Internet and Wi-Fi have now become an essential part of everyone’s life. Back in December 2018 the second largest network O2 had a UK wide data outage. This lasted for just over 10 hours in total, it brought almost 7 million of their customers to a standstill.
The reality is that without internet or fast Wi-Fi, it can bring a business to a standstill, and they simply couldn’t operate. We rely on Wi-Fi and the internet every day for:
- Basic communication
- Accessing our applications
- Storing and accessing data
- Keeping our devices up-to-date and safe
- Giving customers a great experience.
As well as many other things.
Since Covid, our Hybrid way of working, and widespread use of online meetings and video calling (such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom), reliable Wi-Fi is now even more important in your business and remote workers' homes.
So, when your internet isn’t performing as well as it should, it’s no longer just annoying. It can bring your business to a grinding halt and become extremely frustrating.
This is where we bring some good news. There’s almost always something that can be done to improve Wi-Fi, even if the speeds offered by your provider are a bit “meh”.
Below is a short guide to help make your Wi-Fi faster wherever you are working!
These are the things that can affect Wi-Fi speeds.
It’s possible that slow Wi-Fi can be down to a single fault or, it could be a combination of factors such as walls, device age, distance from the router/access point and more. When we’re investigating your Wi-Fi Speeds, we look for the following:
- What bandwidth do you have available from your provider?
- How old is your Wi-Fi box? (This is called a router)
- Is your router’s software (known as firmware) up-to-date?
- What kind of coverage do you get from that router?
- How does the physical layout of your office or home affect the signal?
- Do you have extenders or access points to cover a larger area?
- How is your Wi-Fi setup? Is it optimised so different channels aren’t fighting each other? Are you using up-to-date standards that all your devices can access?
- Is there any interference from other technology?
- How many devices are using it, and what for?
- How old are the devices connected to Wi-Fi?
You generally don’t need to worry about most of the things listed above. Your IT partner should handle most of them for you. If they don’t or you don’t have an IT partner, you should speak to us to see how we can help you and discuss the range of IT Services that we can offer
Let’s dive into a few of these in a little more detail below.
Understanding what bandwidth is
When you speak to your current or a new broadband provider, they’ll talk to you about fibre and the super-fast “speeds” that they can offer. When they say you can get 80mbps download and 15mbps upload, they’re really talking about the bandwidth that you can receive.
Bandwidth is not speed… it’s the amount of data they can be sent across the connection that they can provide in a certain amount of time. If the bandwidth is low, then your internet speed is going to be low as it takes more time for the data to get to and from your chosen device.
Here’s a quick analogy that will help you to understand a little more.
Imagine a drinking straw, you can slurp water through the straw easily. Water’s not thick and you don’t need much suction. But try to drink a fresh thick milkshake through that same straw and you’re going to struggle.
You’ll either need a bigger straw or to suck a little harder. Data on the internet is pretty much the same.
An email containing only text is the water. It only needs a little bit of bandwidth because there’s not much data to send. Now think of a 4K video that is streaming, this is the milkshake, and it requires a lot more bandwidth as the files could be huge.
Bandwidth is measured in megabits per second (Mbps). Netflix for example, requires an absolute minimum of 1Mbps to stream low resolution shows. It will also come with a lot of buffering at that speed! However, to watch a 4K movie or show on Netflix you’ll require a minimum of 15Mbps.
These are speeds for home of course. In a workplace, there is a lot more to take into consideration. You could have 6 people doing video calls while others are uploading files to Microsoft OneDrive.
You need to consider if you have enough bandwidth for all your colleagues to complete the tasks that need to for the day.
Is the setup and configuration, correct?
Slow internet is quite often caused by the way it's set up from the start. There are a few bits to think about when setting up. It could be the placement of the router or access points, but it could also be down to how the router and network have been configured.
Configurations are one of the least understood areas of Wi-Fi, but it’s so important. Most standard home routers such as BT and PlusNet will have the configuration setup and set to automatically try and get the best speeds. Whereas in a business it can become a little more complicated. This is something that your IT Partner should just handle for you.
In your business, it’s likely that you have several devices working together to give the best Wi-Fi coverage. Each device will have its own channel of communication and connect to your colleagues’ laptops and phones. It’s important that these channels are balanced and not crossing each other, this helps to avoid network congestion.
