Does this sound familiar? You’re on a Zoom call in your home office, maybe in the middle of a presentation, when suddenly everything freezes and your call is dropped. How about working on a spreadsheet online when your internet crashes and your work is lost?
If you’re working from home, this can be incredibly frustrating! Most of these issues get blamed on the wifi, and rightly so. If your connection is slow or jumpy, it can kick you off or refuse to connect at all.
For most of us working from home, wifi has become the most essential accessory in our homes, but how do you get the most out of your wifi? Of course, choosing an internet provider you can count on makes a huge difference. Check to see if Wisper is available in your area!
Plugging directly into the router would solve most connection problems, but what if that’s not an option? Here’s a couple easy ways to get the most out of your wifi.
Router Positioning
It’s not always possible to plug right into your ethernet, and that can make it difficult to get a steady connection. One way to make connecting a little bit easier is to pay attention to the position of your router. Sometimes just a small shift can make a world of difference.
- Choose a central location – Router positioning is often limited by the location of your wires, but if you can, try to pick a spot in your house that is in the hub of your home. Don’t forget to check how many walls your signal has to pass through to get your devices. The closer you can get to the most popular wifi access points, the easier your router’s job will be.
- Clear the way – Is there anything in front of your router? It might seem silly, but something as small as a book or a lamp can affect the strength of your signal from the router.
- High vs Low – Is your router closer to the floor, or the ceiling? Keeping your router up higher on a shelf or table makes it easier to create a clear line of sight to your devices and strengthen your signal.
- Antennas – If your router has an external antenna, don’t be afraid to move it! For example, setting antennas at either a 45-degree diagonal or parallel to the floor will work the best for a two-story house.
Free up Your Bandwidth
Are you trying to spread your signal too thin? Sometimes just one application can suck up all of your available bandwidth and slow down your connection. Things like downloads, streaming, and gaming all take up an enormous amount of your wifi capabilities.
If you’re having trouble staying connected during work hours, take a look at what else is going on in your home. Are the kids playing video games in their rooms? Is your significant other streaming Netflix upstairs?
Setting a schedule of who can use what and when can really help open up your bandwidth. Cutting down on multitasking can also make a difference. It’s tempting to watch a video in the background while getting your work done, but this can create a pretty significant slow down.
You can also make sure the kids are offline by a certain time using systems like profiles and parental controls.
Signal Boosters
If you want to get really serious, signal boosters, or wifi extenders, might be a good investment. Boosters work by grabbing your wifi signal from another room and amplifying it, before projecting it back to the room that you’re in.
So if your office space is in the back of the house or on a different floor, placing a booster near your device can help create a stronger signal and keep you from cutting out. For Wisper in particular, we recommend mesh wifi extenders, but there’s plenty of options out there.
Wifi extenders connect to your internet via wifi, and can be plugged in just about anywhere to amplify your signal. This creates two separate networks within your home, so you can choose to connect to the one that is strongest in different areas of your home. You can connect your living room smart tv to the original network on the main floor, but keep your office devices on the extended network when working upstairs.
Mesh wifi works by creating a single, seamless network. Mesh networks use multiple devices, or ‘nodes’, placed strategically around the house to amplify your overall signal. Your devices will automatically connect to the nearest node, essentially eliminating any dead spots.
Mesh systems tend to be more reliable and don’t require you to switch between networks when connecting in different parts of the house. They can also be useful for offices, schools, or if you have multiple people working from home or online learning.