What’s up With the Office WiFi?

Office WiFi isn’t negotiable. It isn’t optional. It’s a necessity and not an accessory. The modern office is highly mobile, movable and meeting-centric.

We should always be able to access the internet on our main workhorses – our laptops – from anywhere. How embarrassing is it to have to pull up information on your tiny phone screen when your WiFi doesn’t work in your conference room, in front of your peers?

As WiFi goes, our office environment is a bit outside the norm, because of the nature of EventBoard. We have more devices, unique elements, that apply strictly to the EventBoard product and the devices that we use. We have tons of devices. Our average employee has four devices: a laptop, a phone, and a tablet or two for showing demos, testing, all sorts of things.

Our whole product runs on WiFi. The tablets in front of conference rooms that connect to WiFi are the gateway for a company’s meeting scheduling needs. What I want to emphasize here is that our WiFi needs are huge. We feel like if we can outfit ourselves with WiFi, we can definitely offer some advice to others.

Want to hear more from Kari about why your office WiFi probably sucks and how to fix it? Attend our free webinar Aug. 10 for solutions. Register now.

There isn’t just one way to outfit an office with WiFi. The wireless LAN industry does not take kindly to sweeping generalizations or comforting platitudes.

There are some industry standards that are fairly obvious, like don’t put your wireless access points in metal cages. Don’t do that. That’s awful. Don’t hide your wireless access points behind any kind of metal. Wireless signals can’t travel through metal.

Don’t put them on the floor! The signal broadcasts from the access point in a “donut cone.” Hang it higher, and the donut cone encompasses more people.

That’s simple stuff. Easy. But there’s not really an all-encompassing guide because office layouts vary, staff varies, devices vary, restrictions vary.

It takes immense attention to detail to truly suss out an office’s needs. Unless you have one of those high-end wireless signal measuring units that look like a huge backpack – a proton pack, if you will – there’s going to be a lot of networking testing and monitoring happening on your part. Constant vigilance. Trial, error.

Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of three data points that can help you on your quest to have incredible and accessible WiFi in your office:

• Number of devices
• Interference
• Access point placement

Getting it right is imperative. We’re in the age of wireless technology.

Kari Patterson is part of EventBoard’s fantastic IT team. She makes sure we have the right tools, so we can – in turn – provide you with the right tools and insights for a more productive digital workplace.