Solving Your Biggest Internet Tech Problems Working From Home

By Harry Guinness

While working from home comes with many perks, there is also a big downside: No on-site technical support like you had back in the office. And if you’re attending Zoom meetings, managing staff and making big decisions, all from your home office, you can’t have your internet cut out. Let’s look at how to solve all the big internet tech problems you are likely to encounter.

Help! My internet is acting weird

Even the best internet setup will occasionally run into weird issues where things download slowly or your connection cuts out intermittently.

If you normally have good internet service with fast downloads and uploads, then the first thing to try is turning your router off and then on again. Unless there is a connection outage (which is rare with fiber connections), 9 times out of 10 this simple reset will fix any glitches that are going on.

My internet is bad where I want to work

If you have a large home, your Wi-Fi likely won’t reach every corner of your house with the same strength. This can be a problem if the area where you work is far from your router, as the distance can make for a slow or unreliable connection. (It’s an especially common problem when the router is downstairs in the noisy areas of the house, while you may be trying to work tucked away upstairs in a home office.)

The good news is there is a solution. If you want to set up a permanent home office, you can consider running an Ethernet cable directly from your router to your desk. This may require a bit of DIY work, however, so a simpler option is to install one or more Wi-Fi extenders.

Wi-Fi extenders work by rebroadcasting your internet to all the corners of your house. Quality mesh networks like Eero are the best way to improve Wi-Fi coverage, as they create one seamless network for your entire home. Your devices will just connect to the router that has the strongest signal and switch between them as you move around.

My download speed is okay but my uploads are slow

Cable and DSL internet can offer good download speeds but generally have much slower upload speeds. This means the files you need for work can download quickly, while Zoom calls are patchy and uploading files takes forever.

Fiber internet is the best internet for working from home because it offers symmetrical speeds, so your uploads are just as quick as your downloads, which is perfect for video calls.

If you haven’t yet moved to a fiber optic connection, doing so is the quickest fix for your upload woes. Check out this guide to finding the best home internet provider for you.

My internet is bad when everyone is at home

If your internet works well when you’re working at home alone but starts to slow and stutter when the rest of your family is at home, you probably don’t have enough bandwidth for everything everyone wants to do. All those work calls, online gaming sessions, Netflix streams and video uploads add up!

There are ways to manage a connection with limited bandwidth, but the better option might be to upgrade to a faster connection with better bandwidth. With a Gig fiber connection—or faster—you’re essentially guaranteed to have enough bandwidth to support even the most internet-hungry households.

My internet cuts out during bad weather

Hurricanes, snow storms and other bouts of bad weather can all take out internet connections. And while nothing is perfect, the fiber optic cables used in fiber internet are designed to be weatherproof. This means they’re less prone to the effects of water and wind and, because the cables run underground, are less likely to be taken out in a storm.

If you live in an area that is frequently beset by the weather, a fiber connection may be what’s necessary to keep you connected to your work world. You might need a generator or backup battery to keep your devices going, but as long as you’ve got power, your fiber internet service should keep working—even when cable or DSL has stopped.

Troubleshooting other internet problems

While upgrading to a fiber optic internet connection can fix a lot of internet issues when you’re working from home, sometimes things can still be off. If none of the solutions offered above help, try running a speed test or checking to see if your internet provider is experiencing an outage. You can also restart your smartphone, computer and other devices, as sometimes that does the trick!

If problems persist, contact your internet service provider and ask for tech support.

Make your home office work better with Frontier Fiber.

Working from home puts far more demand on your network. Endless video calls, tons of uploads to the company server and keeping your laptop tip-top while your family’s online, too. See the difference Frontier Fiber can make. Check here to see if Frontier Fiber is available at your address.