Mid Century Fiber

  There is nothing more important than keeping your family safe and secured. There are many smart home devices out there today that can help you ensure home safety and security such as cameras, motion-triggered alarm systems, as well as glass-breaking sensors. One that people do not often think of is their home's door lock. Several smart home companies have since created smart door lock devices that can be installed in the place of a traditional manual door deadbolt. Some of these new devices can also allow access without even touching the door or pulling out your phone. These smart locks work by either detecting your phone is in the nearby vicinity or by using a keyless entry fob. Many of them also have Auto-Locking which automatically senses when you enter the home and locks the door after it is closed or after a set amount of time. Others offer additional methods such as keypads that will unlock the deadbolt after a numerical code is put in. Usually, the locks have more than one...

  Today more than ever our face-to-face contact is becoming less and less as we are attending things such as class and work through virtual meetings. Many institutions and workplaces use the technology of Zoom web meeting places to still have virtual face-to-face meetings with their students and employees.   One difficulty we may face when using such applications is downloading and using this platform on our computers and other devices. First, you must download the Zoom application from the app store or the Google Play store for mobile devices. You will need to download the desktop client version/application for other devices such as computers or access the meeting you wish to attend by going to Zoom’s website.  The link provided will take you to the Zoom download center in which you will see multiple links for how to download the software onto your device: https://zoom.us/download#client_4meeting Next, once the application is installed and you open it up, you will...

Along with Mid Century’s advanced new wireless router and the Mid Century Fiber App comes the feature of ExperienceIQ. ExperienceIQ lets you control restrictions on devices connected to your network, prioritize network traffic, and manage user profiles.  Setting restrictions is a very important and key aspect of ExperienceIQ as it allows you to block certain content, applications and websites that may be unsafe or harmful for your kids or family to view. These are all easily accessed through the restrictions page in the Mid Century Fiber App. Say you don’t want your child accessing YouTube or another site that could have potentially dangerous videos for your kids to watch; with the Mid Century App it is very simple to go in and restrict your child’s devices from accessing YouTube.  Network prioritization for your devices allows for maximum speeds from your network on those specific devices that you choose over your other ones. This feature can be very useful for such thing...

     With Mid Century’s newest wireless router comes a very effective and convenient app that has many  great features which we have discussed in our latest blog titled, “Mid Century Fiber app”.   ProtectIQ and  Experience IQ are both premium features within the app which can be subscribed to and enabled. This  blog will entail what features you can access by adding ProtectIQ to your Mid Century CommandIQ   app.      The ProtectIQ feature is designed to activate malware and virus protection as well as help stop numerous types of threats and intrusions to your home network. Once ProtectIQ has been activated it will send you alerts and notifications about potential security threats as well as blocking them. This software requires no additional equipment and just needs to be enabled on your router. Protect IQ scans all the incoming network traffic data before it gets to your devices to weed out harmful data such as viruses and malware....

Today, many of our devices, apps, and videos require more and more data to run them. To combat this, Wi-Fi routers and other device companies which use Wi-Fi are enabling their devices to handle this influx of data usage and maximize customers' usability of their internet bandwidth. Wi-Fi 6 has enabled high-speed internet subscribers to get the most out of their wireless routers. Wi-Fi 6 is now being implemented into many new devices such as cell phones, and computers. In its essence Wi-Fi 6 can do what you’d expect it to do, that is connect you to the internet. Now, it will have the added effects of being able to connect you to the internet much more efficiently as well as speeding up your connections in the process.   Wi-Fi 6 will see a bump in speed from 3.5 Gbps which was seen in Wi-Fi 5, to 9.6 Gbps. These speeds are just theoretical maximums in terms of speed which most consumers will never reach or use. The typical average download speed in the United States is 72 Mbps. This...

This past year has been tough in a lot of aspects with the coronavirus, but it has also shed some light and created some new and prevailing technology as well as programs that have helped us make it through this contactless world. Telehealth and Telemedicine being two of these programs that have come through as very useful tools throughout the endurance of the virus. Telemedicine is defined as using telecommunications tech to support and deliver all kinds of medical, diagnostic and treatment-related services usually done by doctors. With this tech, health professionals have been able to conduct diagnostic tests, monitor a patient’s progress after treatment or therapy. Telemedicine is like Telehealth in many aspects, but further extends its reach past the doctor-patient relationship. With Telemedicine, nurses, pharmacists, and social workers can offer their services remotely, such as consultations, diagnoses, and monitoring. These types of programs allow patients to have appointments wi...

The Mid Century fiber app is a very simple, yet intuitive tool for getting your home the ultimate Wi-Fi experience. Having an application at your fingertips that allows you to monitor and make changes easily from the use of your phone or tablet can be extremely beneficial to a homeowner. Not only that, but you can customize your Wireless network in so many ways with the Midcentury Fiber App. You can do several of the following useful things with our new app:   Change network name & password   Prioritize traffic   Set up guest networks   See devices connected when you are away   Set time limits   Parental controls: content restrictions, website, apps, safe search   Get alerted when new devices connect   Virus, intrusions, and web threat notifications   Access to turn on/off internet access for devices/users  View the efficiency of connection on your devices.  Run speed tests Having an easy way to access your n...

