With many people working from home during the past few months, there has been a decline in productivity. Home networks are not always equipped for the kind of speeds needed for a full working day, meaning that loading times reduce the efficiency of lots of workers.
Optimised internet speeds are essential for any office, and the right kind of network boost is needed with the influx of workers returning to the office. The Cisco Nexus enables a safe, secure, and lightning-fast connection for any network and is a must-have addition to any office.
With so many people returning to work, how have they been coping over the last few months with working from home?
What Internet is needed to work from home?
In most cases, the internet package that your home already has might have been doing fine for you working from home. With kids off school and the entire family being at home, however, your router will have felt a strain from all the connected devices resulting in slower speeds overall.
So what areas should you look at to improve your internet?
Upload speeds
Upload speeds tell you how fast you can get things onto the internet from your location. This includes emails and even Zoom calls. The better your upload speed, the better your Zoom call quality will be for those important meetings.
Download speeds
Download speeds are a direct link to how quickly you can access things online. If your download speeds are slow, your productivity will feel a decline. Waiting for things to load is the biggest problem when download speeds are affected.
Data
Everything you do online uses data. The more data you have, the more downloads you can make in areas such as using streaming services or listening to music online. Some network providers will offer unlimited data, but you will usually find around 1TB is provided.
Returning to the Office
So with a return to the office imminent, what network is needed to boost necessary working environment performances? Offices should try and improve their network with these eight steps:
- Identify the problem with your network – Is your network slow, or is it your computers?
- Introduce a new network to guests – Giving guests a separate network will keep employees’ speed unaffected.
- Keep an eye out for bottlenecks – These bottlenecks could be with network updates. Although a cleanup could help speed overall.
- Make sure your system is free of viruses – Malware may be slowing your internet speed, do a security search and remove any harmful software from your network.
- Inform personnel about user behaviour – Connecting to the network on personal devices will slow it down.
- Low-priority traffic can be segmented with VLANs – A great way to part your network resources is by having more critical areas prioritised. It is also a great way to improve security.
- Ensure that software and firmware are updated – Software and firmware updates can help systems run more efficiently.
- Your network should be upgraded – If all else fails, upgrade the network hardware you’re using. Networks become outdated over time, so an upgrade may be due.
Following these eight steps will keep your office completely prepared for the return of the entire staff in the office once again. If you find that your network is still not running in the way you want, it may be time for a new networking router, switch, modem, or hub, giving you the best possible defence against slow internet speeds and slow efficiency within the workplace.
Preparation is key! If you’re one step ahead and don’t assume that the office will run the same as it always did, you will be equipped to fight any problems you face when it comes to the network in your office.
