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How to Make Your PS3 Download Faster

Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Sony’s PlayStation 3 is a lot like your computer; not only can you play games, but you can download music and movies, and even surf the Web using your PlayStation 3 console and controller. But just like with any PC, the Internet speeds of your PlayStation 3 may vary depending on any number of factors. Luckily, you can control many of these factors, and most can be optimized in a matter of minutes on any PlayStation 3 console.

Things You'll Need:

  • Playstation 3
  • Ethernet Cable

Update your PS3 software with all of the latest updates as soon as they are available. Settings are always being tweaked by developers to give gamers the best gaming experience possible, both online and offline.

Ensure that the proper ports are enabled and opened in your router’s settings. Depending on your specific router, the process for opening ports may vary.

Avoid playing games, watching movies, listening to music or accessing the other features of your console while downloading data onto your PlayStation 3. Doing so may slow your download speeds drastically.

Avoid downloading data onto a PC while downloading data onto your PlayStation 3. In order to get the best possible download speeds from your console, you’ll want to dedicate all of your bandwidth to downloading on your PS3.

Use a wired network connection instead of a wireless connection when downloading data onto your PS3. Wireless connections are typically more prone to data loss. Moreover, you may not be achieving a full signal with your wireless connection; this can result in slower speeds than you’d get by connecting a plain Ethernet cable into the back of your PlayStation 3.

Clear some space on your hard drive by deleted any unnecessary or unused data. Doing so may result in a minor improvement of your PS3’s download speeds.

Change the status of your profile to “Unavailable” while downloading data onto your PlayStation 3. This can be done by accessing your profile under the “Friends” tab on your PlayStation 3’s XMB and pressing “Triangle.” Press “Right” while “Status” is highlighted, choose “Not Available” and press “X.” This will stop friends from bringing up chat sessions while you are in the process of downloading.

Avoid charging your controller while downloading data onto your PlayStation 3. Although this doesn’t make an enormous impact on the download speed of your PlayStation 3, you’ll want to dedicate all of your console’s resources to the Internet connection to achieve the fastest speeds possible.

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