Check for Outages

Intermittent outages can be caused by mother nature or a construction crew working near our fiber lines. Our talented service technicians will work quickly to make repairs and have your service streaming again as quickly as possible.

Check your power and connections

A simple and easy measure is to always check your power supply and reboot your equipment. If a service visit is needed our technicians will make sure you are taken care of.

Restart your modem

Did you reboot? The dreaded question from your resident IT professional but it’s true, always reboot. That is the simplest and quickest way to trouble shoot some of the simplest tech issues.

Internet speed is a combination of bandwidth (download and upload) and latency.  Bandwidth measures the size of the “internet pipe” and latency measures how long of a delay exists for information to move through the pipe.  The LARGER the bandwidth (size of pipe) the faster the internet connection will feel.  The LOWER the latency (amount of delay) the faster the internet connection will feel.  This means you can have a very high bandwidth, of say, 100Mbps, but with high latency, your internet connection will still feel very slow.

Think of it like a highway system.  The number of lanes would be equivalent to the size of bandwidth.  More lanes (bandwidth) allows more cars (data) to pass through.  Latency describes how long it takes for the car (data) to first show up onto the highway.  With high latency, the data simply takes longer to get moving!

Latency – The delay in processing data over an internet connection.  Low latency = less delay.  High latency = more delay.  Typical latency on a cable internet connection can be 100 milliseconds (ms) or more. Typical latency on a fiber connection is less than 30ms.

Download – The amount of data that can be sent TO your computer/device in a set amount of time.  This is measured in megabits per second.  When you are reading emails, visiting websites, streaming video or music, is all considered “downloading.”

Upload – The amount of data that can be sent FROM your computer/device in a set amount of time.  This is measured in megabits per second.  When you are posting pictures/videos, add attachments to emails, or save files to the cloud is considered “uploading.”

When stated together, the download and upload bandwidths are shown like this:  100/5 (indicates a 100Mbps download bandwidth and 5Mbps upload bandwidth).  Internet service providers typically only advertise their download bandwidth as they utilize asymmetrical systems where the download and upload are not the same.

Factors that could be affecting your internet speed

How many devices are connected?

The modern family is more connected than ever before. Streaming TV service, tablets, phones, thermostats and even Wi-Fi enabled appliances all use valuable bandwidth. If you have a lot of devices, you may benefit from one of our fastest internet packages.

We typically suggest a “wireless N” or “wireless AC” router.  These are backwards compatible with most wireless devices. However, if you would like us to do all the work in getting your wireless network configured and setup, we can activate the wireless functionality built inside of our equipment for $4.95 per month.

802.11 is a set of specifications created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for implementing wireless local area network connections. When you see 802.11a or 802.11n, there is meaning behind each of these subsections. Without being long-winded, here’s a brief overview of each:

802.11a – Operates in the 5 GHz band, Speeds up to 54 Mbps, poor range.

802.11b – Operates in the 2.4 GHz band, Speeds up to 11 Mbps, good range.

802.11g – Operates in the 2.4 GHz band, Speeds up to 54 Mbps, fair range, backwards compatible with 802.11b. When you can no longer pick up the 802.11g signal, you could pick up 802.11b.

802.11n – Operates in both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band, Speeds anywhere from 54 Mbps up to 600 Mbps, good range, uses MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) which helps increase the range by using multiple antennas in a coordinated fashion.

802.11ac – Operates in the 5 GHz range using wider channels, speeds up to 1300 Mbps, uses MU-MIMO (multi-user MIMO), which builds on MIMO by using more antennas to boost the wireless signal, improved performance for multiple devices, good range.

802.11ad – Operates in the 60 GHz band, Speeds up to 7 Gbps (7,000 Mbps), good range. This is the newest standard, and currently there are very limited products developed which incorporate 802.11ad.

These are wireless bands. A wireless band is simply the frequency (or electronic pulses per second) at which the signal is sent. One GHz = 1,000,000,000 cycles per second. Since 2.4 GHz is extremely common, it is usually crowded. Everything from baby monitors to cordless phones to even microwave ovens can cause interference in this band. It is possible to reduce interference by switching to a different channel. We will review this next. When possible, try to use 5 GHz, as your likelihood of experiencing interference (slower speeds) will be significantly reduced. 5 GHz is slowly gaining traction, but does not suffer from the extreme congestion as 2.4 GHz.

Many routers now have dual-band, which means you can use 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks from one device. We will typically suggest to subscribers that devices which are capable of faster speeds would be connected to the 5GHz network since it is capable of delivering those faster speeds and the slower on the 2.4 network. Splitting the devices on 2 different networks give you the most flexibility when it comes to your network, since a wireless network can only go as fast as the slowest connected device.

Another thing to think about is placement of a wireless router. Generally speaking, the center of the house will result in the best overall range. However, your home’s construction may pose challenges to the wireless signal. Brick, concrete, and steel can pose obstacles for the wireless signal. In this case, it is wise to place the router closest to where you will use the signal the most. Another option is an access point. This is a device that is hard-wired to the router which has its own antenna. In a home environment, it is used to provide wireless signal to area not reached by the wireless router. Some people like range extenders for this function, but be warned: Range Extenders communicate wirelessly back to the router, and because of this your connection to a range extender will always be slower than a direct connection to the router or a hard-wired access point.