Coronavirus Pandemic, Offsite/Work-from-Home, Technology

The Need for Speed

Posted on by Bill Ayres
internet connection speed

Work from Home Tips: The Need for Speed

Working from home full-time for the first time? It can be challenging — especially if everyone else is home with you!

In most cases, your Internet speed at home before may have been sufficient for your normal everyday activities, like surfing the web, listening to music, and watching Netflix.

But now that you are working from home, you may be using a VOIP (voice-over-IP) office phone (or a softphone application), plus an application providing remote access to your computer at work. These applications all demand resources and bandwidth to run efficiently, and will tax your existing Internet connection.

If you are having call quality issues, or your remote connection to your office computer is slow and choppy, it could have something to do with your Internet speed/connection.

 

Here are some things you can look at to possibly help rectify your issues:

  1. Check to see if anyone in the home is streaming music or movies, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, etc. If they are, ask them to stop for 30 to 60 minutes so you can determine if that is what’s causing your issues.
  2. If you are running over a wireless connection (Wi-Fi) check the placement of your wireless router. Make sure that it’s in an open area and at an elevated position for maximum coverage. Also make sure that you do not have any metal objects around or near the wireless router as this will interfere with the wireless signal.
  3. Reboot your Internet router and your wireless router. Sometimes rebooting the routers will increase the connection speed just like rebooting your computer. It’s good practice to reboot your routers at least once a month.
  4. If you are still having issues you can check your Internet speed by opening a web browser and going to https://www.speedtest.net/

 

There is really no way to determine the best network speed because it’s going to be based on what your demands are, and those demands may change in a month. You want to choose a connection speed that will meet your needs for the long term.

If you were able to resolve your issues by reducing music and video streaming, and your work at home situation is short term, you may be able to make do with your current Internet connection.

If you’ve tried all of the suggestions listed above and you are still encountering connection issues, what is your next step? The next step is most likely going to be increasing your Internet connection speed.

Will you be working from home long-term? If this is the case, then you will almost certainly want to look at increasing your Internet connection speed to something that will accommodate your new normal everyday activities.

Bill Ayres

Bill Ayres served as the Customer Support Manager for Time Matters for seven years. His broad knowledge of the application functionality, front-end and back-end operations, and internal workings of the LexisNexis support operation make him an excellent Time Matters consultant and a huge asset to our consulting team. Before settling in with LexisNexis, Bill also spent 7 years in systems maintenance and as the customer support manager for TML Information Services, troubleshooting both hardware and software issues. Along with being an expert on legacy products such as LexisNexis, Bill also keeps up-to-date on software trends and can advise clients on newer cloud-based options for their businesses. Bill joined Circle Management Group in 2010 and since then has become one of the pillars of Circle Management Group’s Managed Services division and has continued to use his extensive knowledge of Time Matters to serve our customers. Always prepared with a great joke or story, Bill enjoys spending time with his family and friends and learning about new and classic cars.