Have you ever taken a second to consider how connected your home is today versus 10 years—heck—or even just five years ago? You likely have computers, phones, tablets, gaming systems…and don’t forget TVs, speakers, thermostats, security cameras and/or doorbells…oh, and for some people there’s vacuums, washers and dryers, dishwashers, and even barbecue grills that connect to the internet. The list is becoming endless. Inevitably, this means folks are depending on home networks that can keep up with all the connected devices they depend on day to day.
Your Home Network
With all the connected devices in homes, many people still don’t think about their home network—until they notice it might not be keeping up. Most homes today have some form of a home network, even if very small. In simplest terms, your home network is made up of your internet service coming to your home, most often to a router (which provides the Wi-Fi signal in your home), and all the devices connected to it. These devices might also include Home Wi-Fi Optimization equipment such as mesh networks or signal boosters.
So which of these components bears the brunt of your connectivity load?
Your Home Internet
Without a doubt a reliable, high-speed connection is important for heavy home networks with many connected devices. This is one of the reasons GVEC Internet continuously works to expand our Fiber service to reach as many people in often-overlooked areas of the Guadalupe Valley as possible, while we also continue to make enhancements to our Wireless service in areas with Fiber options not yet available.
However, it’s important to understand, once your internet service reaches your router, it’s filtered through that router to be distributed among your devices. This means your router also has some dictation of the speed and bandwidth available to the devices in your network.
Your Router
Since your router distributes your internet signal to the devices throughout your home, router technology must keep up to supply the expanding bandwidth needed for all the ways we utilize our internet connection—browsing, streaming, gaming, working, video chatting, controlling home appliances and more.
Not having a router suitable to handle the device demands can result in lagging, buffering or signal dropping. This is why sometimes, when an internet customer might believe they are experiencing “slow speeds,” but run a speed test bypassing their router, they find they actually have the speeds they are paying for according to the service plan they’re subscribed to.
Wi-Fi 6
Wi-Fi 6, sometimes referred to as “high-efficiency wireless,” is the latest in Wi-Fi signal technology. This is thanks in part to more efficient data encoding that’s able to fit more information into the same signal transmission. It’s well suited for maintaining steady speeds in home networks with many devices competing for shared bandwidth. Additionally, Wi-Fi 6 technology features the latest and most secure encryption standards for higher level of network security.
GVEC Internet and Wi-Fi 6
GVEC Internet is constantly finding ways to bring more value to its customers. This includes offering the Calix GigaSpire® BLAST router for rent. This router is Wi-Fi 6 certified and delivers optimal Wi-Fi performance. Renting your router for the low monthly price of $6 is an affordable way to experience this top-tiered technology. Plus, our customers have peace of mind, knowing our CSRs are specially trained to troubleshoot GVEC services and equipment if needed—not to mention if the router happens to be faulty or eventually wears out, we replace it at no additional cost.
Are you a new or existing GVEC Internet customer interested in obtaining Wi-Fi 6 technology through affordable router rental? Give us a call today at 800.699.4832, and let us hook you up!
