The new coronavirus has accomplished what many commute-crazed, meeting-ravaged office workers have been long awaiting: Their companies are finally encouraging them to work from home.
While, for many of us, working from the comfort of our homes is preferable — for several reasons — to working in a dreary office building in an even more dreary cubicle, it can also pose some logistical problems. One of those problems could be that your home internet is a mere slug compared to the rapid cheetah they have running in the office, making your job (or, y’know, watching loads of YouTube videos) a frustratingly slow struggle.
There are a few simple tweaks you can make to strengthen your internet connection, though, so before chucking your router through the window, take heed of this advice from IT expert and internet guru Zack Gaudet.
Change the Settings on Your Router
Gaudet explains that “most routers have something called quality of services, or QoS,” which essentially allows you to control which devices — and even exactly what multimedia, such as video or audio streaming — get the most love from your internet bandwidth. You can usually make changes to your QoS by logging into your internet provider account, navigating to the “wireless settings” tab, locating the “QoS settings” and making the appropriate tweaks. That way, you can — even just momentarily — give your work email a little extra juice during the day, before sending some extra signal to Netflix later that night.
Choose the Right Network
If you take a look at the network your computer is connected to right now, you can probably see two options under the same name: A 5G choice and a 2G choice (or 2.4 ghz choice). While the 5G choice might seem like the faster option in virtually every scenario, that really depends. As Gaudet explains:
2.4 ghz = less speed, but more range
5 ghz = more speed, but less range
So choose appropriately. “If you’re far away from the router and in a different room, you should be on the 2.4-ghz network,” Gaudet says. Otherwise, 5G is best.
Move Your Router
Another simple change — but one that often has less of an impact than those mentioned above — is moving your router up higher. “The antennas distribute signal like an umbrella,” Gaudet explains, and your internet generally covers a larger area when the router is positioned higher up.
Give It All a Reset
As anyone who works with technology knows, turning something off and on again can go a long, long way — and that applies to your internet, too. “It’s always good to power cycle — that is, turn off both devices for 30 seconds, then turn them back on — starting with the modem, then the router,” Gaudet explains. “So, unplug the modem, then unplug the router, then wait 30 seconds, then plug in the modem, then wait 30 seconds, then plug in the router.”
Sweet, now you can take advantage of that free Pornhub Prem— erhm, do a good job working while you sit around in quarantine.
Ian Lecklitner
Ian Lecklitner is a staff writer at MEL Magazine. He mostly writes about everyone's favorite things: Sex, drugs and food.
