Five homeworking tips you may not have thought about

By Q2Q IT

01 May 2020

Whether you’re lucky enough to be pitching up in a dedicated home office space, or you’ve found the last spare corner of your living room to take over, a lot of the country’s workers are finding new ways to carry out the day job, from their own place of residence.

While there are some perks to working remotely – popping out for a walk at lunchtime, or having five minutes relaxing with the cat or dog – there’s no denying that it also comes with its challenges.

Even if you’re not trying to juggle the home-schooling and childcare routine, there are some tech challenges which face us all. And, from maintaining secure systems to keeping operations running smoothly and quickly, here are some of our top tips and things to look out for…

Phishing emails are at large

Unfortunately, while COVID-19 is a pandemic which we’re all playing our part in helping to control and combat, for cybercriminals, it’s also an opportunity.

When there’s a ‘fear-inducing’ card for a hacker to play, it hits the table almost immediately – and, sadly, the Coronavirus is one of these instances.

Phishing emails have always been a nuisance – and sometimes a very convincing one at that – but there are some key signs to look out for, and these should be followed with every strange-looking email that enters your inbox.

Backing up is still important

Backing up data and important documents has always played a vital role within the successful IT mix, but with many employees working from home, it’s still important that this still continues to happen.

The great thing is that backups are now almost entirely cloud based. If you operate on Office 365, your IT support team can enable ‘One Drive’ – essentially an online cloud storage tool – which allows staff to store, sync and backup all items on their desktop.

If you’re unsure on whether you have this feature enabled or need further advice, our friendly team can offer some pointers.

Suffering from slow file access

It may be the case that when working from home, accessing shared folders and apps is very slow in comparison to when you’re in the office. That’s because, as a general rule, your connection speed is a fraction of what you’re used to with your on-premise link. As a result, this will have a knock-on effect on the speed and efficiency at which you can move data to and from the servers.

Connections are measured in mb, and the more mb, the better. For example, something downloading over a 10mb connection rather than a 1000mb is going to take up to 100 times longer.

If limitations are set by either your home broadband or the shared bandwidth everyone is using, your IT support team can’t make anything ‘go faster’. However, if you’re all trying to access something important, it may be worth agreeing with the team when you can do it, maybe using lunchtime or an evening for transferring huge files.

Coping with slow internet speed

A few of your team members may be complaining about sluggish internet speed, but why is this the case?

As more people are working from home, at the same time as other family members are streaming games and TV series, this undoubtedly uses more download speed – available bandwidth – than usual.

In this sense, it’s easiest to think of an internet provider’s connection as a hose pipe that’s delivering water to all its customers. Once the pipe is on a street, the service is now shared with up to 50 people. And, as the flow gets nearer to a house, the pipe gets narrower because each home is taking some of that water – which, in turn, affects each household’s resource.

This means that once the water pipe gets to your home, speed over Wi-Fi can be very fast, however this ‘rapidness’ isn’t backed up by the internet service. The pipe between your device and home router is bigger than that from your router to the internet provider.

Therefore, it’s important to remember that while your local Wi-Fi may show five bars on your tablet or laptop, this relates to the quality of connection from your device to your home router – not the internet speed.

Saving the bandwidth

Sticking with the water analogy, it’s vital to save water (bandwidth) at home – and that will take some communication and compromise from all family members.

To help conserve this valuable resource, there are some quick changes you can make to your daily routines, such as:

Instead of streaming music while you work, you’re better off downloading it from your music service in the evening, so you can then listen to it in offline mode – or why not dig out the CDs? If you like to listen to YouTube in the background, be aware that ‘listening live’ can have a considerable impact on your available internet speed. Pre-download a couple of films for the kids on their tablets the night before, because if you have two or more children watching different things, this really adds up. Action all your smartphone updates or app downloads in an evening, as this is usually the quietest time and there will be more bandwidth available.

In short, with everyone living under one roof and wanting to access the internet at the same time, it goes without saying that some negotiation is required. For example, if you have to take a video call, that might be a good time for the rest of the family to do their homework or go on their daily walk.

If you’d like to chat about more homeworking tips with our team, get in touch here. No matter whether in the office or at home, the kettle’s always on at Q2Q.

