With remote work now standard across Europe and the UK, a stable home Wi-Fi connection is essential for daily productivity. Here are five practical checks to work through before you book a technician.
1. Audit channel interference
In dense urban areas, neighbouring routers overlap on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Use a Wi-Fi analyser app to move your network to a less congested channel.
2. Reposition your mesh nodes
Place mesh nodes so that each one has a clear line of sight to the next, rather than behind heavy walls or large appliances.
3. Split the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands
The 2.4 GHz band travels further but is slower; 5 GHz is faster but has a shorter range. Giving the bands separate names lets older devices stay on 2.4 GHz while laptops use 5 GHz.
4. Update router firmware and device drivers
Outdated firmware is a common cause of random disconnects and slow speeds. Check the router's administration page for updates, and keep your laptops' wireless drivers current.
5. Check for bandwidth hogs and turn on QoS
Large cloud backups, video calls, and game downloads can saturate a home line. Quality-of-Service (QoS) settings let you prioritise work traffic over everything else.
If the connection is still unreliable after these checks, it may be a cabling, router, or line fault that needs physical diagnosis. A local technician on MiniJobs can visit and trace the problem on site.