What is the Ideal Placement Scenario for your Wi-Fi Router?

To enjoy the best possible online experience, your router needs to be able to send out a strong signal to your wireless devices, wherever you are in your home. In general, the signal gets weak­er the farther you are from your Wi-Fi router. If possible, you should place the Wi-Fi router on a shelf. The ideal position is half-way between the floor and the ceiling.

The physical features of your house may also contribute to Wi-Fi coverage issues. For example, walls made from concrete or brick, or with steel studs behind the drywall, can block some — or all — of your Wi-Fi signal.

Metal surfaces can also weaken your Wi-Fi signal, so placing your router in a kitchen or laundry room (where there might be a lot of metal appliances) is not a good idea.

Finally, one of the most obstructive materials for Wi-Fi signals is a mirror. If you have a sizeable mirror near your Wi-Fi router, it may negatively impact Wi-Fi performance.

If you are experiencing Wi-Fi issues, try moving your Wi-Fi router to a different room in your house. Or, consider adding  PMT MiHome  to improve the coverage to all areas in your home.

Having Wi-Fi Problems? Make Sure Your Router Is Up to Date!

If you’re like most people, you connect to the Internet at home using a Wi-Fi con­nection. Since most of your devices—whether they’re smart phones, tablets, or laptops—are designed to be used wirelessly, the only way to get online with them is by connecting them to the device that provides the Wi-Fi signal in your home.

This device is usually called a router, but you might also hear it called a gateway, a modem, or an access point. The name doesn’t really matter, but the device itself has a big impact on the quality of your home Wi-Fi.

If you’re not getting the performance you expect, the first thing to check is whether your router is based on old technology. If files take forever to download, streaming videos don’t display smoothly, and you have trouble connecting to Wi-Fi in some areas of your home, then there’s a good chance an old router is the culprit.

All routers are NOT created equal

The fact is, all routers are not created equal. If your router is even just a few years old, it’s out of date. And that means you are not getting the most out of the new wireless devices you’ve invested in, which are designed to work best when they’re using the latest Wi-Fi technology.

It also means you’re not getting your money’s worth from your Internet service, because your old router is preventing you from getting the speed and performance you’re paying for.

New technology, better performance

So why are the new Wi-Fi routers so much better? They’re based on new technol­ogy (the 802.11ac standard) that offers major performance improvements you’ll really notice when you’re online.

First of all, these new routers are faster. The maximum speed provided by routers based on the old standards (802.11b/g/n) is 450 Megabits per second or less. The new routers are capable of providing speeds of up to 1330 Megabits per second (or 1.3 Gigabits per second).

While you won’t always get the maximum speeds possible, an up-to-date router is two or three times faster than routers using old technology. This makes a notice­able difference, especially when you’re downloading large files from the Internet, gaming online, or watching a movie from a streaming service like Netflix. This even applies when two, three or four people are connected to your home Wi-Fi at the same time.

The latest routers also give you better range, which means you enjoy a better Internet experience even when you’re far away from your router. They do this using a new technology that detects where a device is and then sending a stronger signal in the direction of that device.

Contact PMT today.

As you can see, the latest routers provide some big advantages and improvements over Wi-Fi routers that are using old technology. So if you’re not happy with the performance of the Wi-Fi in your home, contact PMT. We’ll help you figure out if your router is using old technology and replace it with a new model that will give you the best performance possible.

What’s the Difference Between the Internet & Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi technology is extremely popular and available just about everywhere. Whether you’re grabbing a cup of coffee, shopping for shoes, or enjoying a family pizza night, you’re likely to have a Wi-Fi hotspot available. You may hear people talking about “getting onto Wi-Fi” or not being able to “get onto Wi-Fi”. Most of the time, the issue is that they can’t get their laptop, smart phone, or other device connected to the Internet.

Is Wi-Fi the same as the Internet? No, it’s not. And with home networks getting more sophisticated all the time, with more and more connected devices, it’s helpful to have a clear understanding of the difference between the two.

 

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a massive global communications network. In fact, as its name suggests, it’s more than just one network—it’s a series of thousands of inter-connected networks.

While no one person or organization owns the Internet itself, each Internet service provider (ISP), like PMT, typically owns its own network. It buys and installs the specialized networking equipment that makes it possible for custom­ers like you—in addition to businesses, universities, hospitals, and more—to connect to the Internet.

When you connect to PMT’s network, or another ISP’s network, from your home or workplace, you have the ability to connect with other networks, companies, services and individuals who are also connected to the Internet. For example, you can stream movies on Netflix by connecting via the Internet to comput­er servers that Netflix owns or read your email by connecting to one of Gmail’s servers.

When you purchase monthly Internet services for your home, your ISP gives you all the physical equipment you need to connect your own devices to the Internet. This includes a physical line, such as a fiber optic cable, that will connect your home to the ISP’s network. Inside your home, this physical line is connected to an electronic device that’s usually called a modem.

 

How do I connect my devices to the Internet?

With your modem providing the Internet connection into your home, there are two ways you can connect your device to the modem.

Connecting with a physical cable

The first method, which is not very common anymore, involves physically plugging your computer into the port on the back of your modem using what’s called an Ethernet cable. When your computer is plugged into the modem, it becomes part of your ISP’s network, along with all the other individuals and business customers who have also connected their devices.

Connecting over Wi-Fi

The second method, which is the most common today, involves connecting your computer, tablet or smart phone to your ISP’s network without using a physical wire. This “wireless” connection is made possible by Wi-Fi technology; specifically by a second device in your home called a router or sometimes referred to as a gateway. This router is physically plugged into the modem with a cable or it is combined with the modem into a single piece of equipment.

The Wi-Fi router uses radio technology to broadcast a unique name (also known as a service set identifier, or SSID), which you or your ISP chooses when the router is first set up. When you’re on your laptop or other device, you can see a list of other Wi-Fi routers nearby such as yours and your neighbors’. You can select your router name from the list and enter the router’s password. And just like that, you’re connected to Wi-Fi. Since your router is connected to your modem, you can now access any online service or go to any website using your web browser.

 

Is connecting to Wi-Fi the same as connecting to the Internet?

The short answer is no, not technically. Just because you’re connected to your Wi-Fi router does not mean that you are also connected to the Internet. You might notice from time to time that your computer says you’re connected to Wi-Fi but you are not able to access any websites or send email. This means one of two things: either your modem is not properly connected to the Internet or your Wi-Fi router is not successfully connected to your modem.

So the next time you “get on Wi-Fi,” you’ll know there’s a bit more to it. You are actually connecting to a router that is then connecting to the modem that is then connecting to the Internet.

 

Managed Wi-Fi

Ensure a seamless Wi-Fi experience in your home with  MiHome managed Wi-Fi from PMT.   With MiHome, dead zones and slowdowns are a thing of the past.   Coupling PMT Internet with MiHome is sure to give you the best, most reliable Wi-Fi experience.

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