Windows Media Center used to be a reliable way to have a home office network set up for all of your movies, audio, and even your photos, not to mention your documents. But when you run a small business, or if you want to run an office from home but still have options available for the best networking speeds so your family can enjoy episodes of television shows online, or so your smart TV doesn’t eat up all of your bandwidth, you have to have the right solutions installed.
In this guide, we’re going to assume you have a decent internet provider, but if not, we’ll tell you what you need to have the best setup for your home office network or even your hybrid home network (Home + Media Solutions).
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The Right Internet Service Provider is Key
Which service provider should you use for your home office network? Phoenix’s clear winner for the best internet service provider is Cox, and it’s not even close.
The first thing you’re going to need is the internet. Duh, right? Well, the important thing to know is that your internet is as reliable as possible. If you’re in Phoenix or more prominent cities, you’ll want to go with a service that provides fiber optic internet in your area for the best benefits and optimized speeds. And you don’t necessarily need a Gigabit internet plan (although they’re nice). Simply a great fiber plan that allows 300Mbps Download and 100Mbps upload speed is perfect for both home, gaming, streaming, and even small business solutions.
Get the Right Router
Choosing the right router for your home office network is a crucial decision you must make.
Keep in mind that you’re going to want your primary service to go through your modem, but this may end up not being so secure. Don’t bulk up your services with a ton of routers and wi-fi extenders, though, as this can cause more hassles than necessary. Pick a router like the NETGEAR Nighthawk AC2600 router for your media solutions and the best functionality between devices (both wired and Wi-Fi). Do keep in mind, you may end up spending a pretty penny on these, but they’re more than worth it in the long run.
Get a Backup Solution
NAS is a Network Attached Storage that backs up your files in case a disaster happens. These may not be necessary for a home office network, but you can never be too safe.
While you can choose to get a NAS server for yourself, which is a great alternative, it can cost as little as a few hundred dollars (still cheaper than most computers). It can give you options for a “home cloud” backup service for your files, important documents, additional security, media options, and more. Just choose the right hard drive and the right solutions for your needs.
If you’re running a home office, you can even choose a TerraMaster F2-210 2-Bay server. Pop in a NAS hard drive (which can cost at minimum a hundred bucks for 4TB) or two, and enjoy impressive speeds on local file streaming solutions and backups. You’ll want to use a very organized folder structure for your data, though, so you can find all of the files that you need.
Get an Exceptional Local Cloud Backup Service in Your Area
If you’re setting up a home office network, you’ll need to choose a way to back up your files.
This is something that some small business owners and even entrepreneurs forget to do. While, of course, you don’t need to back up your movies and music files to these data servers, your work and important documents are vital, and you need to have the availability to have secure backups without worrying about your data being sent to third parties as you do with many popular online backup solutions.
Invest in VoIP
Security should be your top priority, whether it be your home office network or telecom system. Lucky for you, remote VoIP software, like 3CX, are extremely secure, and they offer amazing VoIP call quality as well.
Of course, if you’re running a home office, many people use messaging apps like LINE, Skype, and many others for VoIP solutions and teleconferencing. The downside is that there are numerous bugs in their software, and it doesn’t always work on every device. By hiring the right company to give you great VoIP solutions, you can ensure that you have the best gear possible for your endeavors, including answering services, voicemail, integrated call forwarding, and a plethora of additional features at a reasonable price in your area.
Why should you choose a VoIP service, you may ask? Well, for starters, this protects your actual phone number and privacy of the information, so you don’t have to worry about your existing phone line blowing up from filtered calls, plus you get additional security so you can function as an office using the right VoIP phones to sound and be a true professional from home.
With All That Said
Having the right home office network in place can greatly improve your customer count, availability of use, keep your data secure and backed up, as well as help you get more jobs for your business endeavors. Not only that but if you have everything on this list, you can enjoy literally running everything on your network. Stream on multiple devices for television, operate gaming streams, work from home, and much more all at the same time.