Slow smartphone Internet connection: how to solve it

The smartphone has become so important in filling our days that, at the slightest sign of slowdown or lost Internet connection, we immediately react by trying to find out what’s wrong or what has happened, for fear of losing that notification that we expected from a bit’. Unfortunately we cannot predict when our phone will slow down or start surfing slowly, but we can prepare for the eventuality by reading the following guide, where we have collected all the most valuable tips for solve slow smartphone internet connection problems.
Reading all the suggestions proposed below we will be able to react promptly every time our smartphone “makes tantrums”, whatever the operating system in our possession (Android or iPhone).READ ALSO: App to speed up the internet on Android

Problems and solutions with the connection of the smartphone

For every common problem concerning slow connectivity on modern smartphones we offer you a quick and easy solution, also applicable by novice users with modern phones or little accustomed to modern technology. Although the suggestions may seem trivial to you, often the simplest solutions are the ones “ignored” by users, thus leading to much bigger problems than they really are.
To find an Internet connection problem, we always perform a speed test from the phone, also using the apps seen in the guide App for speedtest from smartphone.

Weak Wi-Fi

If we are connected via Wi-Fi and still notice slowdowns, the problem may be due to the Wi-Fi signal being too weak at the point of the house or the place where we are. We try to get closer to the modem, hospot or router, so that we can benefit from a more powerful Wi-Fi signal and with a better transmission speed.
If the modem is too far away or we cannot get close to the router, we can improve the reception of the home wireless network by using a Wi-Fi repeater or a Wi-Fi Powerline, as seen in our guides How does the wifi repeater or “Range Extender” work and which one to buy is How the Powerline works, secrets and limits.
If we already have a computer or notebook connected by cable to the modem but we do not have Wi-Fi coverage, we can quickly remedy by activating the hotspot on the PC, as seen in our article on how Create a WiFi hotspot on Windows PC.
If we are away from home it is better to aim for a fast Wi-Fi hotspot, such as those found with App to find free Wifi and free wireless networks on the map, or take advantage of the wireless services provided by some mobile operators, as seen in the discussion on how Activate the connection to WOW FI Fastweb and Fon Vodafone networks (free).

Weak LTE data connection

If we are not connected to Wi-Fi and we notice slowdowns in the Internet connection, it is certainly the fault of the mobile network with too weak a signal, even in the case of an LTE connection. In this case, solving is much more difficult, because we will have to change the area of ​​the city in order to pick up the signal from a less clogged antenna or with better coverage. The “fastest” trick to changing the connection cell immediately is to activate and deactivate airplane mode immediately phone: trivial, but effective in many cases.
To find out the best coverage for the area and the position of the antennas of the various operators, we recommend you read our guide on How to check LTE cellular signal strength on smartphone.

Obsolete data connection (3G or 2G)

This problem is often linked to the previous one: we note that the data network has good coverage (if not excellent), yet we navigate very slowly. Often this is caused by the switch to very old data connection technologies like 3G or worse 2G / GPRS (very slow). As seen before, we can do little, if not try to quickly activate and deactivate airplane mode to try to connect to a better antenna.
On Dual SIM smartphones It is important to note that, in some cases, one of the two slots can only have a 2G or 3G connection, so you need to insert the SIM that you use to surf the internet in the slot that supports fast connection.
To better understand the coverage of the chosen operator, we can use the suggestions in our arctic with the 3G 4G / LTE coverage map for mobile and internet (Tim, 3, Wind, Vodafone).

Slow or blocked DNS servers

If the Wi-Fi or data connection is excellent and there are no problems related to the connection technology in use (we are in LTE or with a fast wireless network), the problem of slow smartphone Internet connection could be due to DNS server, which often become clogged and do not quickly provide the answer to requests from sites that we open or the services we are using on smartphones.
In this case we can solve it by quickly changing the DNS with an app like Blokada Slim, available for Android.

Just choose one of the DNS offered and take advantage of the VPN tunnel to immediately divert requests from sites and domains to a faster and more responsive service than that offered by the operator. To manually change the DNS on Android and iPhone, we recommend you read our guide How to change DNS on Android and iPhone.

Conclusions

Without going into too specific and trivial and obvious suggestions, in this guide we have shown you the main causes of slow Internet connection on any smartphone, so that the next time we run into a slowdown we will know how to intervene.

Obviously the reasons for slowing down the Android phone are much more numerous and it is not always the fault of the Internet connection; to learn more, I refer you to reading our complete guides on Solutions if Wi-Fi on Android doesn’t connect to the network or the internet and what to do if 3G or 4G cellular data connection does not work.
If the slowdown involves our iPhone (rare but possible), we can solve all the problems by reading our article on How to fix WiFi problems on iPhone.

READ ALSO: Solve weak or absent signal problems on mobile phone