What Is A Good Internet Speed to Work from Home? A Definite Guide for Remote Workers
Meta: Video-conferencing, emailing, and doing daily tasks may put a lot of strain on the Internet. So, what is the minimum required Internet speed to work remotely?
With more and more individuals working from home, people must have a fast enough Internet connection to do their tasks on time. Real-time collaboration with others often requires that you maintain a constant Internet connection. In other cases, you could be participating in group video chats, in which case you’ll need a fast Internet connection to stay up to date and have clear video conversations.
Thus, how much Internet speed do remote workers need? Let’s go over the information you need to know about Internet speed to work remotely.
What is a good Internet speed for working from home?
To decide the ideal Internet speed for working from home, think about what you’ll be using your remote working setup for most of the time.
For instance, anything between 10 – 15 Mbps should work well for basic tasks like writing emails and accessing the Internet. On the other hand, you will need an Internet speed of 25 – 50 Mbps if you intend to stream movies, download big files, or have video conferences. Here are the details!
Video Conferencing
Microsoft suggests a download speed of 8 Mbps when using Skype for group videos with seven or more participants. This speed guarantees that your conferencing software has enough breathing room to work without cutting you off in the middle of a conversation, even if you don’t utilize Skype.
| Video conferencing applications | Rec. upload speed | Rec. download speed |
| Zoom (one-on-one calling) | 1.8 Mbps | 1.8 Mbps |
| Zoom (group calling) | 3 Mbps | 2.5 Mbps |
| Google Hangouts & Google Meet | 3.2 Mbps | 3.2 Mbps |
| Microsoft Teams | 2.5 Mbps | 4 Mbps |
| Slack | 600 Kbps | 2 Mbps |
| Skype | 512 Kbps | 8 Mbps |
Email & Web Browsing
How much bandwidth is used for email and online browsing alone, except for the standard work-from-home apps like Zoom and Slack?
We recommend a minimum of 10 Mbps for online surfing and email sending since most emails are still primarily text with attachments, and most popular websites, such as travel and banking sites, are speed-optimized.
Minimum Internet speed for email and web browsing
Large Files Downloading
File download times can range from extremely fast to very sluggish. This chart illustrates the approximate download times according to download speed and file size. When congestion (delay) is included, these timeframes will differ.
In general, the greater your download speed, the shorter it takes to download large files. For example, 75 Mbps Internet speed will be better than 5 Mbps, making it a good broadband speed for remote workers.
| File type | 5 Mbps download speed | 25 Mbps download speed | 100 Mbps download speed | 1,000 Mbps download speed |
| High-res image (8 MB) | 12.8 seconds | 2.6 seconds | 0.6 seconds | 0.06 seconds |
| High-res image (25 MB) | 40 seconds | 8 seconds | 2 seconds | 2 seconds |
| Multiple project files (100 MB) | 160 seconds | 32 seconds | 8 seconds | .8 seconds |
| Large video (10 GB) | 16,000 seconds | 3,200 seconds | 800 seconds | 80 seconds |
Media streaming
For streaming media, we advise a minimum of 5 Mbps of download speed per user. Despite that, it is important to account for background streaming of shows or music when estimating the bandwidth required for productive work from home. As video may be a bit of a bandwidth eater, this is especially crucial for video services like Netflix and YouTube.
Good Internet speed to stream media
What to do if my Internet speeds aren’t fast enough?
The first thing you should do is perform an Internet speed test to rule out your Internet connection if you’re having issues with it and poor speeds are the cause.
Numerous websites and apps exist that can gauge your speed. For example, gospeedcheck.com by MySpeed works well. Just visit the website at https://gospeedcheck.com/ and hit the GO button. You will get the results quickly and accurately.
MySpeed is a free and reliable speed test tool
In case your actual Internet speed is not a problem, the following tips may help you manage your work-from-home network:
- Set up parental controls on your home router to define times when people may use the Internet.
- Make use of the Quality of Service (QoS) or media prioritization feature, which enables the router to prioritize certain kinds of traffic, such as gaming and streaming videos.
- Change to an Ethernet wire from Wi-Fi. Interference with Wi-Fi signals might cause your connection to lag.
- Position your router close to or in your home office. Purchase a Wi-Fi extender or booster if you are unable to relocate your router closer.
- Verify whether somebody is using up all of the bandwidth in your house. Online gaming, streaming videos, and file downloads are common culprits.
- Opt for an alternative Internet service provider (ISP). It’s worthwhile to search for faster Internet if yours isn’t living up to the speeds it claims.
- Turn down the VPN, or virtual private network as your Internet speeds may be somewhat slowed down by a VPN. Turn off the VPN and check if your speeds increase if it’s interfering with your work and you don’t need your connection to be encrypted.
Conclusion
Since working from home became popular, the need for home Internet has substantially altered. Therefore, it might be challenging to determine the optimal Internet speed for working from home.
Before upgrading your plan, you must determine the amount of Internet speed you require depending on your usage. You’ll need an Internet package with greater bandwidth and Internet speeds if you intend to work while others play games and stream content.