If you think of your Wi-Fi a bit like a walkie talkie. If someone is already using a channel, then there will be interference and confusion if you use it as well. That’s why you would switch to another channel. Wi-Fi is similar.
You may also want to create a network policy that restricts the use of websites or services (such as YouTube and bandwidth heavy sites). This could also include blocking ads and downloading large files and software.
Of course, this is a lot trickier to do on a home network as it will be used for both personal and work purposes. And if your partner works from as well, you have to be careful not to restrict what they require to complete their daily workload.
Interference is your enemy
One of the most common issues for Wi-Fi networks is interference. It happens when other wireless signals weaken. Common devices that can affect your Wi-Fi signal are wireless controllers, wireless cameras, wireless landlines, and Bluetooth devices.
To help combat this issue, you need to look at where you place your router and wireless access points. One example is if all your staff are sitting near one access point and it’s got interference, then it’s going to affect everyone’s work.
You could consider using a Wi-Fi surveillance tool to perform automated channel checks. This is something that we as your IT Partner could do you for and potentially include in our IT Support services.
Some routers and firewalls offer QoS (Quality of Service) controls that can restrict the amount of bandwidth that specific applications can use. You can also make better use of your network by prioritising the apps that you use the most and giving lower priority to those that are less important.
You can even blacklist certain applications that aren’t essential to the way your business works.
Updates are vital
This applies to all technology, not just your Wi-Fi. Keeping your devices fully up to date is always a smart way to improve performance and reduce security risks. Our Managed Wi-Fi includes our chosen access points, and we monitor all software updates and firmware. This is generally done out of hours to reduce downtime.
Most people never touch their Wi-Fi once it’s been set up. It’s really important to update the firmware of your router regularly. This helps to keep it secure and working to its standards, sometimes it can also increase network speeds.
Keep an eye on the age of the devices that you’re connecting to your Wi-Fi. If your business relies on up-to-date technology, you can then use higher standards of Wi-Fi, which are always faster than the older Wi-Fi standards.
Getting slow Wi-Fi? Follow this checklist.
This checklist is for your office and when you’re working from home.
Run a speed test
Sometimes Wi-Fi can feel slow, but it’s actually just a temporary glitch and overall the service is running well.
Run a speed test and write down the results. Make sure you use the same speed test service each time, so you are comparing like for like. Your IT partner will tell you which service they recommend.
Check what everyone is doing
It’s 5.26pm and everyone in the office is watching YouTube while uploading the day’s work… no wonder the internet is slow. Depending on your connection, how people use the internet will have an effect.
Reboot your router
It may sound very stereotypical advice, but there’s a reason IT professionals suggest this first – it really can be the solution in a lot of cases!
Turn off your equipment and wait for a minute. Plug it back in, wait for everything to connect, and run another speed test.
Reboot your device and clear your browser’s cache
All devices benefit from a reboot now and again. Maybe your slow internet speed is actually your computer slowing down?
Your browser cache stores files that help websites load faster, but when it gets overloaded it can start to affect performance. Make it a habit to clear your cache now and again.
Check which devices are connected to your network
It may be that you have unauthorised devices connected, which means you’re sharing your bandwidth with more people than you thought. If your business offers Wi-Fi access to the public, make sure this is a different network from the one your team relies on.
Your IT partner can check this for you and make sure your Wi-Fi network is fully secure.
Long-term: Shop around different internet providers
Different providers will have different packages available for you. It’s worth regularly checking what’s available, and even considering a totally different way of getting internet, such as via space (it feels so showbiz to write that). When you find different providers in your area, register your email address to get updates from them.
Long-term: Consider an upgrade
Getting new equipment isn’t always the answer, but as standards improve, new equipment can make a difference to speeds. Your IT partner can audit your Wi-Fi equipment and your business’s devices and make recommendations.
It’s also worth mapping the coverage provided by your current Wi-Fi setup, based on where people work in the business.
Long-term: Switch to a wired connection
Yes, we know this isn’t a very 2022 way of using the internet… but the reality is you will always get faster speeds when you’re physically connected to the internet by a wire.
If you just sit at the same desk all the time and don’t move around, why not look into a wired connection? It could make all your speed frustrations vanish.
Want to make these problems go away?
We specialise in helping business owners and managers like you get more done with a lot less hassle.
If you want to take the hassle of your business's Wi-Fi or network off your plates and have technology that “just works”, then you should speak to us today for more information.