you the user to allocate your chosen amount of bandwidth to each area of usage..for example you could give priority to web traffic over video downloads.

The latest home routers should come with an option for QoS.

Ensure your router's Firewall is turned on to block all unwanted incoming traffic.

Finally good PC housekeeping will ensure maximum efficiency.

Question:

Which is the best Firewall/antivirus and/or anti-spyware application on the market?

Answer:

My favourite has always been Zonealarm. It is free, offers free updates and has easy to read pop up messages warning you if any suspicious activity is occurring and will then suggest the best course of action. Oh and did I mention it is free.....?!

Question:

I currently have wireless Internet at home. How can I stop my neighbours from using my Internet?

Answer:

There are many security practices to ensure the neighbours stay off your home wireless network!

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an easy to implement 13 or 26 character encryption process that quickly puts a password on to your wireless network. Broadly speaking, this system is adequate in keeping the average user off your network. However the more diligent hacker or PC expert will be able to crack it in a relatively short space of time using free air and packet sniffers that are available on the Internet.

WiFi Protected Access (WPA) is a far more secure encryption method as it is extremely difficult to infiltrate.

However, I personally think the best solution by far is a configuration option called Media Access Control (MAC) Passthrough. If your router supports it, you can tell your router or wireless access point to only allow connections from specified addresses which you enter manually. This is practically impossible to infiltrate.

Question:

I have a download speed of 4 Mb which I got from speedtest.net but when I download a file, it is telling me that I am downloading at a speed which is nowhere near that speed. Is there something wrong with my connection?

Answer:

Well there are two issues here.

Firstly the download speed results from the slowest connection of the network...therefore EITHER your download speed on the network OR the upload speed of the website you are downloading from (and if it is a relatively unknown or small based site then it is unlikely that it will have a large bandwidth capacity).

Secondly another issue is the way your speed test is advertising your total bandwidth. In truth, if you have an Internet speed of 4Mb then you can only download a file at 500 KB/s. Basically you have to divide your bandwidth by 8 to achieve the speed in which you can download a file. This is due to the physics of having 8 binary bits in one byte and bytes are generally used to measure file sizes and bits are generally used to measure your network speed.

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