TIP 1: REDUCE OUTLOOK SYNC PERIOD

When working from your PC, use desktop clients instead of web clients where possible. Desktop apps have data caching and can reduce the amount of data you fetch whenever your system goes online, unlike web clients that refresh from scratch every time you load. Use a short sync period.

To reduce the amount of data your desktop Outlook app downloads kindly follow the steps below:

  1. Open Outlook and click on File.

  1. Click on Account Settings and Account Settings below.

  1. Click once on your email address to select and click Change.

  1. Drag the slider left to reduce the period till 2 weeks then click Next.

  1. Click OK

  1. Click Finish. Then Close and Restart Outlook.

TIP 2: USE OUTLOOK IN OFFLINE MODE

  1. Set Outlook to Offline mode. When working on other things on your PC. This stops outlook from periodically refreshing. Then turn back Online when you want to refresh and fetch new mail.

 

 

TIP 3: USE MOBILE APPS PREFERABLY

Use the Microsoft mobile apps as much as possible for internet-based apps such as Outlook, Teams, Yammer etc. unless absolutely necessary. The mobile clients are low bandwidth usage apps. Activities like reading and replying email, chatting on Teams, meetings on Teams, checking Yammer feeds, posting on Yammer etc., can all be done on the mobile apps. Mobile apps can easily be downloaded from your iOS App store or Google Play store on your mobile phones and tablets.

TIP 4: RESIZE REMOTE DESKTOP BEFORE CONNECTING

Use the Remote Desktop Connection options to resize your remote desktop and reduce bandwidth usage:

  1. Launch Remote Desktop Connection and click on Show Options

 

b. Click on the Display tab.

C. Click on the Experience tab and select the Low-speed broadband (256kpbs-2Mbps) or the Modem (56kpbs) option for an even faster connection:

 

d. Then click General tab and enter the desired IP of the host. Click Save and connect as usual.

TIP 5: RUN ONLY PROCESSES YOU NEED ON REMOTE SERVERS

  1. Do not use the browsers in the remote servers you connect to over VPN. Connect the VPN and run the URLs you want on your local PC’s browsers.
  2. When on jump servers, always remote to one secondary server per time as much as possible.

 

 Below is an example of bad practice:

 

The snapshot above captures the background processes from one remote session of a user on a jump server. This user has one remote connection to the jump server and 6 other remote connections from the jump server to other servers. Which is effectively 7 remote connections using a mobile hotspot. Also, this user has multiple Google Chrome tabs running on the jump server with one tab taking as much 1GB of memory. All these processes will impact on the user’s data consumption and also on the speed of the RD connection as well as the performance of the remote server.

TIP 6: ALWAYS SIGN OUT OF REMOTE SERVERS BEFORE DISCONNECTING

Lastly, ALWAYS sign out of the remote servers you are connected to. Do not close the Remote Desktop window without signing out. This is good practice whether working at home or in the office. Each user’s RDP session, consumes a server’s resources. The more multiple connections a server hosts, whether active or inactive, the more resources are tied down. And the slower the performance of the server for other users.

TIP 7: ALWAYS DISCONNECT FROM VPN WHEN NOT ACCESSING LOCAL SERVERS

TIP 8: TUNE YOUR WHATSAPP DOWNLOAD SETTINGS

You can save a significant amount of data by tuning your WhatsApp settings to prevent automatic download of all photos and videos shared with you and save only what you need, especially with the increased volume of photos and videos being circulated this period.

iOS

Android

 



**You can also turn on Low data usage under Call Settings to further reduce data consumption on WhatsApp calls.

SUMMARY:

The best practice for remote working is to keep your activities light and conservative. The more processes you run during your remote desktop session, the more bandwidth you consume and the more server resources (such as Memory & CPU) you utilize that consequently impact the server’s performance.

Remember, there are other users sharing the same resources.

Be conservative. Run light. Think Data. Think Speed. Work smart.

Together we can make the Work from Home experience enjoyable and be productive.