With millions of Americans working at home and keeping kids entertained while schools are closed, internet and cloud-based service providers will be facing unprecedented demands.
As such, West Virginia University employees who are teleworking should prepare for the potential of slow load times, dropped connections, loss of video feeds and other disruptions of service.
Homes that rely on a cable company or analog Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service, as well as those with copper-wire connections, likely will be among the first affected. Most homes in West Virginia fall into this group.
If you experience any issues and are wondering whether the disruption is limited to just you or part of a larger problem, you can find links to status pages for some of WVU's key providers at it.wvu.edu/help. There also are sites, such as Downdector, which provide current information on a broader scale, allowing you to search for what interests you.
Meanwhile, Information Technology Services (ITS) has 10 tips to help manage the demand on your own home internet service:
- Video is a "bandwidth hog," whether it's a meeting in Microsoft Teams or Zoom, YouTube, Netflix or Facetime. If listening to your colleagues will do, consider skipping the video if you experience issues.
- Turn off 4K video streaming. A slightly lower resolution on your device is barely noticeable but will dramatically reduce bandwidth use.
- Update your Wi-Fi password to make sure you're not giving access to strangers and neighbors.
- Viruses eat bandwidth. Get Sophos from WVU for free. Other options include Norton (Symantec), McAfee, Windows Defender, Trend Micro or Kaspersky.
- Sharing a lot of photos? Compress the files to reduce their size before uploading.
- Adjust your web browser settings to make sure images and files are cached. This will speed up downloading on frequently visited sites.
- Get closer to your Wi-Fi router if you can. The 5GHz band is usually faster, but doesn't travel as far, so 2.4GHz might work better.
- If you have gamers in the house, make sure they let you know when companies are pushing out big software updates.
- If you have a cloud-based home security system, turn off the monitoring app on your laptop or phone when you don't need it.
- Have a backup, such as a mobile hotspot on your smartphone.
Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we work together to navigate these unusual circumstances. Visit the ITS website for more information.