Netgear Wireless LAN RouterIn Part One, we ran through the hardware diagnostics for the home Internet connection that was running badly; speeds up and down, intermittent drop-out, low signal wireless signal strength.

Before calling the service provider, there's still some research to do to add weight to that irksome technical support call. A poor connection could be down to any or all of the technical issues on the list we worked through in Part One:

1. Your computer's network speed - devices and drivers
2. Your home network set-up - broadband router, wireless

In this, Part Two, we move on:
3. Software - social networking, file-sharing, malware and viruses
4. Your Internet Service Provider's (ISP) broadband Internet service

the same rules apply: try your connection with just one machine accessing the connection; leaving aside the other users for a moment so that nobody else hogs the Internet at your house. If the speed varies according to the time of day, then it's probably not hardware... Read more of this post