As of 13 August 2026, AI can find the cause of your slow broadband.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Do it yourself

   Second choice

   A chat interface, no skill needed, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open a chatbot and paste the prompt, filling in the ISP, package, router, affected device and connection details without including passwords or account numbers.
   2. Run the chatbot's first suggested checks, starting with a speed test on the affected device and recording the download speed, upload speed, latency if shown, time and whether it used Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
   3. Connect a suitable device to the router with an Ethernet cable, if available, run the same speed test near the router, and record the result separately from the Wi-Fi result.
   4. Run the same test on another device and at another time if the problem varies, then paste all recorded results into the chatbot and ask it to compare them without guessing.
   5. Follow only the low-risk checks that the evidence supports, such as moving closer to the router or checking whether one device is affected, and record whether the result changes.
   6. Ask the chatbot to produce a short evidence summary with confirmed findings, remaining uncertainties and the next action, then compare its claims with your recorded tests and router lights.
   7. If the evidence points to the ISP or phone line, open your provider's support page or phone service and send the chatbot's evidence summary, keeping the original test results for the provider.

   Prompt

   Help me find the cause of slow broadband in the UK. Do not guess and do not ask for passwords, account numbers or other private information. Ask me for any missing details before reaching a conclusion.
   
   My details:
   - ISP: [name]
   - Broadband package or advertised speed: [details if known]
   - Router model: [model if known]
   - Location of the router and device: [details]
   - Device affected: [phone, laptop, TV, games console or other]
   - Connection type during the test: [Ethernet cable or Wi-Fi]
   - Whether other devices are affected: [yes or no, with details]
   - Whether the problem is constant or occurs at certain times: [details]
   - Recent changes, outages or router lights showing an error: [details]
   
   Give me a safe, ordered test plan. Start with tests that do not require changing settings. Tell me exactly what to record from each test, including download speed, upload speed, latency or ping if shown, time, device and whether the connection was wired or Wi-Fi. Help me compare a wired test near the router with a Wi-Fi test and a test on another device. Explain what each possible result would suggest, separating an ISP or phone-line problem from a Wi-Fi, router, device or website problem. Do not tell me to factory-reset the router, alter advanced settings or buy equipment unless the evidence supports it, and explain the risk first. Once I provide the results, state what is supported by the evidence, what remains uncertain, and whether I should contact my ISP. If I should contact the ISP, draft a short message listing the useful evidence and asking them to run the appropriate line or service checks.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

3. Use a tool built for this

   The distant third