Maximizing Your Home Network For Video Quality
If there's anything we've learned from COVID-19, it's that having a home network that can get great video quality can make a big difference in daily life. Whether it was needed so that you could attend the hundredth video meeting of the week or to keep the kids entertained while you tried to figure out what to make for dinner on limited options, optimizing your home network to ensure top video quality has been and still is a vital task. Here's a quick look at how to improve video quality on your home network.
One of the first steps you can take is by taking a look at your router. If your router is able to support video Quality of Service, often abbreviated as QoS, you can simply enable this setting to enjoy better streaming quality for your videos. Another feature that is often enabled by default is SIP ALG, short for System Initiation Protocol Application Layer Gateway.
This feature provides some interaction between your router, your internal digital assets and the rest of the world. However, because it has often been found to cause problems with video streaming and communications, disabling this function on your router can make a big difference in your video quality. There are a range of SIP ALG detector tools available for download on the internet, making it easy to determine whether this feature is enabled on your home network.
Though Wi-Fi is a huge convenience factor for many situations, video isn't one of them. Because of the amount of information that must be transmitted during a video meeting, including sound, audio and other information such as chats or links, we recommend that you use a direct Ethernet cable connection when you're trying to get the best results from your home network, due to the faster connection speed you can receive from it.
Speaking of network speed, when's the last time you ran a speed test on your home network? If you're planning on upgrading the video products that you're going to be using, it's important to make sure that your home network can meet the bandwidth requirements. There are a few different tools available, but each should give you information such as upload and download speeds, as well as issues such as latency. This test will run for a few moments to gain an average performance for your home network.
By taking the time to maximize your home network for video quality, you can enjoy better streaming, video conferencing and many other options. If you need help improving your home's network, why not contact the professionals at SafeCall? We can help bring your home network up to business specs so that you've got the connectivity you need when communications matter most.