More people at home leads to slower speeds and connection issues, tech says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The web security company Cloudflare reports internet traffic is up more than 20% in the Houston area since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The surge of people logging on has left some ABC13 viewers asking about their connection slowing down.

The answer is simple, according to tech expert Michael Garfield. He said it's because too many devices are pulling information from your network.

"This is something so new to us. We are all in a paradigm shift where we're working from home right now. People who have never thought about working from home, are working from home. We're using these built-in web cameras and video conferencing takes up a lot of bandwidth," Garfield said. "Think about the times of day your kids are generally online, from 9 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. I would say, you want to avoid downloading a movie or any heavy data during that time."

The Federal Communications Commission created a list of home network tips for the coronavirus pandemic.