Or you’re video calling your boss when suddenly – freeze frame on your mid-sentence face. Not ideal.  

But we’ve got you covered. Turns out, your eero router does more than just spread Wi-Fi signal beautifully across your home.   

It has a feature called ‘Optimise for Conferencing and Gaming’ (catchy, we know) which helps prioritise bandwidth for the things that matter (like gaming or video calling). Handy.  

What does eero's ‘Optimise for Conferencing and Gaming' feature do?

Some types of web traffic – like gaming or video calls – need a minimum level of bandwidth. Using ‘Optimise for Conferencing and Gaming’ on your eero router means your Wi-Fi will automatically prioritise gaming and calls whenever they’re happening.  

Think of it like Wi-Fi traffic control, making sure your game or video call always gets the green light (instead of a TikTok doomscroll session). 

And that means less buffering and fewer interruptions on what really matters.   

Toggle on "Optimise for Conferencing and Gaming" 

Everyone! But especially gamers and remote workers in multi-task households. So you can keep gaming and working (whilst keeping the peace).  

Got a ridiculously fast connection, over 500Mbps? You probably won’t need this setting. But for those with slower speeds, it’s an absolute must. 

You’ve got them. Check out our other eero blogs here. 

Save your gaming set-up (or your job) with this eero hack 

Picture the scene. You’re knee-deep in an intense gaming session, milliseconds away from victory and then… your Wi-Fi cuts out.  

Don’t worry, you’re not alone – it's happened to us too. And the good news is, there are some easy steps you can take to diagnose and fix the problem. 

There's a slightly old-fashioned idea that says 15-20 Mbps is fast to game with, but we’re not so sure. As well as all the personal devices we now have connected to our home Wi-Fi networks, there are also the smart home devices, like fridges, lights, speakers thermostats (and many more) that need to use it too.  

This strain on your bandwidth could be one simple reason why your gaming is suffering. Of course, we’re biased, but we are firm believers in the power of full fibre broadband, because it gives the fastest speeds and the best reliability. And it’s especially good if you like to stream on Twitch or YouTube too.  

But whether you have full fibre or not, here are some simple steps you can take to get your broadband in better shape for gaming. 

Simple, right? And yes, it is. But you’d be surprised how many people forget to do it. They simply assume the speed they paid for is the speed they’re getting. So if you haven’t done a speed test yet, or it’s been a while since you last did, what are you waiting for? 

Also, do the test a few times throughout the day, on weekdays and at weekends: this will help you know when the peak times are. Remember to pay closest attention to the download speed. If it’s 10Mbps or under, then yep, you’ll be experiencing lag when you’re gaming. 

Get our tips for an accurate speed test here

 If you haven’t already done the following, it’s well worth a go: 

Remove unwanted devices: your router app should be able to tell you which devices are using your network. This means you can see which ones are draining your Wi-Fi for no reason. If you can’t permanently delete them, then at least consider unplugging them when gaming. 

Replace your router: if you’re already a Cuckoo customer, you should have an eero router, which is not only amazingly fast, but automatically updates its software too. If you don’t have an eero, then you should check that your router is up to date with its downloads. Or, if it’s quite old, you might want to replace it with a new model that can handle the additional internet traffic. 

For more tips on improving your Wi-Fi connection see here

Yes, call us Captain Obvious, but if you’re gaming with an unwired connection and having speed or lag issues, you should be plugging your console into your router. Leave the Wi-Fi to all your home’s portable devices and do your gaming the kind of favour that can provide up to 10x faster speeds. And if plugging in isn’t possible, at least move your console closer to the router. 

Ping is how long it takes for data to travel from your device to an internet server and back again (a bit like sonar in a submarine, which it’s actually based on). It’s measured in milliseconds and gives you a good idea of how much lag you might be suffering from. We recommend using speedtest.net and to look out for the following benchmarks: 

1-30ms (milliseconds) – Perfect. You're all set for some serious gaming. 

31-60ms – Pretty good. There might be a small amount of lag but you probably won’t notice it.  

61-100ms – Okay-ish. But you'll notice some lag, especially at peak times.  

100ms – Wildly frustrating. Unless you want to risk throwing your controller out of the window every time you play, you'll want to look for a new internet provider who can provide better speeds (like, oh we don’t know... Cuckoo). 

We love gamers. So if your current internet provider is getting in the way of your gaming, check your address to see if we can help. Or, if you prefer, you can call us on 0330 912 9955, 8am-8pm Monday-Friday, or 9am-5:30pm on weekends and bank holidays. 

