If you’ve experienced your connection lagging when you are online gaming, streaming a TV show/film, on a video call with your colleagues or hosting an important meeting, then your broadband speeds may be the issue.
Your internet service provider may have advised you to check your download and upload speeds, but do you fully understand what this mean and how you can monitor your speeds? 
Download Speeds Explained
In simple terms, download speeds are the time your internet connection takes to download images, videos, or other files to your device. If you watch videos online, game online or stream music; a fast download speed will affect how seamless and quick the process is. If you open emails with attachments (particularly large files) the better the download speed, the quicker you can read your document.
Upload Speeds Explained
Upload speed essentially is the opposite to download speeds and refers to the time it takes to upload your data to the internet. This includes elements such as uploading videos onto social media platforms, YouTube, or other websites as an example. It also includes sending emails and saving files (to online servers), so if these simple processes are taking longer than expected, slow upload speeds are most likely to blame.
How to Check Your Speeds
If you believe your speeds are not as fast as they should be, or you are encountering lagging or buffering, you can perform a speed check on your device, which will highlight the speeds you are experiencing at that time.
This is a very simple task, just go to www.speedtest.vfast.co.uk and press ‘Go’, you will view your speeds being calculated and you will receive your results within a few seconds.
Why Do Download and Upload Speeds Matter
Both download and upload speeds are important as they affect the quality of your online experience. If you are watching online streaming services, or are in an important Teams or Zoom meeting, the last thing you want to encounter is freezing or lagging. If you work from home, online meetings, sending emails and using online services is essential and you can not afford a break in your internet connection while you are waiting for important information to download (or upload).
Not only does it affect your immediate device, but if you have online home security systems, Ring camera’s/doorbells or other smart devices, these are all uploading and downloading throughout the day. If you have a security threat, you want to be 100% confident that your camera devices have captured the incident and that you can view the footage clearly without any time-lapses.
What is Considered a Good Speed
This will be dependant on your usage and how you use the internet (what you do online), e.g. if you stream frequently or work from home.
For basic use or for just sending emails without large attachments, a 40 - 100Mbps download should be enough to give you a suitable online experience.
If you work from home or frequently stream and use platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, you will require a connection which gives you a higher download speed.
Upload speeds again depend on your usage, if you are uploading video’s, large files, you will require a better speed, we recommend between 25Mbps and 50Mbps+. If these speeds are still not sufficient for your requirements, we would recommend a fibre connection. For minimal internet use, 10Mbps will be suitable. 
Speeds tend to be measured in megabits per second (Mbps), though other speed tests may differ. Megabytes are easily confused with megabits, it is important to remember that megabits measure your speed and megabytes only measure storage capacity.
Your connection type and the speed you receive
Your connection type will affect the speed you get, with fibre broadband giving you faster speeds than an ADSL connection. The majority of households will likely have an ADSL connection, so it is worth discussing with your provider if other options are available in your area, if you would like a faster and more stable internet connection.
You can contact the Vfast team, who will happily discuss services available in your area on 01227 668901.
For over a decade Vfast Internet has been one of the UK's fastest growing internet service providers.
Our residential services range from fixed wireless broadband (WiMAX), fixed line broadband (FTTC & FTTH), to competitive call packages using broadband rather than traditional phone line (Digital Voice Line).