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 Many people who are shopping to rent or buy a new
home in the country find their dream home with trees, ponds and
acreage, quickly snatch it up, only to find that there is no
internet service available at their new address. Home shoppers need
to ask their realtor what specific internet services are available
for that address, and include in the purchase contract a clause that
if internet is not available, the contract is null and void.
There are two categories of internet service: wired and wireless.
Wired internet comes in three flavors: fiber optic, cable internet,
and DSL.
There are also three flavors of wireless service: satellite, cell
service and terrestrial wireless (often called WISP). All of these
choices are usually available in towns and cities of size, but in
rural areas there are fewer choices. All of these provider-types are
capable of dependable service, and home owners need to shop to
determine which choice makes the most sense for their needs and
their location. VIDEO:
How to choose
an internet service provider
Internet is more than just the service coming to
your home, it’s also the service in your house. Internet service
comes into your house from your internet provider who brings the
internet into your home via a cable, and then you the home owner can
connect it to a single computer, or in the case of most households
connect it to a wireless router and provide WiFi to numerous devices
throughout your home.
When you look on your laptop, phone or tablet and see bars
indicating the quality of your internet signal, what you are
actually seeing is the quality of your own WIFI signal (not the
quality of your service from your internet provider). Your internet
provider is responsible for getting service to your home; you the
consumer are responsible for distributing internet via wires and
WIFI inside your home.
WIFI is incredible for mobility and coverage in your home. In a
modest home, a single inexpensive wireless router can often provide
corner-to-corner coverage and allow your family and guests to sign
on automatically and have access to all that the internet has to
offer, whether on the couch with your phone, in the kitchen with
your computer, or tucked in bed with your tablet.
There are some restrictions with WI-FI. First of all, WI-FI is
usually less reliable and slower than cabled internet. So for
applications such as gaming or for streaming tv shows like Netflix
or Amazon, it is always better to connect with a wire than wireless
to gaming consoles and smart tvs. Cabled feeds to these devices
usually result in less buffering, less latency, and more stable
connections for gamers. Ethernet cables can be plugged into the
extra ports on your wireless router and connected to your game
console and your smart tv. Getting those cables installed properly
can usually be done by a local electrician or may be a service
available from your internet provider.
VIDEO:
How to connect
your Xbox One S console to the internet for beginners
VIDEO:
How to connect
up a Smart TV
Wireless routers are rated for speed and
versatility. That speed and versatility is delivered in two ways:
the speed of the router’s processor and by the number of frequency
bands that the router uses. Inexpensive routers have slow, clunky
processors that often get overloaded and cause you to have to reboot
your router often (a sign that your router is getting old or is
overloaded may be that it has to be rebooted multiple times a week).
These routers, usually referred to as N routers, are adequate for
households that have fewer users who are using the internet for
vanilla purposes: checking email, browsing the web, and getting on
Facebook.
A newer class of routers, AC wireless routers,
deliver Wi-Fi in two frequency bands rather than one (2.4GHz and
5GHz), and are about three times faster than N routers. In addition,
AC routers generally have better and more antennas, and are able to
better penetrate all the areas of your home.
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 More frequency bands allows for less interference
with your neighbors’ Wi-Fi routers, and AC routers are much more
robust because they use higher quality, faster processors, allowing
for more users using more sophisticated internet applications
without bogging down or bombing-out. AC routers are about triple the
price of N routers, but will probably last longer and be less
annoying in the long run.
The signal a typical wireless router gives out generally reaches
about seventy-five (75) feet in each direction horizontally from the
router. However, obstructions like walls, furnaces, and sometimes
even electrical wiring can limit the distance WiFi can penetrate.
Homes with steel or aluminum siding often prevent the Wi-Fi signal
from having any signal strength outside the home: on the porch, on
the patio or in the yard.
 In addition to
having restrictions for horizontal reach, Wi-Fi has very poor reach
vertically. Families with multi-level homes find that if the
wireless router is on the first level of the house, they don’t have
reliable Wi-Fi in the basement or on the second floor. The addition
of a second router on your second floor can alleviate that problem.
The second router is set to a different frequency from your first
floor router, and is fed via Ethernet cable from your first floor
router for best service.
VIDEO:
How to extend
your wifi range with another router
Finally, there is no perfect internet service.
Satellite internet service tends to have problems with “rain fade”
whenever a rain storm interferes with its signal path, and have
terrible problems with “latency.” DSL can have similar problems
especially in rural areas when rain gets in the telephone cable.
Every internet service has periodic problems with equipment that
goes down, animals that chew on cables, and normal wear and tear on
equipment.
When you have an internet outage, you should perform these steps in
this order:
- First reboot your wireless router by unplugging power and then
plugging power back in. Wait a few minutes and check to see if
service resumes.
- If service is still out, then power down your internet modem or
radio, and then check again after plugging power back in.
These are things you can do anytime to attempt to restore or improve
your internet service.
If service is still out, call your internet provider, informing them
that you have already reset power to your router and your
modem/radio, and the technician will be able to further help you to
get your service restored.
Internet in the home will continue to make further improvements and
find new uses in the home. We are beyond infancy, buy far from
maturity in the provision of and uses for home internet.
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