When working in a busy office, it can be hard to see strong signals from your internet, but a slow internet speed can slow down everyone who’s trying to get work done. When trying to keep productivity high, you need to ensure that the connection your router is putting out is strong and stable for everyone connected to it. It can be slowed down by a number of factors, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that something is wrong or broken - just that small adjustments need to be made in order to bring that speed back up.
It becomes even more complicated for businesses who are trying to keep everyone on the cloud, as it means accessing files will be much slower in general.
Move your router
Part of the reason that some people in the office are having a hard time with the internet could be that the router is in a bad spot. The signal can be easily blocked by thick walls and long distances, which can be annoying to work with. Instead, try to make sure the router is in a spot that benefits everyone, and if you’re working in a bigger office - it might benefit you to have more than one router putting out a signal. You never want to be just out of range of the signal strength, so keep that in mind when placing your routers.
Check on your provider
Part of the issue could be the provider that you’re currently on a contract with. There could be difficulties on their end, or they can’t keep up the strength in your area. It would be a good idea to check with other internet providers if that’s a consistent issue, just to make sure that you’re able to find a package that offers you what you need. Trying to fight with slow internet every day can waste you and your team hours every week, so this is no time to hesitate.
Replace your router
It could be a hardware issue, meaning that there’s simply something wrong with your router. If you checked with your internet provider and they’ve confirmed that there’s nothing wrong on your end, you should consider keeping it switched off for a few minutes before booting it back up again. It will be an inconvenience for your employees, but this could solve the problem for some time. If not, then you might want to consider having your router replaced with a possibly better model with stronger signal output.
Remove unwanted devices
With a lot of people in one office, it wouldn’t be unheard of for people to have connected other devices to the network. If everyone is using their phones while at work, it can put a bit of a strain on the signal. You should make sure to limit phone usage while in the office if your signal strength is suffering, and it can be solved by simply having people turn off the wireless connection on their phones. You don’t want to be sharing the bandwidth with devices that aren’t even being used while your employees are working.
Walter Guevara is a software engineer, startup founder and currently teaches programming for a coding bootcamp. He is currently building things that don't yet exist.
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