4 Common Problems… and How to Solve Them
Home office networks can be complex at times. This makes it easy for things to go wrong disrupting network performance. Often, you might complain about things like slow or no network at all or even poor application performance.
Multiple reasons might lead to a network problem. Of all the problems you might have with your homework station, network problems can be frustrating. This is because even though your computer can handle a lot of tasks while offline, you need the internet for a whole lot of other tasks.
Without the internet, you cannot even do an online search for possible solutions. Fortunately, most network problems can be resolved without any external help. Here are some of the common problems with your home office internet connection;
DNS Problems
Sometimes, you might get errors such as DNS name does not exist, IP Address could not be found, or the network path cannot be found with your home office internet connection. This can be frustrating since you cannot do anything without an internet connection.
Fortunately, you can easily fix this on your own. The first thing you need to do is to use the command line nslookup command to see the DNS settings of your workstation. You can decide to ignore the DHCP assigned DNS settings and set your own for your workstation.
You can also check the Internet Protocol Version 4 settings on your adapter to see if your workstation might be using the wrong DNS settings. If you do not know the right settings to use, set your adapter to obtain the DNS server address automatically.
Exhaustion of IP Address
This is another common problem with home office internet connections. You might get an error telling you that your IP addresses have been exhausted. The easiest way of troubleshooting this problem is by using the ipconfig command on your command line.
If you find that your workstation has assigned itself an address starting with something like 169.xxx, then the DHCP server did not have any other IP address. Unfortunately for people using IP addresses assigned by their Internet Service Providers, you have to contact the ISPs to assign you more IP addresses.
You can, however, install a WiFi access point or buy a router to create a local pool of IP addresses. With these addresses, you are not going to use all your IP addresses at any time.
IP Address Duplicate
Some of the devices in your home office might try to use the same IP address. When this happens, you will get an error telling you that the IP address is already in use. This makes it impossible for you to get an internet connection.
This problem is caused by an issue with the configuration of your router’s DHCP. For instance, you might have your laptop connected to the internet and working well. But when you try to connect your tablet, the DHCP tries to assign the tablet the same address used by your laptop.
You can troubleshoot this problem by disabling the DHCP server on the tablet. To ensure that this problem does not occur in the future, modify the configuration of your router to ensure that assigning of addresses starts at your subnet’s top end.
Slow Internet
This is one of the most frustrating problems with a home office internet connection. Imagine a situation where you have a conference call with a potential client but are not able to connect due to slow internet.
Slow internet is mostly caused by the quality of your connection and congestion. Having a congested network does not mean that you have exhausted your bandwidth. If you have an overloaded port on your router or switch, you will have slow internet.
To troubleshoot this problem, you can start by using speed test websites from different geographical servers to see areas on your network that might be experiencing congestion. You can also contact your ISP for assistance in case of bandwidth or any other problem that you cannot troubleshoot.
The Ultimate Solution to Slow Internet: Fiber Optic Broadband
If you are constantly having to deal with slow internet, you can consider switching to Fiber Optic Broadband for much faster speeds.
However, you need to be careful to choose a supplier who provides what they promise. Fortunately, you can easily compare fiber optic broadband prices and speeds to make sure that you have chosen one that meets your requirements.
Keep Your ISP Number on Speed Dial
You might not be able to troubleshoot all the problems with your home office internet connection. This might be frustrating especially when you have something urgent that needs an internet connection.
Fortunately, you can always seek help from your ISP (Internet Service Provider). When choosing your provider, make sure that you have done your homework well and evaluated their customer care services. With good customer care, an ISP will always be at your disposal when you are facing problems with your internet.