Slow internet speeds are preventing some businesses from reaching their full potential. Fortunately, the solution could be as simple and straightforward as changing some settings on your router.
Slow business broadband is one of the most frustrating things today’s employees can experience in the workplace. Today, practically everything people need to do is online – whether it’s communicating with a colleague, collaborating on a project, managing data, or anything else. Good connectivity with high speeds and minimal downtime is critical to success.
Yet speed issues are incredibly common, all across the country. In fact, a quarter of Australian employees say that poor internet connectivity is negatively impacting the way they work.
The good news is that you don’t have to sit back and simply accept this sluggishness. There are many different ways that you can help improve WiFi speed and connectivity in your workplace.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on our blog, you’ll know that we’ve already looked into one of the most likely causes of slow speeds: office layout. With WiFi signal affected by obstacles such as walls and doors, as well as the distance between a user’s device and the router, a quick rearrange could help.
But if you’ve already tried this and haven’t seen good results, it may be time to optimise the settings on your router: the device that forwards internet data from your provider to your business network.
How to optimise router settings for improved speed
There are many different customisable settings on routers, but don’t worry – you don’t have to fiddle around with them all! There are really just two settings you need to focus on: channel and frequency.
1. Frequency
WiFi uses radio waves to transfer data from the router to the user’s device, and there are different wave frequencies that can be used. Your router may be using the 2.4 GHz band, which is often preferred because it has a longer range and passes through obstacles easier. However, 5 GHz is faster. If you’re willing to sacrifice a little range in favour of speed, switching bands can be a good choice. In 2022, Australia also approved the 6 GHz frequency to support the new WiFi 6E standards. This frequency is even speedier, although there’s a bigger speed drop when passing through solid objects.
2. Channel
When connecting a device to the business’ wireless network, you’ll need to connect through a specific channel. But sometimes, the channel that’s selected for you may not be the best option. Each radio frequency offers a number of different channels, each one with varying levels of traffic. So the more devices trying to connect through a specific channel, the more congestion there is, and the slower the service. Think of a channel as being like a road; the more cars, the slower you move. Most routers connect to a channel automatically, but you can override this to try out different channels.
If you’re not particularly tech-minded, the thought of customising and optimising settings on your router might sound overwhelming. But the truth is that there’s very little you need to do. Just by changing the channel and/or frequency, you might notice vast improvements in broadband speed.
Of course, the settings on your router are just one possible cause of slow internet. There are many different factors that can play a role in business connectivity, so we’ll be covering more solutions at a later date. Keep an eye on our blog to ensure you don’t miss out. And remember that you can contact us any time if you’d like to find out more about getting the most from your business tech.