Currently, with the global pandemic, internet access has proven to be a lifeline instead of a luxury. One positive thing that this pandemic has shown us is that even in such a developed country such as the U.S. we are still dealing with antiquated infrastructure technologies for internet service and communication. The internet provides critical links and websites to information that can work to keep our families safe and healthy during this global health issue. Not only does it provide us with the tools to stay safe, but it is important for many of our children’s online learning programs that are in place. Children with internet access that drops out or is not reliable can cause them to fall behind in their education path. It can also be very frustrating at times when doing things such as zoom for class and your connection is less than adequate causing frequent tiling, lost signal, and buffering. Many teachers in rural areas have been forced to teach remotely and without a solid and st...

Many people are often hesitant with changes such as with new technologies. Fiber optic internet is still considered a new type of network cable but has proved itself to be the fastest and most effective infrastructure currently offered by internet service providers. Many may wonder how new services such as low orbiting satellite internet companies will match-up to fiber optical cable to the home. The issue that always comes to mind when satellite internet is talked about is, latency. Satellite internet is plagued by terrible latency in many cases, and this is due to the distance between a home’s satellite dish receiver and the satellite orbiting earth. Some newer companies are trying to make low-orbiting satellites which should reduce latency but has not been fully tested and still will not bring about the speeds that are capable through fiber optics. Issues of slower speeds from satellite internet will remain because there is not a constant connection from the ISP to the customer as w...

Lately in the streaming world there have not been options to watch the regional sports channels such as Fox Sports Midwest and the Marquee Network. With Spring coming up and the first MLB games to be played in April, the question on everyone’s mind is “How can I watch the Cardinals or Cubs games with streaming services?” Just recently, AT&T TV has released their streaming packages and include both highly sought-after networks. The cheapest of the packages offered with these networks starts at $84.99/mo with no annual contract and includes your local channels such as ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and 90+ other channels, as well as 45,000 on-demand shows and movies. Signing up is easy, first go to  www.att.com/tv/  , next click on packages and then select the “CHOICE” plan. You must be careful though, as there are the same packages offered with a 2-year agreement. At the top of the screen make sure to select the plan with no annual contract so you will be billed every month with the o...

                 Today, there are several smart home speakers/virtual assistants to choose from, finding one that meets your needs is important for effective use in your home. Virtual assistants can do so many tasks for you such as playing music, reading news articles, weather, sports updates and so much more. Virtual assistants can also control smart home-capable devices you may have in your home; including smart bulbs, locks, cameras, thermostats, and many more devices that can be controlled with smart assistants like Alexa, Google, and Siri. This is just the beginning and only a small example of what these virtual assistants can do for you. Making sure your pre-existing smart home devices in your home are Alexa, Google, or Apple compatible can be a huge determining factor on which assistant you choose. Automating your household with such devices can make your life a lot easier, so pick...

  Imagine if all the devices you had within your house could connect to the internet wirelessly. Not speaking of devices such as your computer or cellphone, but everything from: doorbells, cameras, windows, blinds, water heaters, appliances, kitchen utensils, you name it, and it could be connected. And on top of that what if those devices could all communicate with one another and send you information as well as take commands from you. It’s not something out of a movie or in the distant future, it’s here and it’s called the Internet of Things (IoT). This is the key component of smart homes and home automation functionality. Home autonomy is exactly what it sounds like, the automation that allows you to control devices around your home. With the simple control from a smartphone, hub system, or a voice command you are able to control things such as lighting, temperature, or perhaps even pouring yourself a cup of coffee. Many of these devices have become relatively affordable in the...

  The amount of time we spend connected to the internet has drastically changed in the last year.   We are doing a lot more online activity.   We are working from home, eLearning, gaming, streaming TV, video chatting, and more!     To make sure you have the right internet speed you need to figure out how many devices that you may have connected to the internet at any one time and how much bandwidth those devices use.   For example, checking your email can take up to 5Mbps where streaming video can take up to 15Mbps or more depending on if you are watching sports and 4K TV.    Large file transfers can take up to 40Mpbs.      So, if someone is eLearning and transferring a large file for their homework and at the same time someone is streaming TV and another family member is gaming you could be using more bandwidth than the plan that you signed up for.   What does this mean? You will experience buffering or slowdow...

There is nothing more annoying than the constant stopping and starting of a show or movie. We have all seen it before, a screen that reads "loading" or perhaps the iconic spinning loading wheel. Buffering happens for a slew of reasons; weak Wi-Fi signal can be the root of this modern-day nightmare. So how does one make sure that they have a good signal throughout their home, so they do not run into any of these issues? First, you will need to understand why you may not be getting a signal or as good of signal to a particular location in your house. Your wireless router sends a signal out throughout the home, this is your Wi-Fi. This signal allows you to connect devices via Wi-Fi so that you do not have to have hard wires running to all your devices to be able to access the internet. You can think of this signal the way you would a speaker. The further away you get from the speaker, the softer the sound is, and the closer you get to that speaker, the stronger the sound wil...