My laptop is slow at home but fast at work. My husband's laptop is fast at home, as is my iPad. Why is only my laptop slow a

[ThamesPirate]

My laptop is slow at home but fast at work (both wireless connections). My husband's laptop is fast at home, as is my iPad (all wifi). Why is only my laptop slow and only at home?

 

[Wolfshadw]

Your laptop may be required to travel through a work Virtual Private Network (VPN) in order to do what you're wanting it to do. If so, your work VPN may be restricting or slowing your usage.

-Wolf sends

 

[Ubrales]

There may be too many start-up programs that load when you start the laptop, and stay loaded. Check the start-up folder and disable (not delete) the ones that you don't immediately need.

Another thing to do is to download and run "CCLEANER" - http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download (free program)

 

[ThamesPirate]

It works well at work, so I don't think it's the programs running. The same laptop, the same programs, etc. run well (primarily internet--I tried Safari, Firefox, etc. so that's not the problem) at work. So it isn't just the laptop.

By the same token all other devices run well at home. Husband's laptop, iPad, phones--all run fine. So it isn't the home router. It's the combination of the two that doesn't work.

 

[Ubrales]

When multiple devices are used simultaneously bandwidth to each is reduced. You can try with your laptop as the only connected device and see whether there are any changes.

 

[ThamesPirate]

We have tried that. It isn't location in the house, either. It isn't consistent--sometimes it's slow and sometimes it isn't, but we can't detect any pattern.

 

[Ubrales]

We have tried that. It isn't location in the house, either. It isn't consistent--sometimes it's slow and sometimes it isn't, but we can't detect any pattern.

It could be the modem at the other end (ISP). Fluctuations from the ISP and the bandwidth is not distributed evenly.

 

[scottlindner]

My laptop is slow at home but fast at work (both wireless connections). My husband's laptop is fast at home, as is my iPad (all wifi). Why is only my laptop slow and only at home?

I know this is an old thread. I just experienced the same issue with a new laptop that smokes at work but is awful at home. It took me a while but I found this blog post that solved the problem.
http://www.williambharding.com/blog/technology/fixed-my-i7-intel-dell-laptop-is-ridiculously-slow/

The key is to turn off Intel “Speed Step” in the BIOS. My machine immediately started smoking at home like it does in the office.