Your IT Consultant

Optimize Your Home Network for Working Remotely

August 20, 2020

It looks like many of us will be in a work-from-home (WFH) environment for many more months ahead. A lot of us will modify our past practices and spend less time in the office even once the pandemic is behind us. As a result, there is a tremendous strain upon our home networks as all family members are competing for bandwidth participating in video conference calls, online schooling, streaming entertainment, etc. ZDNet has posted some excellent advice to help get the most from your home network.

The preference is to connect directly to your router via Ethernet cabling. Make sure you are using network components (wire, switches, connectors, etc.) that support GigE speeds and not capped out at 10/100 Mbps. Hard wired connections will be the fastest and most stable network connections. Next, upgrade your wireless network to the latest specification (Wi-Fi 6). If coverage is an issue, investigate mesh networks. See what options your ISP has for various internet packages. You may have to pay a little more for increased bandwidth, but the increased speed will make you more efficient. Finally, the consumer grade internet connections provided by your ISP are shared will all your neighbors. You may have business grade service available for your home that gives you dedicated bandwidth.

Email: Phone: 703.359.0700
Digital Forensics/Cybersecurity/Information Technology
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnsimek
https://amazon.com/author/johnsimek
https://senseient.com