Most businesses use WiFi to provide Internet access for employees and guests. If your business is among them, your organization’s efficiency and productivity are in many ways dependent on your WiFi speed. There’s nothing more frustrating than slow WiFi, especially when it hinders business growth. If you are struggling with chronically slow WiFi, this blog post will help you assess the problem and speed things up.
Why is my WiFi so slow?
When it comes to slow WiFi, there are two potential causes at the root of the problem: provider speeds and increased density.
Internet Service Provider Speeds
Your WiFi speeds are directly related to the Internet speeds offered by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). If your Internet service has a maximum speed of 5 Mbps (Megabits per second) than your office WiFi cannot exceed that speed. Realistically, WiFi speeds do not usually operate at the maximum, so your WiFi is probably even slower than 5 Mbps. If your WiFi is too slow, it could mean that you need to talk to your ISP.
Density
Density refers to the number of devices accessing WiFi. If that number of devices increases, if density increases, it could negatively affect the quality of your WiFi connection. Density is affected not only by the number of devices in your office, but those in surrounding offices. Even if your neighbors are using different ISPs, you all access the Internet through the same frequencies, which deteriorates the connection. It can be hard to keep track of neighbors or even the multiplication of devices in your own office. Your WiFi connection might have been speedy when you only had a few employees. However, now that you’ve hired more people, and they all use at least four devices, your density has skyrocketed. Providing guest access for visitors slows things down even more. If this is the case, it may be time for an upgrade.
How can I speed it up?
So, now that you’ve identified the problem, what should you do?
- If you are unsatisfied with your WiFi speed, you could talk to your ISP and go over options and pricing for an upgrade. Increasing your maximum speed will improve your experience.
- Be sure that your guest network is password secured, and consider capping your guest WiFi. You can still provide this service to your guests, but limiting the Mbps will keep things from slowing down.
- Talk to your IT team. If you work with an IT managed services provider, they can likely perform an assessment of your WiFi use and create a plan for maximizing your WiFi performance.
If your business suffers from chronically slow WiFi, you may need to upgrade your plan — or you may need to upgrade your IT provider. AIS can manage your organization’s wireless infrastructure to insure that you never have to deal with interrupted Internet service. We think you should be spending your time running your business, not checking the WiFi connection. Call us today to start the conversation.