Addressing Internet Slowdown

Most people will experience the same network performance before and after your Circle device has been connected to the home Wi-Fi. However, it may be that your Circle device's presence on your network has introduced some slowing to its overall speed.

Troubleshooting Internet Slowdown

To help you troubleshoot any potential Internet slow down issues we've made a helpful guide below. Walk through it and see if your the guide can help resolve your issue. The information communicated in it is also below for your reference.

Circle Hardware Specifications

The Circle Home (1st generation) device utilizes a standard 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port, and a 802.11 b/g/n wireless card that is limited to "Wireless N" speeds over 2.4GHz. If you're paying for "gigabit" Internet service, or for speeds greater than 100 Mbps, you may experience slow internet speeds as a result.
Circle Home Plus utilizes an upgraded gigbit Ethernet port and a 802.11 b/g/n wireless card that is limited to "Wireless N" speeds over 2.4GHz. Unlike Circle Home, this model can handle gigabit internet speeds and should not inhibit the speed in your home.

Place Circle near your router

Circle operates by interacting directly with your router rather than the various devices in your home. Because of this, the Circle device's connection with your router is very important for performance. If your Circle device is physically far from your router, in another room, or otherwise positioned in a way that may prevent a strong connection between your Circle device and your router, move your Circle device closer (within five feet).

Use the Ethernet cable

In addition to bringing the Circle device closer to your router, you can also strengthen the connection between your Circle device and your router by connecting them via the Ethernet cable that came with your Circle device. To do this:

Plug one end of the Ethernet cable into the port beneath the tab on the back of your Circle device, and insert the other end into the router.
Reboot both your Circle device and router to solidify the Ethernet connection.

Check your devices

If you're still seeing significant slowdown when your Circle device is on, check your devices list for any network gear that might need to be set to "Unmanaged."

Make sure you only assign devices to managed (Adult, Teen, Kid, or Pre-K) profiles that you recognize. If your network gear like a router appears in the Circle app, we recommend setting that to "Unmanaged" so that Circle doesn't interfere with that device or others. You can check your router or modem for the MAC address and manufacturer and see those listed in the Circle app for easy identification. For more on unmanaging see here.

To assign or reassign a device to Unmanaged:

In the Circle app, open the Devices list by tapping Devices on the Home screen.
Tap the name of the device you would like to change to open the Device Settings screen.
Tap Assigned to.
Check the box next to Unmanaged.

If you're seeing slowdown on a device that you don't care about your Circle device monitoring, like your own, or a smart TV, we recommend setting it to "Unmanaged" as well.

With more than 50+ plus managed devices and a lot of traffic you might start to see some issues connecting to the Circle or some slowdown in the app. Make sure to remove any old devices that are no longer on your network, and set any devices to "Unmanaged" that you don't care about filtering or managing.

Reboot Circle

From the Circle app's home screen, go to Menu >> Manage.
Tap Reboot Circle. While your Circle device is rebooting, you will be unable to use the Circle app.
If you are unable to access reboot option in the app, power your Circle device off, and then back on, manually. See "How to turn Circle Home Plus on and off" for more detail here.

Reboot your router

IMPORTANT: The process below is typical for rebooting routers, but we recommend that you consult your router documentation to determine the recommended reboot process from the manufacturer.

Remove the power cable from the back of your router. Wait 10 seconds and re-insert the cable.
Wait 30-60 seconds for the router to completely turn back on and broadcast the Wi-Fi network.
Wait for the light on the back of your Circle device to turn solid before trying again.

Device Specific Slowdown

Only seeing slowdown on a particular device? Check to make sure of the following for this device.

You've identified and assigned the device correctly.
No profile settings like a Time Limit or Filter setting are causing this issue.
Does the issue just occur on Data? Make sure your data plan is good and you're not being limited.
Update the device completely and reboot.
Disable Circle or Circle Go and see if the issue goes away. If it does not you may need to talk with your manufacturer, ISP or carrier.
Remove any VPNs or device management on the device that were recently added.
Remove the device from Circle and add it to a new test profile.

Still having trouble?

Check out this additional resources: