Though the speed of internet connections continue to rise in line with new technology when we go to download files and WebPages the speed of these downloads is sadly not as fast as advertised it seems and we wonder why faster internet downloads elude us. The reasons are many but there are a few things you can do to increase your download speed quickly.

1. Get a Spyware Remover

One reason you may have a slower than expected internet connection stifling faster internet downloads is spyware. From browsing and downloading you can pick up nasty little buggers called spyware or malware which runs in the background of your machine feeding information back to their masters and slowing things down when browsing. Spyware is a sad fact of the internet and while we can take precautions by using safer browsers like firefox and being careful where we go and what we download we will always attract some. There are many spyware removers on the net you can download however and I suggest you get one to clean up your PC!

2. Change Your Firewall Settings

Many people have firewalls that protect you from unwanted intrusions by hackers and while they can be good things they can sometimes lock down your PC so hard that it throttles back your connection speed to prehistoric levels! Every firewall is different, some are software driven some are stored in your modem or router and you may not even know it is there but by lowering some of the security levels you can increase the speed of your downloads without any significant increase in security risk.

3. Stop Background Programs

Another issue that slows down download speeds and often the entire performance of your computer are programs that run in the background taking up computer power and sometimes are downloading or uploading data as well. Some are more visible than others, if you look at the bottom right of your screen you can see little icons showing some necessary services but if you have a lot there you may want to turn some off like virus checkers, and especially if you do not know what they are! You can also press ctrl-alt-del and go to the "processes" and you will see a large list of programs running. Most of these are essential but some can be stopped to free up your connection for faster internet downloads and computer performance (do not do this unless you are sure of what you are stopping!)