If You Use Your Internet for This, You Really Need Fiber!

Jun 25, 2024 | Family

Some recent and surprising statistics indicate just how much time the typical American between the ages of 16 and 64 spends online each day: an average of six hours and 40 minutes! Of course, there are many internet activities that have become simply essential to more and more people every day—and these online activities require the speed and reliability that only fiber internet can provide.

While older forms of internet like cable or DSL may have been sufficient for early internet usages like basic emailing, web-browsing and simplistic social media, modern internet usage requires much more download and upload speeds to work effectively and reliably. And today, nothing outperforms fiber internet. Below we discuss five increasingly common—and vital—online activities and uses that really need fiber to thrive. 

1. Remote Work

It’s hardly breaking news that remote work is on the rise—and getting more and more popular. Indeed, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center report, more than a third of all workers who work remotely do so full-time. But remote working is only an option with a proper internet setup. Indeed, inferior internet and its poor bandwidth and lack of bountiful upload speeds can lead to conference call distortions and delays, presentation snafus, and even the basic inability to access and upload documents, records and more.

While employers have become accustomed to the remote working trend over the years, they do usually require remaining in consistent contact through clear and freeze-free conference calls and quick access to company servers and large, secure files. Having a reliable, stable, and fast internet connection like fiber is a must for remote workers to be the dependable staff members their employers are counting on.

2. Online Learning

Online education is booming in America today. There are more opportunities to get a two or even four-year college degree than ever before. And many technical and trade programs now exist online to provide training and even certification for well-paying jobs.

To take full advantage of online education requires a steady internet connection that won’t let learners down in a crunch. Fiber’s generous bandwidth enables easy viewing of live streams of classes or pre-recorded videos. And students can fully participate in webinars and other online video conferences with fiber’s super-fast download and upload speeds.

3. Telehealth

One of the biggest innovations in the healthcare industry over the past 10 years is the massive expansion of telehealth. Through telehealth, doctors, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners help assess patient needs much faster—and without the patient needing to leave their home (or even their sick bed).

Telehealth consultations also help doctors make critical decisions about whether a patient needs to be rushed to the emergency room (or if less urgent or even at-home treatment is needed instead). And telehealth appointments speed up medication refills and other prescription needs, saving both patient and doctor significant time.

Obviously, a medical care professional’s evaluation will only be as valuable as the ability to communicate with, view, and assess the patient at the time of the telehealth consultation. In fact many doctors won’t even conduct a consultation under poor internet conditions, much less even make a diagnosis or write a prescription. That’s why fiber internet’s reliable service and hefty bandwidth is crucial to ensuring clear, distortion-free medical assessments for worthwhile treatment.

4. Video Calling

Staying in touch with loved ones can be difficult even in the best of times. And with so many families split up across the country, it can be hard to see each other face-to-face. Video calling using FaceTime, Zoom and similar apps brings people together in ways families only dreamed of decades ago.

But without a reliable internet connection like fiber, video calling can be a frustrating experience. Fiber’s high bandwidth capacity and greater download and upload speeds allow more data to transfer between you and your loved ones during video calls. That means smoother, clearer video calling and far less distortions and frozen screens. In short, fiber helps you stay better connected no matter how far apart you are from each other!

5. Gaming

Of course, the internet is for much more than just communication, work, health, and learning—it’s also for having fun, too! And one of the most invigorating ways to enjoy the internet is through online gaming, particularly competing against friends. Online gaming has experienced explosive growth over the last several years, with more than 1.17 billion online gamers as of 2021 and an estimated 3.07 billion in 2023!

With so many opportunities to enjoy games in different genres from racing to strategy to farming to puzzle and mystery solving, people of all ages have discovered the pleasures of online gaming. And only fiber has download speeds at nearly the speed of light and enormous bandwidth capacity gamers need to test their mettle and triumph over their fellow players without the fear of lag, pixilation or dropped connections that plague inferior forms of internet.

These are just some of the ways FPUAnet Communications’ advanced fiber network enhances your internet experience and makes life both more productive and enriching. Whatever your online needs, whether for business, leisure, health or staying connected to loved ones, FPUAnet’s fiber is there for you.

Is It Time to Replace Your Router?

Jun 5, 2024 | Family

If your internet is slower than expected, it may be time to upgrade your speeds. Or you may just need a new router that can actually handle the speeds you’ve purchased!

In today’s blog, we’ll walk you through signs it’s time for a router upgrade and what to do about it so you and your family can take full advantage of FPUAnet Communications’ high-speed fiber network and greatly improve your streaming, gaming, and overall online experience!

First Step: Look for Signs That Your Router Needs Replacing

Sign #1: Your Router Is Just Plain Old

Start by asking yourself this: just how old is your router? If you can’t even remember when you purchased it, that’s a good sign it’s more than five years old. In fact, many homes and small businesses use the same router they originally bought in the early 2010’s or even 2000’s!

If your router is several years old and predates 2019, it simply lacks the technological chops to take full advantage of fiber’s bandwidth and speeds. Tech experts recommend updating to a new router every three to five years to keep up with technology, so remember that as a good rule of thumb. 

Sign #2: The Router Feels Hot to the Touch

Another indicator that your router is in rough shape and needs replacing is that it often feels like it’s overheating. Now, of course, almost all electronics will warm up while they’re running. But we’re not talking about typical warmth from sustained usage, but rather considerable heat put out from too much processing.

Such excessive heat is a sign that your router is overworked and attempting to handle more than it can, which in turn leads to slowdowns or even dropped connections or reboots. It might also mean that its internal materials and components have degraded or stopped working, causing further problems in transmitting Wi-Fi signals effectively.

