Working From Home Tip 2: Getting The Most Out Of Your Internet

Working From Home means an increased reliance on internet and mobile speed and reliability. Unfortunately, the exact opposite is happening, as the network back end just doesn't have the capacity to cope with the increased demand. According to a 9 News report, Australia has had a year's worth of network usage growth in 3 days. Alongside this, the peak call time, usually 5pm is now 8am to 6pm.

Towards the end of March Communications Minister Paul Fletcher address Netflix, Stan, Disney+ plus after a round table with the telecommunication companies within Australian to help ease there load. Netflix and Youtube, have agreed to throttle their speeds internationally starting with their European market and are also beginning to roll it out in Australia. Additionally, Telstra annouced that $500M is being fast-tracked to speed up the roll-out of 5G to “increase network capacity during the pandemic”.

- If you can find one, get a 4G/5G modem as a backup, in case your main internet goes down. Many telecommunication companies offer them, especially if they also offer phone plans. Make sure to check the coverage for your area so that you aren’t disappointed when you go to set it up. The 5G network is very spotty in Melbourne at the moment unless you are in the city but hopefully with the fast-tracked roll-out, that could change.

- Make sure your house has good WiFi coverage. Often if you're experiencing slowness or dropouts, it's not the internet, but rather due to a poor quality WiFi router or the fact you only have one WiFi source to cover your entire place. Steps you can take to rule out any potential interference can include any of the below.

1. Turn the Router off and on again. Sometimes turning the router off for 30 seconds give it a chance to cool down and give everything a chance to reset and boot up again at full capacity. We need a good nights sleep, the router sometimes needs a shut down.

2. Move the Router to a different area of the house if possible. You may be limited due to where your house or apartment has internet ports but certain areas of the house may have more physical barriers that hinder WiFi signals. Line of sight is always recommended for anything that is using WiFi.

3. Get a better router, and together with that, a WiFi mesh system. A WiFi mesh system such as the Google Nest means you have multiple access points all throughout your home. No more losing connection in the back study or upstairs bedrooms, simply add an extra access point to boost the signal.

- Try downloading some movies and shows, so that your kids streaming all day doesn't suck up all the bandwidth. All streaming providers allow this.

- If other members in the house aren't using the internet, ask them to switch the WiFi off on their device(s). Even though they may not be using the internet directly, their devices can be still be connecting to the internet to check for updates needed, receive notifications and more.

- Try using an Ethernet cable where possible. Connecting directly to your router will remove the issue of signal strength between your device and the router and ensure there’s no dropout because of that. In households where there are many devices or no cable is long enough for you to reach the router, you may need to invest in a switch or Powerline Networking. A switch allows you to split one Ethernet cable into many but you may still run into issues if all cables in the one switch are being used at the same time. Powerline Networking utilises the electrical wiring already in your house and with simple adaptors, it can help you connect in places that WiFi can’t or where WiFi isn’t stable. Read more on Powerline Networking here.

See the latest video update from Marty below talking about this topic.