Latest news

1

Management buyout at Suresite Group Steve Holden

Management buyout at Suresite Group

17 Oct 2025

2

Meet the influencers who have generated £2m sales for one company Helen and Richard Chalu new

Meet the influencers who have generated £2m sales for one company

16 Oct 2025

3

WHN strengthens position in prestigious legal guide Daniel Long

WHN strengthens position in prestigious legal guide

16 Oct 2025

4

Warden appoints new commercial manager to strengthen project delivery and growth Peter Heskine

Warden appoints new commercial manager to strengthen project delivery and growth

16 Oct 2025

5

Stockley's finds its sweet spot Stockley's front view

Stockley's finds its sweet spot

15 Oct 2025

Background image for hub sign up block

LBV Hub

Leverage Lancashire Business View platforms

Post your news
Post your events
Post your offers
Build your network
Improve your SEO
Gain coverage in the magazine
Sign-up
Events
CMI Level 5 Management and Leadership Course
UCLanAerialCampus.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Seminars
21 Feb 2025 - 21 Feb 2026

CMI Level 5 Management and Leadership Course

Preston Campus, Preston , PR1 2HE

09:00 - 17:00

CMI Level 5 Project Management Course
UCLanAerialCampus.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Seminars
21 Feb 2025 - 21 Feb 2026

CMI Level 5 Project Management Course

Preston Campus, Preston, PR1 2HE

08:00 - 17:00

Help to grow management course
Help to grow - barriers to growth.png.png
LBV Hub Seminars
26 Sep 2025 - 16 Dec 2025

Help to grow management course

Preston Campus , Preston , PR1 2HE

09:00 - 15:00

HR Essentials for pubs, bars and licensed venues
EventBrite NORi - 22nd Oct Webinar.png.png
LBV Hub Webinar
22 Oct 2025 - 22 Oct 2025

HR Essentials for pubs, bars and licensed venues

Online - Teams, Leyland, PR253XH

13:30 - 15:00

RISE - Lancashire's unique leadership programme for women
thumbnail_Emma Weston Illustration WENDY BOWERS RISE Illustrstion.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Seminars
22 Oct 2025 - 18 Mar 2026

RISE - Lancashire's unique leadership programme for women

East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, Clayton le Moors, BB5 5JR

09:30 - 15:30

Women scaling up Blackpool Fylde and Wyre
LBV Hub Seminars
22 Oct 2025 - 09 Jan 2026

Women scaling up Blackpool Fylde and Wyre

The Small Business Academy, Blackpool, FY4 5JX

09:30 - 15:30

Chamber Business Lunch – October
LBV Hub Networking
24 Oct 2025 - 24 Sep 2025

Chamber Business Lunch – October

Lancaster Golf Club, Lancaster, LA2 0AJ

11:00 - 13:30

North West Business Expo 2025
https---cdn.evbuc.com-images-880456273-4862066883-1-original.20241022-105445.jpeg.jpg
LBV Hub Exhibitions
24 Oct 2025 - 24 Oct 2025

North West Business Expo 2025

Bolton Stadium Hotel, Bolton, BL6 6SF

09:00 - 15:00

Lancaster District Business Support Expo
Lancs-cham-logo.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Networking
29 Oct 2025 - 29 Oct 2025

Lancaster District Business Support Expo

The Platform, Morecambe, LA4 4DB

10:00 - 15:00

Chamber Breakfast Networking – November
Lancs-cham-logo.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Networking
06 Nov 2025 - 06 Nov 2025

Chamber Breakfast Networking – November

Porsche Centre South Lakes, Carnforth, LA6 1FW

08:30 - 10:30

Lancashire Police business update with The Police and Crime Commissioner
Lancs-cham-logo.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Roundtables
10 Nov 2025 - 10 Nov 2025

Lancashire Police business update with The Police and Crime Commissioner

Lancaster Castle, Lancaster, LA1 1YN

14:00 - 16:00

AI, Creativity, and what it means to be human
2.jpg.jpg
LBV Hub Networking
11 Nov 2025 - 11 Nov 2025

AI, Creativity, and what it means to be human

Society1, Coworking Space, Preston, PR1 3LT

18:00 - 20:00

Advertise with us

Reaching 50,000 members, our print, digital and event platforms offer a fantastic way to raise your business profile and help you grow.

Find out more LBV124 Online Graphic
Subscribe now

Weekly news bulletin