Working from home - Your home internet

For many people in an office, they will have a dedicated business internet connection which is fast and reliable. Additionally, at work most people will have a cable connecting a computer to the router – despite what WiFi manufacturers may want us to know, a cable is always better than WiFi!

But let’s assume that at home you cant do this, or don’t want to stretch a long wire across your living room. At home, most of us connect to WiFi.

A few steps to making your home wifi better

The first thing to do, if you haven’t done it in a while, is simply to turn your router off and on again. This can be surprisingly effective if it hasn’t been done in a while, though please make sure that no-one else in your home is connected first, else you will disconnect them. A minute or so later and your wifi will come back.

Next, make sure your router is secure. Log in and check you have a good password, or think about changing it if you’ve had this a while. Anyone else using your WiFi who shouldn’t be will be slowing you down, as well as being a real security risk to you.

Move your computer (or device) a bit closer. Distance can certainly affect WiFi range, and in fact the newer ranges (5ghz and 6Ghz spectrums) are more affected by distance than the slower, older ranges. This is the same reason why Longwave radio can work across multiple countries, but FM radio is only local to a region. The second part of this is to think about objects that might block a signal – walls, other devices, and especially microwaves and water (pipes in a wall, or the bath etc).

Run some tests – google’s own “speedtest” will give a reasonable idea of where you are at. Begin by being close to your router, and then move away – see what the drop off is. This will give you an upload and a download speed. If you are getting stuff (to you), the download speed matters. If you are giving stuff (sending data up) the upload speed matters. For many people, 20 Megabits per second (Mbps) down and 5 Mbps up is adequate in 2020, though faster is common (and better).

Google’s Speedtest (and click the blue button)

And finally, consider buying some new equipment for the home. Newer technologies such as WiFi 6, powerline (which uses your existing electrical wiring) and mesh networks do a much better job than even 5 years ago.

Ask us if you need something getting for you.