Make Your House Wifi Friendly

• Get your furniture out of the way: Large pieces of furniture can act as a barrier to wifi. When it’s practical and possible, place large furniture along the exterior walls of your home to prevent it from blocking your signal.
• Reflect on mirror placement: Mirrors reflect the wifi signal from your router, ultimately decreasing the signal’s strength. We suggest limiting the use of mirrors where possible to avoid issues.
• Be conscious of location: Wifi routers can malfunction if kept too close to other electronics. They should not be hidden behind devices such as speakers and televisions that can cause interference. It’s also important to note that microwave ovens can also negatively impact your wifi signal so be sure to keep your router away from your kitchen!

Test Your Signal Strength

If you have strong wifi near the router on multiple devices, but not far away, it’s time to consider additional or upgraded wifi equipment. You can look into mesh units yourself, or give us a call at 800-668-8413 and we can provide you with a solution that fits your needs.

If you have little to no wifi, even when in the same room and near your router, try testing on additional devices. If multiple devices seem to having issues accessing the wifi, try power cycling your router. NOTE: Please do not hit the reset button as that will reset your SSID name and password. If you’re unsure on how to still having issues, please call our tech support line at 800-668-8413.

In order to ensure that you’re able to access a gig of internet speed, there is a few things to check.

First, be sure that your device is hardwired to the internet using a gigabit ethernet adaptor cable. This is important because no wifi—from any provider—can effectively deliver 1000 Mbps (or 1Gbps) due to the natural degradation that occurs when internet signals travels over the air.

Second, ensure that your device is able to handle gig speeds. Many older devices are not capable of handling the top gig speeds so if your hardwired device is experiencing slower speeds, it might be time to upgrade to a new model! 

If you’re still experiencing slower speeds after checking these two things, please give us a call at 800-668-8413 and we can help you find a solution!

We recommend connecting your smart TV to the router via an ethernet cable whenever possible to ensure signal strength. However, if wifi is your only option, make sure the TV is located close enough to the router to have a strong wifi signal (e.g. 3-4 bars). If it still has trouble playing videos, then the TV’s built-in hardware likely isn’t up to par. By purchasing a high-quality streaming device, such as a Roku or Amazon Fire Stick, you will most likely have a much better experience.

Please note: Wifi signals degrade as they travel through walls, floors, furniture, etc. If you want to watch TV from a room that’s far away from your router, and cannot run an ethernet cable there, we recommend additional wifi equipment, such as a mesh unit. Please give us a call at 800-668-8413, and we will help you determine the best solution for you.

Make Your Home Wifi Friendly

First and foremost, evaluate the location of your router. Ideally, it should be centrally located in your home and should not be hidden behind speakers or other electronics that can cause interference. Also, when practical and possible, place large furniture along the exterior walls of your home to prevent wifi signals from being blocked. Finally, limit the use of mirrors as they can interfere with wifi signals. 

Improve Wireless Range

Wifi gets weaker as it travels long distances and through walls and floors. This can lead to buffering and general slowness when using devices that are far away from the router. If you experience signal issues in specific areas of your home, it’s time to consider additional or upgraded wifi equipment. We have several options available. Please give us a call at 800-668-8413, and we will help you determine the best solution for you.

Use a Hardwired Connection When Possible

For video streaming on a TV, real-time gaming, and other bandwidth-heavy activities, we recommend connecting the router via an ethernet connection whenever possible and practical. Additionally, if you have subscribed to our Gig package and want to get the full 1,000 Mbps on a specific device, you will need an ethernet and possibly a Gigabit Ethernet Adaptor as wifi—from any provider—is unable to handle Gig speeds. 

Choose the Right Internet Speed

Have you recently added new wifi devices to your home? Now might be a good time to evaluate your current internet package to ensure your speed still meets your needs. Visit broadbandnow.com to take a short quiz to help you determine the best speed for you.  

No matter how much you want to protect your data, it can be tempting to simplify your ever-growing password collection. But you don’t want to solve one problem only to create new ones. Take into account these tips when creating your passwords to help keep you and your accounts safe from hackers.

