It’s become increasingly common to find that the amount of bandwidth you’re getting is a mere fraction of what you’re paying for. If you’re running enterprise software or have a server setup that allows your user base to connect to you, you need to be running fast. If your business WiFi isn’t fast enough, you could easily run into some treacherous traffic jams.
Here are 8 tips you need to follow to ensure your traffic is running as smoothly as possible.
1. Monitor Usage
If you want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your company’s WiFi and business applications, you’re going to need to ensure IT is watching the traffic. Much like an air traffic controller will watch over traffic as it happens in real time, you need someone to do the same for your server traffic. The amount of data that’s going in and out of your servers could quickly cause inefficiencies.
If they notice that one IP is taking up more of the bandwidth than is normal, they can raise a flag and interrupt them. If the machine is on site, they can see what’s going on and why there might be so much traffic. They could restart a machine that appears to be cycling.
If you’ve got partners or contracted employees working, make sure they’re not dragging down the network.
If a machine is updating on site, over WiFi, during business hours, it can be interrupted so that the normal flow of work can continue. Eliminating unnecessary traffic can help to make sure your WiFi and all of your apps run smoothly.
2. Server Maintenance
Servers can become bogged down by not having enough space on them. They can drag because too many applications have been installed. They can end up with infinite loops running in the background for weeks without anyone noticing.
Making sure that your servers are in tip-top shape will ensure that you won’t be dealing with a drag to your business WiFi.
Server’s need to constantly be updated to ensure that operating systems are protected with the latest changes. They need to have excess data dumped from them so that they don’t have so much unnecessary data taking up space.
They need to have their trash emptied and caches dumped from time to time so that they can run smoother.
Server maintenance can be a full-time job depending on the size of your company. If you’ve got customers checking data into your servers and developers or employees pinging the servers over WiFi all day, you need a monitor. Checks and balances are important for any company but they’re especially important for your IT department and for your servers.
3. Optimize WiFi Locations
WiFi can be accessed through walls, from several floors above or below, or even across different buildings. As technology develops, we have it on planes, trains, and even underground on city subway platforms. In your office, there’s even less to obstruct it, meaning it should run smoothly.
However, if you have things in the way or you have your hubs too far from your employees, they could struggle to make basic connections. While you might think you’ve optimized the locations where people access WiFi, people will cluster on their own. Spacing them out evenly isn’t enough.
You’ll need to keep a close eye on how and where your employees like to work. They’ll tell you where they want the hubs. Install them on a temporary basis, keep an eye on what your employees do, and you’ll know where to install or move them.
4. Update Firmware
Firmware is important to any piece of networking technology. It determines how the router receives the incoming data and transfers the outgoing data. Communication protocols and interfaces change on a regular basis.
Your routers need to roll with the punches along the way.
However, they’ll be the first line of defense when you’re putting together your business WiFi system. They’ll let you know when something suspicious is coming in or if it’s missing a certain certificate that you need to verify for security reasons.
Update your firmware if you’re not moving at the speed you want to be moving at. Things might have changed on your hardware to make the old firmware incompatible. New firmware may have been released for your routers overnight to make everything run smoothly once again.
If you’re not sure how well you’re performing, you’ll find more info here on how to measure performance metrics.
Updating can be irritating but security concerns and the rise of ransomware make it a must.
5. Eliminate Interference
Lots of things could be interfering with your business WiFi system without you even realizing. A big giant crane at the construction site next door or the new coffee machine plugged into the same outlet could cause problems.
Interference can be caused because of magnetic fields or having power get drained from the same source. When two systems are sharing an outlet, they’re also making a deal that one won’t draw more than the other. Because once one has the need for twice as many amps, it could cause the other appliance to suffer.
Physica works this way when we’re talking about interference. The amount of power that’s being used or generated by a heavy piece of machinery or a building might get in the way and cause interference.
6. Do Work Overnight
When you need to do important work like server maintenance or updating your software, you could be using a lot of networking power. There’s only so much bandwidth that you’ll have access to and you need to make sure that your clients and employees have enough space.
If you’re downloading thousands of GB in data to upload a fleet of computers, why not do all of that at night? There’s a lot of data to be transferred when you’re running an upload or a download. You probably know quite well how long it can take to run something like that.
Rather than wait all day long with the ability to do a little bit of work, save your major downloads for night.when you save everything to do overnight, you can free up bandwidth overnight.
Working overnight also allows you the opportunity to run tests first thing in the morning to ensure that everything is working as planned. If you run into mistakes during that trial run, you can always revert back without anyone knowing.
Always keep a back up with the information that your employees need to work. This way if there’s any trouble, you’ll still be able to work, thanks to your backup.
7. Use Cookies and User Profiles
With the help of cookies and user data, you’ll be able to keep things running smoothly by plugging in data. Rather than writing new data or having to deal with sending out data every time you log ink, companies can remember your login and then contact you by name.
While this is a little eerie for some, it’s perfectly healthy for others.
User profiles allow companies to identify you without having to identify yourself. They allow you to get a personalized experience no matter what site you’re on. With the help of cookies, routers need to send less new data to servers. Your business Wifi will be pleased to handle less traffic.
User profiles often allow you to add personalized data including payment information. Instead of filling out those boxes for your credit card, you can allow your company’s encryption to keep your resources private.
Cookies and profiles will plug in data as you go, which is a good thing.
8. Compare Providers
Every region has a slew of different internet service providers. Choosing the right one is the key to having a great product that is known for its speed. Even over a WiFi network, the ISP you work with should outperform the others.
Compare providers not only by the speeds they promise but by the speeds they deliver. Run an internet speed test now to see what you’re getting from your current provider. Compare the reading to what you’re paying for.
Read reviews before you decide to work with anyone. Even if you see good reviews, make sure that the speeds they promise are close to what people are getting results for.
Speed throttling could be a big issue with the changes related to net neutrality so make sure you pick a reputable internet service provider.
Your Business WiFi Connection is Your Face To The World
When your business WiFi connection is weak, that’s how you look to your audience. Without a strong connection, you won’t seem like you know what you’re doing and might damage your reputation through negative perception. In order to avoid damage to your reputation, make sure you’re always keeping an eye on your business WiFi.
If your site is the center of your business model, check out our guide to making sure your customers’ experience is top notch.