Top 5 Tips to Improve Your Rural Internet

Do you ever sit at home and wonder why you can only get internet in some rooms and not others. Does it annoy you when the kids are on Netflix and you are trying to work? Are you screaming at your computer to make it go faster?

Maybe some of these tips can help you improve the time it takes you to look up a cooking recipe on Google or complete the small tasks that take forever to do with slow internet.

Here is Black Nova Designs Top 5 Tips on how to improve your internet in rural areas, and making sure you are getting the most out of your internet connection.

1) Have you upgraded your router & positioned it correctly?

Positioning of your router can play a vital part in the performance of your internet and WI-FI, placing a router near/behind other devices (e.g. TV’s, Microwaves) or stuffed in a cupboard can drastically decrease the performance of your wi-fi connection, causing you to suffer from poor internet performance. Also are you using the latest router (either aftermarket or provider provided) or is it the same one you have had for years?

As technology has grown many new features have come out, which are designed to support more devices and provide a better connection, where the old devices don’t have this technology causing you to suffer from poor connections, drop-outs and even complete outages.

2) Are you actually on Fibre – not just Fibre ready? 

When was the last time you checked your bill and exactly what you are paying for? We always advise that you call your provider to check you are getting the best possible service for your area – YOU WILL NOT BE UPGRADED TO FIBRE UNLESS YOU ASK –

One other tip – How old is your Router? If the Router is older than the devices you have on it then it could be out of date causing a loss in performance, technology moves so fast nowadays that Routers need to be kept up to date. You do not have to stay with the router your Internet Providers gives you (unless you are with SKY) Do your research and see if an aftermarket router might be a better option for your needs.  If you already receive quality high-speed internet, it may be time to look at your home networking equipment. Not all modems and routers are designed to support large homes. Although they may work fine in your 582-square-foot apartment, they could utterly fail when transplanted to a 1,452-square-foot home.

In addition, modems and routers go extinct all the time, particularly as higher speeds and Wi-Fi standards come to market, and the routers simply buckle beneath the strain. Plus, older modems and routers feature security risks that simply aren’t worth the trouble. You want a fast, secure home network, and that means purchasing a top-tier Wi-Fi router.

3) Are you sure it’s your internet that’s faulty?

Are you sure it’s your internet that is at fault, many issues can be due to wireless issues and not the internet connection that is actually coming into your property. We have seen many cases where the wireless signal is not performing well and is causing a decrease in speeds on the internet, where actually the speed coming into the property is very good and stable. It is always good to test the speeds on a Ethernet cable first before calling your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

4) Did you know you can get Wireless Internet Service Providers

With wireless broadband, several people can get online at once, making it brilliant for busy households. When ISPs advertise wireless broadband for your home, this is usually the type that they are talking about. The ISP will connect to the Internet through a cabled connection and then broadcast that connection using radio waves. You, as the customer, would have some sort of antenna and modem set up that would let you communicate with the ISP.

These systems work almost identically to cordless phones, even on the same frequencies that cordless phones do. The ISP just broadcasts with higher power so the signal will travel further. The one challenge is that your antenna needs to have a clear line-of-sight to their antenna. If there are trees or buildings in the way, you will get little to no service.

Wireless broadband is almost always only considered an option when you don’t have cable or DSL service to your home. It’s a good option for rural homes or cottages.

The service speeds with wireless broadband aren’t nearly as fast as with fiber or cables, for the same reason that your WiFi isn’t as fast as being connected to a network cable. Signals travel better in cables than free-air.

5) The mistake: Jumping too soon to the “hard reset” option. 

Most routers have a “hard reset” button, a small area on the back that can be accessed via a pushpin or paper clip, which returns the unit to the default settings. While this sometimes is a user’s only option should something go wrong, too many users jump to the hard reset before trying something else. The problem is that when a device resets, all information that was entered by the user during configuration is lost, including information like the ISP username, password, IP addresses, security keys, and ports/services that were opened. The fix: If you are well prepared by writing down all this information in advance, doing a hard reset shouldn’t be too much of an issue. But it could create more work than is needed through other fixes.

That said, You occasionally restart your computer or laptop to cycle its settings and settle it back into its best, normal groove. A similar process occurs when rebooting your router. Resetting it every so often lets the router clear the digital gunk that sometimes accumulates during daily use.

Need some more helpful tips then check out these useful blogs below:

https://www.blacknovadesigns.co.uk/blog/top-10-reasons-your-home-wifi-network-does-not-work-for-you

https://www.blacknovadesigns.co.uk/blog/wifi-extenders-versus-powerline-adapters

https://www.blacknovadesigns.co.uk/blog/wireless-access-points-vs-wireless-repeaters