6 Tips to stop you Hitting your Bandwidth Limit

Since bandwidth limits have come into effect, many people have found surprise bills arriving on their doorstep. Charges can mount up alarmingly quickly when a cap has been reached and breached, sometimes resulting in enormous bills that people are unable to pay. So here are a few helpful hints on what you can do to stop yourself from hitting your bandwidth limit.

1. Secure your Connection – If you have Wi-Fi, it’s essential that you must provide password to protect it so that others don’t inadvertently or deliberately connect to your internet connection. Use a strong password that only people within your home know. If a neighbor connects to your Wi-Fi, then they can be contributing towards your cap whilst saving their own. You should also know about the free VPN services that help you in maintaining secure site connection and for more tips to stay protected online,take a look at here.

2· Restrict on-line gaming – It is true that a person gains a lot from online gaming but at the cost of his bandwidth as Online gaming can use a considerable amount of bandwidth. If you are playing on-line then you should consider the amount of time you devote to online gaming. If you have children in the house that love gaming it may be advisable to keep a check on how much time they spend online and to consider restricting their usage.

3· Avoid watching videos in HD – HD video uses considerably more bandwidth than traditional video. Although it’s nice to watch movies on the TV in HD and there are many websites that allow you to watch movies online or watch serials but it is always recommendable to avoid it if you want to save your bandwidth. Ask yourself if reaching your bandwidth cap for the sake of a better quality picture is really worth it.

4· Live streaming – More and more TV channels are now offering live streaming, where you can watch the latest football game or TV show via your device. This is a sure-fire way to hit you limit very quickly. The odd YouTube video may not have too much of an impact, but if you watch a lot of live sporting events you can find yourself hitting your limit in the blink of an eye. Before live streaming ask yourself if there is another way of viewing this, or can I wait and watch it at a later date on the television. It can make all the difference.

5· Automatic updates – These are often essential at ensuring the smooth running of your computer so I wouldn’t suggest turning them off. You should however, bear this in mind as these updates will contribute towards you hitting your download limit. Saying this, lots of people have unnecessary browser plugins they don’t need but update frequently, so uninstall the ones you don’t need.

6· Antivirus and security products: viruses and malware can have a huge impact on your bandwidth. If your PC is infected without your knowledge, then it can be continuously communicating with the malware author’s servers. Ensure that you have layers of protection and keep all essential automatic updates current.

Whilst these are all good ideas that will help reduce your bandwidth, the most important action you can take is to monitor your bandwidth to assess what is using the most and to react accordingly. There are plenty of bandwidth monitors available that you can download, these will help you keep tabs on how when you are using large amounts. You can then understand better who is responsible and when this is occurring and hopefully avoid any more unexpected bills arriving on your doorstep.

Author Bio: Kerry Butters contributes this article on behalf of Broadband Genie, the consumer website for finding information on UK internet providers.