Last year, we were able to increase the speed in many of our towns and we will continue to make improvements to our fiber ring. However, your bandwidth is just part of the equation when it comes to the speed that you receive. In February of 2011, we did a three part blog about sneaky ways your Internet speed could be slowed down.
While we covered a lot of reasons why your Internet may sometimes feel slow, and how to fix them, we want to take the time to highlight one reason that will be of increasing worry in the years to come. The issue is wireless items in your home.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to take stock of what in your home is using bandwidth on your wireless network. You might be surprised just how many devices are trying to get onto your network at any given time.
If you are like the average family, then you have a few cell phones, at least one game system, a desktop computer and a laptop. That’s at least 5 devices connected to the Internet at once! While it’s not likely to cause a problem most of the time, it’s important to note that if you are streaming on the laptop, playing games on the console and downloading a new app on your phone, there might be some lag time.
The wireless drain is going to become heavier and heavier in the next few years, too. Most new TV’s are wirelessly enabled, fridges and stoves now connect to the Internet and streaming video is only going to grow.
To find out about speeds in your area, visit www.gpcom.com or call the CRC at 1-888-343-8014.