A Good Internet Experience Is More Than Speed

By Harry Guinness

A great internet experience is about more than just fast download speeds. Strong Wi-Fi, up-to-date devices and even your upload speeds can all play a role.

Don’t get us wrong—download speeds have a huge impact on your internet experience. If you’re stuck with a slow connection, you won’t be able to stream movies seamlessly, quickly download large files or even browse the web without interruption. But other things matter, too, and if you don’t take care of them as well, even with the fastest fiber optic internet package you can get, your internet experience won’t be great.

So, let’s step back and focus on the other things that matter in a good internet experience.

Wi-Fi controls your experience at home

It’s important to remember that your broadband connection goes directly to your router. After that, everything depends on your home network. If your Wi-Fi signal doesn’t cover your entire house, you’ll still have dead spots where you can’t even open a web page.

Some of the best ways to improve your Wi-Fi signal are:

• Place your router as centrally as possible in your house.
• Watch out for interference. Materials like solid brick, concrete and metal can block Wi-Fi signals.
• Invest in a Mesh Wi-Fi system or at least a Wi-Fi extender, so you can get strong signal in every room.
• If you haven’t upgraded your router in a few years, consider getting a model that supports Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E. The latest innovations allow more devices to connect to your router and get stronger connections in a wider range of situations.
• If your Wi-Fi is being intermittently slow, reboot your router. It can fix a lot of problems.

Also, for home offices, desktop PCs and other fixed devices, consider using an Ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi. It allows for a more stable, higher-speed connection—as long as you don’t have to move around.

Computers and smartphones matter, too

The devices you use to access the internet matter just as much as your internet connection. If you’re using an old, slow, overloaded PC with an out-of-date browser, you could have a terrible time trying to access websites.

To keep your computers and smartphones in top shape, here’s what to do:

• Make sure all your devices are updated to their latest software version. This is important for staying safe from viruses, hackers and other online threats.
• Update your browser. If you don’t already use a new and feature-rich one like Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, consider switching.
• Check your extensions. Malicious extensions can slow down your browsing experience a lot.

Today’s computers and smartphones do a great job of managing their own resources, so you shouldn’t need to worry about clearing caches, deleting browsing histories or closing background apps. If your computer or smartphone feels like it’s running a bit slow, the simplest thing to do is just restart it.

Upload speed is important as well

While download speed is what most people talk about, upload speed can be just as important. For example, if you’re working from home, playing video games, sharing large files, livestreaming video or having a lot of video calls, then your upload speeds can have a big impact on how you use the internet.

Most cable and DSL connections provide slower upload speeds than download speeds. For example, if you get 300 Mbps download speed you might get 15 Mbps upload speed. Not too shabby—but fiber connections can offer symmetrical speeds. This means that if you have 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps) download speed, you’ll also get 1 Gbps upload speed.

Fiber is reliable in bad weather

Fiber optic internet can also be a welcome ray of sun during bad weather. If your internet experience is great until a storm hits, upgrading to a fiber connection might be the fix you need.

You’re in control

Don’t settle for a bad internet experience—it’s something you can control. If you’ve got a good internet connection and a solid Wi-Fi network, and you keep your devices up to date, using the internet should be a breeze.

And if things aren’t working as well as you’d like, and you can’t figure out what’s wrong yourself, don’t be afraid to contact your internet service provider’s tech support. They can walk you through troubleshooting any issues and help get you back online.

Frontier Fiber is built for the way you live today—and tomorrow

If you’re still on the lookout for the right ultrafast internet connection for streaming, gaming, working from home and running your smart home—all with enough bandwidth for everyone—find out about Frontier Fiber. Frontier Fiber is available in select areas—check here to see when it’s available at your address.