No matter what business you are in, connectivity is crucial to how you get things done, communicate to your customers and market your business. As a small-business owner, choosing a good Internet speed is essential for everyday tasks like downloading files, uploading data, operating point of sales systems, and video conferencing. It’s important to ensure you have the fastest Internet speed to keep your business running seamlessly. To ensure the seamless connection, you need to make sure your bandwidth & Internet are being utilized properly and there are no underlying issues.

Your bandwidth and Wi-Fi can be impacted for various reasons.  Examples could be anything from how much data is being uploaded to how many people are downloading files at the same time or even how large your employee base is. Even the number of Internet users, simultaneous tasks, or data heavy tasks can slow things down.

There may be some underlying factors to your slow Internet that you may not immediately see, in a time when so much of our daily life and business relies on a strong Internet connection, slow Wi-Fi signals can make doing business difficult.  When it comes to ensuring your business or workplace is going to have the best Internet connection possible, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Test your Business Internet speed:

Once you know your current Internet speed, it will be easier to determine if it’s your Wi-Fi that is having problems or if it’s a network issue. To properly conduct an Internet speed test, be sure to use a wired connection rather than a wireless connection. Connecting an Ethernet cable directly to the modem/router's Ethernet port will always show the true speeds your network is delivering.

Here are some simple steps to accurately test your Internet Speed:

1. Limit the amount of applications that are using an Internet connection on your device.
2. Find the Ethernet connection on your computer and connect this to the modem/router’s Ethernet port.
3. Confirm all connections, including power and Ethernet, are tightly connected. Check for lights in the modem/router to verify.
4. Perform the test.
5. Your test will show you download and upload speed results.

Once you’ve ruled out a network issue, you can focus on maximizing your Wi-Fi’s performance. There are many things that can degrade your Wi-Fi speeds and signal strength such as online browsing, research, using email, frequent file sharing, cloud computing, data backups, and seamlessly streaming.

Things to do to try and speed up your Internet connection:

• Limit the number of simultaneous devices connected: Multiple devices connected simultaneously to the Wi-Fi router will slow down Internet speeds for all devices. Depending on your internet plan, there’s only so much bandwidth to go around. So, if your business receives heavy interaction from customers accessing your Wi-Fi, your bandwidth will be stretched and wireless Internet speeds for their devices will be slower.
• Secure your Wi-Fi: An easy thing to do within a business is to password protect your Wi-Fi so only people within your business & team members are able to access it.
• Move Your Router: Each device’s wireless standards, distance from your modem/router, interference from other electrical equipment/devices, interference from others network, and objects in the way can also impact the performance of your wireless signal. The placement of your modem/router is determined by the technician at the time of installation. Even the size and construction of your building and materials in the building can interfere with Wi-Fi.
• Run a PC cleanup: altafiber's premium technical support can perform a detailed cleaning of your computer’s cache and large files. A thorough cleanup will also boost your performance while cleaning up any junk files, while speeding up your PC.  

When working towards maximizing your Wi-Fi speed, knowing the most common problems is a great first step to get your business up to speed. altafiber can help you through the process and provide you with tools to help your business grow.

Tools to Grow:

Fast reliable Internet is a key part to the success of any growing business.  With a complete portfolio of solutions, altafiber has dedicated account specialists ready to help ensure that you have the best connection to power your business.  Let’s work together to make sure you are getting the most for your business. Connect with a business account specialist today!