#1: Avoid Reusing Passwords

If you’re using the same password for all of your accounts, you become an easy target for hackers. Once they guess the password on one website, they’re able to use it to access his account on every website that he’s logged into. This is why it’s important to have a different password for each website.

#2: Avoid Using Easy-to-Remember Words or Personal Info

Although it may be easier for you to remember, passwords that include your personal information such as a birthday or address are a big risk!  If a bot has collected any of your personal data, or if someone you know is trying to hack you, your passwords become easy targets. Instead, you should come up with a minimum level of complexity to keep them from being guessable. That means no common names or dictionary words, and a good mix of some or all of the following: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (ex: ?, !, #, $).

#3: Avoid Writing Passwords Down

As much as it seems like writing passwords down would be a good way to keep track of them, this isn’t a secure way to store such important information. If you choose to leave your password list where someone else can access it, or accidentally do so, your accounts become easily accessible to whoever finds your list. Instead, you should follow the next tip below.

#4: Use a Secure Password Manager

By using a digital password manager, you can save your login ID and password for every account you use without worrying about theft, bots, or memorization. A password storage app keeps passwords secure behind a two-factor authentication system (it texts or calls to verify it’s you when you log in). While it’s active, the app fills in your passwords automatically when you visits sites you’ve registered for and the app can even help to generate new, random passwords.

Some trusted password managers include:

• Bitwarden
• LastPass
• 1Password
• Keeper

These apps work with a wide range of devices and browsers, and many offer a free tier that’s enough for the average user. There are other options like iCloud Keychain (for Apple devices) and Google Password Manager (a browser-based wallet) that are good too, despite some limitations on how and where you can access them.

As with any new software, you should research the features of each before signing up.

What are Wi-Fi Bands?

Each band represents a frequency over which data transmits. While most routers will optimize which devices are on each band, if you are able to choose for yourself, the following tips will help you understand how to make the wifi in your home work the best.

What are the differences between 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz?  

The main differences between these bands are range, speed and interference. 2.4GHz can reach farther distances in your home but transmits data at a slower speed. Plus, it’s more prone to interference due to having fewer channels available. 5.0GHz, on the other hand, is significantly faster and because it has more channels, it’s not subject to interference like 2.4GHz is. However, the reach isn’t as far.  

Is one better than other?

Technically no and many smart home devices like thermostats, garage doors, baby monitors and appliances only connect to 2.4 GHz. However, to maximize your speed, we generally recommend connecting any compatible device to the 5.0 GHz band. In fact, simply connecting a few of your devices to this band can help you vastly improve your overall internet experience. 

A network port allows your Xbox console to communicate with the Xbox Live servers and other connected Xbox consoles over the internet.

You may have to make a configuration change to your firewall or network hardware for your Xbox console to communicate with Xbox Live. This configuration change is sometimes called “opening ports” or “port forwarding.” Port forwarding for Xbox is done on your router or other network hardware, not on the Xbox console itself.

This guide applies to all models including Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

Xbox Live requires the following ports to be open:

• Port 88 (UDP) Both
• Port 3074 (UDP and TCP) Both
• Port 53 (UDP and TCP) Both
• Port 80 (TCP) Both
• Port 500 (UDP) 
• Port 3544 (UDP)
• Port 4500 (UDP)

Additional Games

• Port 3075 (UDP and TCP) for Call of Duty Black Ops III
• Port 3074 (TCP) for Call of Duty Warzone

Static IP for your Xbox

You need to give your Xbox a Static IP address so that when you open the ports to your Xbox and your system reset or gets turned off, you don’t lose the IP Address. (EXAMPLE: 192.168.1.6) Giving a static IP ensures that your Xbox will always have the necessary settings that you need for Xbox Live.

Log onto ONT to Port Forward

Type 192.168.1.1 in a browser window while connected to the router via an Ethernet cable. Use the username and password provided on the sticker that’s attached to the router.