With so many people still needing to work from an established home office space, WiFi dead zones and low internet speed can ruin a household’s ability to work or learn remotely. As more people need to use the internet for streaming classes or conference calls, bandwidth straining and other network issues will begin to happen more often.
Bandwidth optimization is creating an efficient system to increase the rate of data transfer. In order to optimize your home internet network, you’ll have to make a few changes to your hardware and software. Luckily, once you have a little background in bandwidth, network speed, and understanding your ISP (Internet Service Provider) limitations, it’s not as complicated as it first may seem.
What Affects Your Home Network Speed
Whether you’re an internet expert or you rely on a friend or family member to help you with your technology needs, everyone can use a little more in depth learning when it comes to optimizing their home network. There are a number of things that can be taking up network speed that you may not have noticed. Here are a few of the common bandwidth-heavy activities that can reduce the network speed on your household devices:
- Downloading and Uploading
- Background Use
- Number of Users
- Cable Connection vs Wireless
- Router Type & Location
When it comes to assessing your limitations in depth, it can quickly become a complicated deep dive. If you’re looking for more information on how you could be congesting your network, an electronics specialist can help you uncover where you’re having the most problems.
Small Ways to Increase Internet Speed
Your bandwidth is like a highway with multiple lanes - every user and activity is a car on each lane. A congested highway means backups, slow speeds, and occasional accidents (or WiFi dead zones). If you don’t have the time to make significant changes, there are small ways you can improve your internet speed when it counts and avoid these major traffic jams.
If you’re expecting a conference call or an important class, ask others in your household to stay off the bandwidth-heavy activities like streaming or off the internet entirely, if possible. Make sure no one is attempting to download or upload anything, as this takes up a significant amount of bandwidth. You can also move closer to the router location in order to get a better connection.
If you live by yourself, check your background processes and make sure nothing from your devices is using the internet without your knowledge. Simple things like turning off your phone’s internet during a Zoom meeting; reducing the amount of tabs and internet-necessary programs running on your laptop; or disconnecting your Smart TV from the internet.
Software Changes
Closing Applications
You may need to check through your open programs and applications on your devices to see if any are using the internet in the background. Close out of unnecessary tabs, check your usage in the Task Manager, and give your phone or tablet a break on Airplane Mode. While only doing one of these tasks won’t free up your bandwidth entirely, keeping all of these tasks in check regularly will help reduce the congestion.
Trusted Programs
There are several programs you can find and download that will improve your device’s internet consumption. It’s critical to only download trusted and well-researched programs that won’t secretly steal your data or corrupt your device. Bandwidth monitoring tools can give you an analysis on devices or programs that are taking up unnecessary space and occasionally can help you optimize your usage.
Hardware Changes
Plug In Your Ethernet Cable
It’s become a common reaction to just connect our devices to the WiFi automatically. However, if you’re experiencing lag and streaming interruptions during important lectures or meetings, it may be time to grab the ethernet cable. When your computer is plugged in directly to the source, it’s more likely to perform faster than just on the WiFi network.
Moving Your Router to a Central Location
One of the easiest ways you can try to improve your network speed is by moving the router to a central location. While this will improve the speed in a centralized area, this doesn’t solve the problem of multiple users, download and upload speed, and other bandwidth-heavy activities. It simply helps those that are closer.
WiFi Access Points
Possibly the best way to ensure you’re going to have great networking speed is to install WiFi access points (AP). When you’re in a large house or office building, it’s easy to stray too far from the router and lose valuable speed. Instead of worrying about your space, you can give everyone an equal opportunity by installing APs around the house that will produce a strong connection signal. There are a variety of versions for a range of needs and budgets, so it’s important to consult an expert on your options.
Optimize Your Home Network
Reliable internet connection and fast streaming speeds are necessary to stay connected when working or learning remotely. It’s also important when trying to stay in touch with friends or family members when unable to reach out physically. As your household and opportunities grow, you need a home network that’s dependable and consistent. In order to reduce bandwidth throttling and lagging programs, you may need to make some household changes.
As you look through your options, consider what works best for your household’s needs in terms of budget, space, and practicality. This requires time and research for those that are unfamiliar with the technology involved. Talking with industry leaders like LeslieVille Geek gives you the opportunity to not only get the assistance you need to tackle these kinds of obstacles, but they provide tools and resources you’ll need to help yourself in the future.
