For every house we have sat, the owners have listed the amenity of “WiFi High-Speed” but what does this mean? Recently we have had to suffer speeds of less than 6Mbps which I would not class as “WiFi high-speed” and dead spots which meant that the designated office area was unusable. It seems to me that most hosts are naive about this technology and think that just because they have WiFi they have “WiFi high-speed”, but this is often not the case.
What is “WiFi high-speed”? My understanding is that it should be at least 100 Mbps download and only two of our ten house sits have achieved this. I really think that TrustedHousesitters should be clear about what this means.
When organising a sit we have always asked about WiFi for video conferencing and we have always been assured that they have “WiFI high-speed” and that their household use it for TV and games and video calls, etc, but we often find that the hosts have no understanding of the subject matter and that our work is accordingly hampered by slow speed. Asking what the “…WiFi hotspot download speed is?” or “…speed over an Ethernet connection?” during a WhatsApp video interview usually results in blank looks. (Bye the way, the performance of the WhatsApp call does not help with making a judgement.)
What is the solution to getting the correct technical information about WiFi speed? Does anyone have experience of this and a good resolution please?
Send them a link to a speed test and ask them to run it while connected to their home wifi and send you the result. But as a nomad working remotely for 15+ years, I always have a backup plan if I happen to land somewhere with bad internet. It’s just a requirement of the lifestyle.
Thanks for the message. The problem with making a judgment based on an interview video call is that it may not represent the situation at the owners home. For example we have had a few interview chats with owners who have not been at home during hte call, but on holiday or in a cafe.
If that’s the case, I’d skip those sits without hesitation. Otherwise, do your own research and prepare to have your own hotspot or some other arrangement. I would not ever rely on someone who didn’t understand tech well enough to easily answer such a question.
Something to consider: If the internet goes down while you’re sitting, you want someone on the ball enough to help you if needed. Like they need to know what and where the equipment is and how to get in contact with their provider to help restore service if needed, or get you access to their provider.
That’s why I wouldn’t want to sit for folks who aren’t technical enough. Like if they’re like my late in-laws were, they had no idea how to do anything technical — they always relied on their grown kids or hired help.
Plus, people who aren’t tech savvy are more likely to run into technical issues with the platform. And that can include not being able to review within the two-week window. Like sometimes you’ll see posts from sitters who’ve been left without a review and are unhappy about it.
Another benefit I’ve experienced with tech savvy hosts: When one app / platform failed on us, we quickly switched to another. If someone can’t easily do stuff like that, you could be left struggling to communicate. That’s especially a pain if you telecommute and are busy and don’t have time to hand-hold, particularly if they’re traveling in a different time zone and / or might have limited availability while traveling.
Hi @Kendal
As someone that works on sits and used to part own an internet service company many years ago I’d suggest you ask the HO to send you the results of a speedtest preferably on a Sunday evening between 6pm-8pm. This is generally the busiest time for internet use in many countries and can effect the speed severely.
I also travel with a 25gb of internet data per month on my phone as a backup.
Sometimes I also check for local cafes with internet available as a further backup if I’ve got important video calls during a sit.
I usually also check map wise ahead of a sit whether there’s a carrier shop nearby. That’s in case wifi has crapped out for who knows how long and I need a bunch of data or such.
The results from this will vary greatly throughout the property though, so won’t give an accurate idea really.
Running an Ethernet cable from the router to a laptop for example, and doing a speedtest will give a true reflection on Internet Speed supplied to the property.
I haven’t had a laptop with an ethernet port in about a decade. Yes, the speed will vary by location within the home, but unless they’re standing literally next to the router, it should give a basic idea. And if someone wants to ask they could also specify the testing location if it’s that important to them.
I’ve never had a laptop without an Ethernet port . USB to Ethernet connectors are available though which gets over your issue if you ever need to try it.
If you need minimum speeds up and down that are atypical, it might help to specify that in your sitter profile.
My profile mentions high up that I need internet fast enough to Zoom for work. A pair of hosts told me their internet wasn’t fast enough for that, but they planned to upgrade before our sit, months down the line. As backup, I looked online for the closest carrier shop near their home, in case that fell through. Then I would’ve gotten a U.K. hotspot, since I was sitting abroad.
In general high speed internet (Wifi is not internet) is anything that is not provide by copper phone cables or at least no copper beyond the house connection to the street. Copper phone cable internet is ADSL or DSL and max speed tops out around 8Mbps. Beyond that you have fibre,cable, 4G/5G etc and those tend to start around 20-30Mbps.
It would be good if THS specified the Fast Wifi label as needing 20Mbps or more but if your potential HO doesn’t know their internet speed then just send them to fast.com and it will tell them fairly quickly and easily.
Well thats the FCC definition but further searching the internet will give alternative definitions including 100 Mbps.
There is not be a universal definition of WiFi High-Speed and so I feel that the problem here is the lack of clarity over this issue provided by TrustedHousesitters.
Anything 10mps or above should be fine for HD video calls if you’re the only one using the internet.
And you’re right high speed definition can vary by country and area. My friend works from home in Tokyo Japan where he gets 1 gbs to 1.5 gbs! Never going to get that in London unfortunately in a standard home.
. USB to Ethernet connectors are available though which gets over your issue if you ever need to try it.