Do you find yourself with multiple people in your house working or schooling from home, taking ballet or piano lessons via video, and hanging out with friends on digital group chats? Many households are facing similar challenges, making them look for ways to optimize their internet speed when there are multiple users on the network at the same time. If your stay-at-home lifestyle is causing your home network to slow down, here are some tips to help you maximize your internet speed.

The list may be way longer than you realize, including not only smartphones and computers, but also:

• Google Home/Amazon Alexa
• Smart Home devices
• Security devices (cameras, Ring doorbells)
• Tiles and other GPS trackers for keys, etc.
• Smart air purifiers
• Smart TVs
• Smart appliances such as refrigerators and ovens
  

Whenever possible, try to turn some of these devices off when not in use to maximize available bandwidth. Consider having family members stagger their online schedules or work in “shifts” to ensure optimized internet speeds for everyone.

Some devices run backups and updates in the background on automatic schedules. If your device is uploading a lot of data for the backup, it could be eating into your download speed and slowing things down. 

Check your device settings and adjust the automatic backups. You can turn them off, or try to schedule them to happen at a time when no one is home.

Similarly, try to alternate work and leisure time so that you're not trying to stream your favorite shows while someone else in the family is on a video conference. All of these media services tend to use high bandwidth, and so will impact the performance of other activities in the home:

• Netflix, Hulu, YouTube TV and other video streaming services
  
• Online gaming services
  
• Music streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify 
  
• Streaming devices like Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV

In addition, it's helpful to turn those separate devices off when not in use (not just let them go into "sleep" mode). 

Depending on your employer, you may need a VPN connection to access secure corporate systems and data. However, many work applications like Outlook, MS Teams and web browsing do not require the VPN connection. Your speed and performance may improve when the VPN is not connected, so try to use it only when necessary. For example, group together tasks that require the VPN connection, and then turn it off when those tasks are complete to maximize the internet speed for other users.

Finally, limit your uploading and downloading of large files during the work/school day, and schedule cloud-based backups to happen overnight to free up daytime bandwidth.

It may take some planning and practice, but by following these guidelines, you can optimize your internet speed and make it possible for everyone in your household to keep your lives running online.