Should you let your employees on the company Wi-Fi?

As an IT manager, you have a lot of decisions to make. It’s your job to make sure that your company’s assets are safe. And, yes, it’s a balancing act. Lock everything up too tightly and your employees won’t be able to do their job. Open things up too much and you risk all sorts of outside attacks.

The last 18 months or so have been very hard for IT managers. You’ve had to adapt over and over again. You’ve had to make decisions based on needs you never thought you would have. And, you’re often forced to compromise.

Now, in the last few months, IT managers have had yet another tough task. Many workplaces are returning to full staffing. All that stuff you did to make sure your office was remote-friendly can’t completely go away. After all, you might need it again. But, with all the malware about, you might feel like tightening up a few things.

They’re all back in the office. Now what?

Now that everyone is back, you have to decide what resources they use, and when. This includes the office Wi-Fi. You might not have let people use the Wi-Fi with their personal devices in the past, but now people are demanding it. Some have been using their personal cell phones as office phones, and others have loaded apps like Teams or Slack onto their phones to stay connected.

This means a lot more stress on your Wi-Fi and your infrastructure. If you haven’t planned to have fast, robust internet, you may find that users are clogging up all the bandwidth you have. This can bring your business to a halt.

Luckily, there are two good options. As an IT professional, you have to decide which, or both, are right for you. Let’s get started.

Option 1: Industrial-grade internet

Once upon a time, internet for business cost about ten times what residential internet cost. Businesses needed more speed, and they also are more widely spaced than homes. This makes the cost of bringing internet to businesses higher, and there was a time when your only option was paying more.

Cable companies got wise several years ago and started offering internet plans that basically mirrored what people were getting at home. You got internet that peaked out at a high speed but could get clogged if other users nearby were using the internet at the same time.

For very small businesses, or businesses that didn’t depend on the internet, this was a good, cost-effective solution. But what kind of company doesn’t depend on the internet today? Before the pandemic companies were already relying on cloud services. This got even more common during the pandemic and it’s not likely to change.

Your best choice is to upgrade to real, business-class internet. Signal Connect, an AT&T Preferred Dealer, can help you with internet solutions that are rock-solid and affordable. We can help design a plan that makes sense for your size business, whether you’re a one-person shop or a big conglomerate. There’s no operation too big for us.

Option 2: Cell Phone Signal Boosters

One way to make sure your business can run right is to limit access to Wi-Fi. You can have a guest network with limited bandwidth, but most of your internet capacity will be reserved for work. This is usually something you can do quickly and it will solve your capacity issues right away.

The problem is that your employees might complain. Some might legitimately need access to shared resources over Wi-Fi. Most probably won’t. Chances are most of your company’s assets are cloud-based anyway. So kicking them off company Wi-Fi shouldn’t be a problem…

unless it is.

In practically any business, there’s at least one spot where the cell phone service isn’t good. Sometimes it’s not good in the whole business. Maybe you didn’t care in the past because your Wi-Fi was up to the challenge. But now, with so many people using personal devices, you care.

The best option here is a cell phone signal booster. There are models for every space from 50 square feet to 50,000 square feet and up. A cell phone signal booster takes the signal from outside, amplifies it, and rebroadcasts it inside even stronger. It’s a key part of making sure everyone stays connected.

There are boosters that you or your facilities manager can install yourself, and others that require a lot of planning and professional installation. It depends on the size and complexity of your business. But choose the right booster system, and your employees won’t care about the Wi-Fi. That’s the goal.

Here’s how you get started

Whether you need better internet service, a cell booster, or both, there’s one place to call! You can trust the experts at Signal Connect. We can custom-design a solution for you and make it easy to get started. Just call us at 888-233-7563 or fill out the form below! You don’t need to go through the next few months alone. It’s time to get the top minds on your side, and make sure your business is ready for whatever happens next.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.