Working from Home? Fix Slow Wi-Fi for Free
Nothing will ruin your workday like working from home with slow Wi-Fi. There are things you can do today to fix your slow Wi-Fi, both free and paid for.
Things you can do for free that can help:
There are a lot of free things you can do with your router to make your Wi-Fi faster:
Move closer to your router. Sometimes it’s that easy. If you are too far away, your router’s signal might not be strong enough to reach your device.
Update your router. Have you performed an update recently? Make sure that your router is updated and protected, and you should see a boost in speed and performance.
Put your router in a central spot. If your router is tucked in a corner, on the floor or in another room, it’s facing unnecessary obstacles. Move it more central to where you and your household use your devices.
Use band-steering on your router. Modern routers will offer band steering, which is a traffic-control feature. It helps prioritize your devices, like your work laptop. Whereas other devices like gaming consoles or tablets are sent through a different channel to free up bandwidth space.
Disconnect devices you don’t need right now. Similar to the tip above: If you have devices that are not a priority for work, consider disconnecting them during your work hours. This can help reduce congestion on your network and speed things up.
Reduce how much you use applications that eat up your bandwidth. Let’s face it: working from home allows us to stream Netflix all day. That is eating up bandwidth. Consider reducing your use of other applications and you will see a better connection speed.
Turn off all video function. Video calls take up a lot of bandwidth. If possible, dial in via phone to your meetings instead. Ask the presenter to send you the deck slides in advanced or after the meeting. This will save you a lot of frustration from a video presentation that freezes or cuts in and out.
Things that you have to spend money on, but will also help:
Contact your internet service provider (ISP) to up your internet speed subscription for better Wi-Fi speed.
Go wired. Sometimes a wireless connection doesn’t cut it. If you need reliable internet every time you use it, wire up. Things like powerline network adapters or MoCA network adapters work with the wiring you already have in your home. And they give you a solid connection. This requires you to purchase the adapters and an Ethernet cable, but the reliable connection will be work it.
Use a Wi-Fi extender to eliminate dead zones.
Use a Wi-Fi manager to optimize your Wi-Fi network for you.
Stay in-the-know on the impacts that working from home can have on your home Wi-Fi. Learn how to make your Wi-Fi network better for working from home by visiting Actiontec’s Industry Articles or the Actiontec blog.