Internet Challenges To Expect When WFH

Since the contagious COVID-19 virus outbreak, more people have become inclined to work from home. With the pandemic prohibiting human contact, workers were made to work from their houses to keep up with their office tasks. 

The policy came with a bunch of advantages that include reduced commuting time, less money spent on transportation, and the chance to work from the comfort of your home without any office pressure.

Most businesses in our world today depend on reliable and secure internet connections for the smooth running of their day-to-day operations. Without access to the web, these ventures may not be able to offer their customers or clients satisfying products and services.

With many employees working from home today, a quality internet connection may pose a problem to the productivity of their businesses. Check https://www.rango.net/blog/5-wfh-internet-challenges-that-reduce-productivity for more information about how poor internet can reduce productivity at work. 

Even though working from home may seem fun at first, it comes with some downsides, especially internet problems. Here, we will discuss common internet challenges to expect when working from home.

Internet Challenges And How To Fix Them While WFH

1.    Unreliable Wi-Fi

Due to low investments in internet connections in residential buildings as compared to business rooms, you may experience an unreliable Wi-Fi signal which will reduce your work productivity. The Wi-Fi signal can be strong in one area and weak in other areas of your home, restricting your work area to the locations with a stronger signal.

 To fix this problem, you can install a mesh Wi-Fi system that allows you to receive strong signals anywhere in your home. Another solution to this challenge would be to turn off all unused wireless devices in your home while you work to avoid interference in the signals.

2.    Slow Internet Speed

The option of working from home has become less of a choice since the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. While at home, every employee or business owner is limited to the internet service in their space. If other people tap into the same network simultaneously, the internet speed may become slow. This is because of the congestion on the internet service bandwidth. 

To resolve this problem, you can first perform a speed test to measure your network performance. Internet speed is quantified in Megabits per second (Mbps) which determines how fast your network can download and upload data. If your home internet has a download speed of 1Gbps, then you can achieve speeds of about 80% of your network’s bandwidth. However, due to the congestion on the network, this performance can be as low as 5% of your bandwidth. 

In this case, a modern Wi-Fi system that is up to date with the latest wireless standards will be of great help.

3.    Poorly Secured Home Networks

Home networks are usually not as secure as that of companies. To avoid security breaches in your business, it is important to encrypt your device and use password management tools. These tools help you come up with strong passwords that are tough to crack. 

Another solution is to ensure that all applications used on your device have security measures such as HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). This web security policy only allows you to access secure websites that protect you from cookie-hijacking incidents.

4.    Difficulty With Video Conference Connections

Companies hold staff meetings and board conferences from time to time, and they try as much as possible to ensure that the work-from-home culture doesn’t affect this routine. With the use of video conferencing software like Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet, these meetings are done virtually.

However, they can be hindered by poor internet connection leading you to experience difficulty with connecting to the scheduled video conference calls. During meetings, dealing with low audio quality, video lagging, and so on can be frustrating. To quickly work this out, you can:

      Ensure no other app running in the background of your device is using your camera

      Check that your device privacy policy does not restrict camera access

      Install the latest camera driver if you don’t have it already

      Restart the video conference app and if this doesn’t work, uninstall and install it again

      Also, double-check the video link to be sure it’s working or that it’s the right one

 

5.    Substandard Quality Of Virtual Meetings

To achieve optimal productivity from virtual meetings, every aspect from audio to video quality has to be top-notch. Without good internet access, your virtual meetings could be unproductive due to video buffering. Different ways you can improve call output include:

 

      Close every tab you’re not using

      Ensure you have a strong internet connection

      Disconnect all other wireless devices to avoid any form of interference with the network

      Hold your meetings close to your router for stronger signals

      If there are other occupants in the house, ensure they avoid online activities that would overburden the network bandwidth for the duration of your meeting

 6.    Technical Browser Errors

Internet browsers such as Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and so on can develop errors that affect your access to the web and, consequently, your work productivity. When you notice issues such as high latency, the inability of a browser to open a link, browser crashes, and broken images and videos, this is a sign that your browser has developed an issue. 

Get this fixed by:

      Simply update your browser to the latest version available for your device

      Deleting all cache files and cookies to allow for a faster page loading speed

      Being certain that your browser is not disabling any plugins like Flash and JavaScript

      If none of these tips work, try to uninstall and install your browser again

Conclusion

These are common internet challenges you should expect when you work from home. The good thing about these problems is that they can be easily fixed in simple steps. 

If you fail to resolve the issue on your own, contact your network provider for help.

Leave a Comment