Sign #3: You’re Not Getting Anywhere Near the Maximum Download Speeds Your Internet Service Provides

If you’ve noticed that your streaming seems frequently pixelated or distorted—despite paying for a top tier speed plan—it’s quite likely that your router just isn’t up to the job. With fiber internet, data can transfer at nearly the speed of light—something older routers just can’t handle.

If you’re fed up with slow download speeds and have already conducted troubleshooting to rule out other problems, it’s probably time for a new router.

Second Step: Utilize the Latest Wi-Fi Technology

Prior to the start of 2024, the most current Wi-Fi technology was Wi-Fi 6, also called  802.11ax (or an updated version called Wi-Fi 6e launched in 2021), which had been a substantial improvement from previous forms of Wi-Fi technology (e.g., Wi-Fi 5). Indeed, Wi-Fi 6 or 6e, which most new Wi-Fi routers built since 2019 use, will still provide excellent coverage to disperse internet.

However, there is a new Wi-Fi technology hitting the market as of early 2024—Wi-Fi 7! With Wi-Fi 7, download speeds can clock in at up to 46 Gbps, a considerable increase over Wi-Fi 6 and 6e’s 9.6 Gbps top speeds. Additionally, Wi-Fi 7 can use three frequency bands—2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz—simultaneously, a major step up from previous technology.

In short, look for routers built in 2019 or later using Wi-Fi 6 or 6e, or even better, the latest version, Wi-Fi 7. Their more sophisticated software designs are optimized to work with fiber’s outstanding download speeds.

Third Step: Select a New Router

FPUAnet can offer you a powerful managed Wi-Fi 6 gateway experience with the ADTRAN SDG 854-6. This carrier-class gateway can deliver multi-gigabit speeds throughout your home with its advanced Wi-Fi 6 technology and mesh capabilities. 

Fourth Step: Always Keep Your Router’s Software Updated and Protected

Once you upgrade to a new Wi-Fi router using the latest (or at least much more recent) technology, it’s critical to keep that new router up to date! Wi-Fi router manufacturers, like other computer hardware equipment, regularly upgrade their coding and software to keep their products optimized. Diligently updating your Wi-Fi router’s software with the same conscientiousness, you have for your laptop or smartphone will make your router more effective and your internet experience far smoother.

Regularly updated (and newer) routers are also better equipped to prevent cyberthreats and keep your home or small business’s network safer. Hacking, phishing, ransomware and other cybercrimes are, regrettably, on the rise. Simply staying on top of your router’s security upgrades is an easy way for you to enhance your network’s protection.

The above steps will help you determine whether it’s time for you to upgrade to a new Wi-Fi router, as well as select the right one for your needs. But don’t forget to check for software and security updates for your router to keep your network safe and secure, too!

As always, should you have any questions about how to better optimize your internet, FPUAnet Communications’ customer service representatives and technicians are available to help you. And for additional tips on improving your home or small business’s internet, follow FPUAnet Communications’ Facebook page!

Is Your Kid Ready for a Smartphone?

May 27, 2024 | Family

There is no shortage of advice and opinions about when and how to introduce and increase internet access and device usage to children. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, we believe it’s important for parents to think intentionally about when their own children are ready to explore the boundless world of the internet.

In today’s blog, we’ve developed a list of recommended resources and information that parents can employ to make the best decisions for their own kids and families. We’re proud to keep you and your family connected—and we hope these resources help you keep your kids safe online, too!

1. The American Psychological Association’s Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence

The American Psychological Association’s (APA) Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence provides a concise but thorough review of the current findings about social media impacts on teens. It’s a good place to start because it discusses some of the variability among different age-ranges—and how different each child can be.

The advisory also helps each parent think more about their particular kid’s maturity level (rather than just their age number) when assessing when it’s time to increase internet access. The APA’s health advisory should provide a solid background in the underlying “psychology” of internet and social media usage for children, as well as potential issues they may encounter as they age.

2. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ PhoneReady Questionnaire

Through its collaboration with AT&T, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) developed a 10-question questionnaire to help parents think through their child’s development and maturity before determining whether to let their kid have a first cell phone or other device.

While the AAP’s PhoneReady Questionnaire may not prove to be the decisive factor in parents’ decision-making, it will certainly help them think through the major considerations—both pros-and-cons—in a simplified and well-organized way. We also like that it takes certain factors into account for why parents may actually want their kids to have a smartphone, including for health and safety reasons (i.e., facilitating easy contact and communication between parent and child) and tracking their kids’ location at any time. 

3. Wait Until 8^th

Wait for 8^th is a comprehensive website that utilizes a “pledge”—a commitment of parents to wait until their kid is in 8^th grade before giving them a smartphone (though you don’t need to agree to the pledge or even its suggested 8^th grade timeframe to benefit from its information and advice).

As some children receive their first smartphone as early as age 10 (or in some instances, even earlier), many parents will begin to feel the pressure from both their own children and, perhaps indirectly, their own fellow parent peers to allow device use earlier than they judge it best. Wait for 8^th’s pledge and numerous resources can help parents feel more empowered to decide to wait until they believe the time is right—and their own child is ready—for smartphones and internet use as they grow up.

4. The AAP’s Family Media Plan

Developed with experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Family Media Plan is an outstanding resource to plot out the kinds of internet and device usage—and the amount of time of that usage—for each member of the family over a given time period (e.g., whether daily, weekly, or monthly, etc.).

Users input key information such as the age range of each family member and their individualized online interests and device needs. The Family Media Plan also helps parents model good internet and device usage habits, because children typically follow what their parents do more than what they say.

At FPUAnet Communications, we’re dedicated to keeping families connected, but we also understand the importance of ensuring children's safety online. We hope that the recommended resources mentioned in this blog will empower parents to make informed decisions that keep their kids safe and secure in the digital world. Thank you for trusting us to be a part of your family's online journey!