In our home we have 2 laptops, 4 phones, 3 tablets and an xbox that we use to watch Netflix through. This means that potentially at any one time 10 devices can (and often are) be linked to the wifi downloading/using precious bandwidth. During the school term this isn’t really an issue but during the holidays it seriously affects our ability to work from home quickly and efficiently.
It is beyond frustrating because a large part of what I do is downloading and uploading content. I need to be able to do this quickly. I can’t afford to be spending my day looking and the little blue circle going around and around.
If you have older kids (older than 4) you will know that when you ask who the culprit is, its NO-ONE!!! So when we ask who is watching on the internet – it is NO-ONE! In desperation we kick everyone off just so we can get some stuff done.
Then the Lucidview Enforcer came into our lives.
One of the features is FairShare™ which is ideal for work from home people or even businesses.
FairShare™ is a key feature for any network where both bandwidth intensive and non-bandwidth intensive sites/applications are being used. For example, streaming of video is a bandwidth intensive feature that is negatively impacted by high latency. Everyone has at one-time been frustrated by the “buffering” issue. Windows updates on the other hand do not require low latency and optimal bandwidth.
FairShare™ requires that the maximum expected bandwidth of the Internet be correctly specified. Typically using an allocation of 10% less than the available bandwidth provided by the ISP is recommended. This ensures latency is always within acceptable limits.
We combine this with the reporting we get from the LucidView Enforcer that shows us who exactly is using the most bandwith. That way when we are all at home, the bandwith is distributed fairly, everyone can watch their videos, play their games and get their work done. 
The reports provided by this device can also come in handy in an office environment if you are trying to control the amount of time people are spending online. It is also a great way to show teens who know it all that they are in fact spending 36% of their day watching YouTube videos (which is probably why they know it all).
I didn’t expect to encounter these sorts of issues when I started working from home and as my kids start becoming more and more active online we have to incorporate these types of tools that help us to manage this.
You can find out more about this device and its other features here.
Out of curiosity, how many devices do you have that could potentially be connected to the internet at the same time?
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.