You’re about to score the winning goal / capture the flag / complete the fastest lap when suddenly, everything on the screen freezes. What do you do? Shout? Throw the controller? Curse the gaming gods? All of the above? 

Don’t let slow internet speeds ruin your game 

Working from home with full fibre broadband

Less commuting. Less distraction. Less ironing…there are lots of good things about working from home. But one of the bad things can be a slow internet connection. Complete with snail-like downloads, frozen screens and b..b..buffering.  

Switching to full fibre broadband gives you the speed and reliability you need. In this guide, we’ll delve into the world of broadband speeds, shed light on the benefits of full fibre and show you how to make WFH your BFF. 

Since the pandemic changed the game, 44% of UK workers now work from home some or all of the time. Now, if your job’s mostly answering emails, browsing the internet and the occasional video call, your connection is probably fine. 

But if it involves things like downloading large files, working together online, screen sharing, connecting to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or editing video, what you really need is full fibre broadband. 

We’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of an important video conference with the team, sharing a spreadsheet and discussing key project updates. Suddenly, the screen freezes. Or the audio starts br-eak-ing up. SIGH 

High-quality video conferencing, seamless file sharing and cloud-based applications and all depend on a fast, reliable broadband connection. A slow, unreliable one will not only disrupt your flow but can also make you look, well, a little unprofessional. 

There’s a lot of confusion about broadband speed but it’s simply the rate at which data travels between your laptop and the internet. Measured in megabits per second (Mb), it determines how fast you can upload, download, stream and carry out tasks online. 

The speed you need depends on what you’re doing and how many devices you’re doing it on. For standard stuff like checking your emails, browsing websites and the odd video call, 10-20 Mb is plenty. For data-heavy tasks like video presentations or transferring large files, 30-50 Mb is recommended. 

Of course, we don’t just work from home. Once you add in gaming, streaming and browsing, the need for speed goes up and up.  

It’s worth remembering that if you’re sharing your home (and connection) with friends or family, their gaming, streaming, zooming and browsing will slow things down. A good place to start is by checking what speed you’re currently getting.

It’s easy to run a quick speed test to find out how.  

To avoid the misery of lagging, buffering and drop outs, you need to squeeze every drop of speed out of your broadband. If you can, switching to full fibre is usually the best option in the long run but here are a few other things you could try in the meantime: 

🤗 Cosy up to your router. Furniture and some building materials can block signal. So get as close to the router as possible. Best of all, connect by ethernet cable. 

🔌Try a Wi-Fi booster or extender. These handy plug-in widgets can help extend the range of your signal. 

📴 Switch stuff off. Most routers show you what’s connected. Disconnecting anything that’s not important will make a difference. 

💻 Close a few tabs. It’s easy to have a million tabs open at once but they could be eating up bandwidth. 

🔽 Time your downloads. Try to avoid downloading when you’re about to have a Zoom meeting. 

👩‍🏫 Share nicely. Big meeting? Ask your family or friends not to live stream games or HD stream Netflix for a bit. 

Unlike the old copper cables many people still rely on, full fibre broadband uses fibre optic cables that run right into your home. (Copper cables have a maximum speed of only 80Mb, a whopping eleven times slower.) When it comes to performance, we’re talking chalk and cheese. A quick reminder that full fibre is:  

⚡ Fast. Full fibre offers speeds of up to 900Mb. You can share large files in seconds, stream 4K content without buffering and video conference in HD. All at the same time. 

🕰 Consistent. With full fibre, your connection shouldn’t slow down in peak times. It’ll deliver uninterrupted all day long. 

👩‍✈️ Reliable. Some copper cables were laid in the 1930’s and can be damaged by corrosion. Fibre optic cables are tougher and much more reliable. 

📳 Responsive. Full fibre has much lower latency (the official name for lag) which is the delay between a command you send and the action on-screen. 

As you can see, if you want working from home to really work for you, it’s worth switching to full fibre broadband. 

Now available in 57% of UK properties, it gives you the speed and reliability you need to do your job without any hold ups. After that, all you have to do is start working on that Employee Of The Month speech…  

Remote working can have many advantages; better work/life balance, less time commuting, more time with your pets! But if your internet speeds aren’t up to scratch, you could face awkward laggy video calls or painfully slow file downloads

Save your gaming set-up (or your job) with this eero hack

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