Mid Century Fiber

                 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...

In our ever-busy, hustle and bustle lives, we here at Mid Century are pleased to announce five easy, efficient ways to pay your monthly bill: Phone … With Discover, Mastercard, Visa or check. Call 1-833-368-2465 and follow the prompts.   You will need your account number which is located on your billing statement.   If paying by check you need to create a PIN before payment can be made.   You can check account status and set up recurring payments. Online … Go to www.midcentury.com and click on the “SmartHub” tab at the top of the page to set up your account or use the convenient “Pay Now” tab.   You can download the mobile app from the App store for iOS, Google Play for android or from the Customer Resource Center on our website. Mail … Send payments to Mid Century Communications, PO Box 380, Fairview, IL 61432. In Person … Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm at our office located at 285 Mid Century Lane, Fairview, IL 61432.   A...

On Roku devices, you can download thousands of apps or “channels” as they like to call them. Some of these channels may require additional subscription fees.   For some channels you need to have a cable or satellite provider, but not all of them. Today we talk about the FREE channels you can get on Roku. More importantly, the top 5 free Roku channels that we think every Roku user should download. 1.    The Roku Channel - This channel comes pre-installed on almost every Roku device. As the name states, this is Roku’s channel and is exclusive to Roku devices. This channel will let you stream thousands of Hollywood hits, documentaries, and TV shows. It is updated frequently with new content available every month. 2.     Pluto TV - Stream over 250+ channels of news, sports, and entertainment. You also get over 1000 movies and full TV episodes on-demand. 3.     Tubi - Movies and TV shows all for free. Think of T...

  Three apps to help keep you connected The Covid-19 virus has us all spending a lot of time at home.   If you are doing it on your own, it can start to feel lonely.   Even for those who do have someone to pass the time with, we still miss our friends and family. Here are 3 free apps you can download today to help keep in touch with the ones you love. Skype Skype has been around a long time and is available on several devices, such as phones, tablets, PCs, and Macs.   Skype allows you to make video calls, chat by sending instant messages, share photos and videos, and even make voice calls.   Skype is great for large groups as you can have anywhere from 1 to 24 people in a video call. Facebook Messenger Messenger is a popular app for good reason. It is available on IOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.   The app will work well for pretty much every digital communication you may want to have with your friends and family. You ...