Working from Home - The IT Perspective

With most of the country working remotely, Three Wire’s IT department would like to provide suggestions to further help with the transition and at least one precaution that all work from home employees must observe. First, let’s get the precaution out of the way! A secure connection, when using Wi-Fi to reach the Internet, must always be used. Was a password entered to initially connect to Wi-Fi (not counting the computer login password)? If yes, then that is, at least, minimally secure. If no password is needed to connect to the Wi-Fi, then it is an open connection and not recommend for work use.

You should contact your IT administrator if an Internet connection is not secure before conducting work-related projects or connecting to a VPN. As far as the quality of your connection to the Internet, here are important tips:

1. Cable Modem/Internet Router/Wi-Fi Routers all typically have Ethernet connections available on the back, similar to how computers connect in an office. The best quality and most reliable connection available are through using the Ethernet connection over Wi-Fi.

2. If a wired Ethernet connection is not available, follow this advice on Wi-Fi:

a. The closer the better

i.   If the Wi-Fi router is on the other end of the house, the signal might be weak and the quality of the connection will be poor, prone to drops, and with constant connection issues.

b. How many other Wi-Fi signals are using the same frequency?

           i.    If neighbors are close by, then there may be interference from other Wi-Fi signals.

          ii. There are many channels available to one router, but it may not scan for other routers and pick channels to avoid interference. For example: In a housing development more than 15 available Wi-Fi connections could be found at one time.

          iii.  There are many sites and free applications to help scan for best-unused frequencies (some with instructions to help change Wi-Fi frequency). Here is a site with decent suggestions: click here to view.

It is certainly a challenge to find a quiet and private space to perform work, while also being close enough to your router to connect properly. There are many different situations that may not have been covered in the examples above, but I hope this provides some guidance to make working from home easier!