The number of family members at home and working from home affects internet speed. That's why we explain the keys to improve its performance.
Home office
On 3 April, a communiqué issued by Antel announced that with the measures of confinement and social isolation promoted since 10 March, "fixed residential internet access services" via fibre optics or over copper networks saw an "increase in the daily usage profile of up to 32%, compared to the records prior to that date". Meanwhile, the increase in mobile internet usage grew by 44%.
This trend is repeated all over the world and, for that reason, many people have turned to massively looking for ways to speed up at home.
To shed light on this issue, El País consulted engineer Sergio De Cola, a consultant with the company Isbel, on the keys to ensuring that the speed of our home network is not affected and that we can carry out our tasks or entertainment without major difficulties.
The first point to take into account, said the engineer, is to know what the available bandwidth is. "Whether we have fibre optic, copper or air internet, it is key to know what characteristics our internet connection has in order to identify what speed we will reach," said De Cola.
The easiest solution, in his view, is to increase the bandwidth, which is like "the size of the pipe through which our internet passes", he said. This comes at a cost and is a function of the service contracted.
The second point to bear in mind, according to the specialist, is how the internet is distributed within the home. It is necessary to check which devices are connected to the network and how much of it they are using.
De Cola pointed out that if video game consoles, computers and streaming services are used at the same time in the home, they all consume a portion of the available bandwidth, which can cause the internet speed to slow down.
How is the internet distributed in the home?
The means through which we distribute our connection also plays an important role.
In this sense, there are two traditional ways: over the air, via a wifi connection; or via an ethernet cable.
The specialist indicated that the problem with wifi is that it travels through the air and, currently, this resource is shared with streaming services, computer and video game platforms. On the other hand, because it is over the air, the resource is also shared with our neighbours' other internet networks, for example, and this can cause interference. Often, this interference makes it seem that our connection is slow even though we have more bandwidth.
One possible solution to this problem is to take advantage of the ethernet cables that typically come with different equipment. "Most computers, smartphones, streaming boxes and consoles have an input port; connecting directly avoids competing with other devices for this resource of air or radio frequency, which is what wifi uses to communicate," he said.
How is the network being used?
On the other hand, the engineer explained that another way to decide how the home internet is used is through the so-called traffic shaping or bandwidth control. How is it used? De Cola said there are two ways of doing this: one is by "shouting" or restricting who uses what at any given time: "Establishing times for children to play games or watch series is one option," he explained to El País.
However, there are more complex and automatic forms that require more advanced knowledge of networks.
"There are ways to determine which devices are connected to the network so that they have higher priority, but for ordinary users this is not so simple because you have to deal with technical concepts such as IP addresses, network ports, among others," he said.
How do I get wifi to reach the whole house?
Keeping in mind where the modem or router is in your home is one of the main keys to improving its performance. We often think that the internet is slow but the signal is weak. There are signal extenders that connect to the modem or boxes that use the mains to bring internet to different parts of the house. For very large places, Segio De Cola advises to use those that use the mains as they carry the signal further away.
Original article published in El País.
