These days, having internet connectivity in a family home is something of a must-have. Once you have the internet at home, you will find that it makes your life a whole lot easier. For instance, you’ll be able to shop online at various stores and you’ll also be able to check a wealth of information, from local bus times to find out your nearest doctor’s surgery opening hours. Not only that, though, but the internet in the home is great for entertainment purposes. You will be able to connect a smart TV so that you can start taking advantage of modern streaming services. Plus, your children will be able to find lots of child-friendly games and activities online as well.
However, getting your home connected to the internet in the first place might not always be as easy as it seems. Even if you are already connected, you might still run into some problems at one point or another. So, it’s a good idea to know how to deal with any issues so that you and your family can get back online as soon as possible.
Here are a few common issues that occur with the internet in the home and the solutions that you can use for them.
Choosing A Network
One of the first problems that many families run into is trying to decide which internet network to go within the first place. There are now so many different ones that it can be quite difficult to know which is the best one for you. Thankfully, though, there are some places you can turn to for advice. For instance, you might want to try a comparison website to figure out which one would offer you the best deal for your money. It could also be worth asking friends and family for personal recommendations.
Internet Speeds
There are a few different reasons why your internet might not be fast enough. It could be slow as soon as you connect your home to a new network, or it could slow down over time. To be able to fix this, you need to figure out the initial cause. The most common reason for slow speeds is that you have gone with a network that doesn’t offer decent speeds. So, it could be worth changing supplier and going with a network that can provide you with impressive download speeds. If it isn’t your network’s supplier that is the issue, you might want to do a factory reset on your router. If that doesn’t improve things, you might need to replace your router for a newer version.
Child Safety
Something that is a prime concern for families with young children is child safety online. There are numerous threats aimed at children so it is imperative that you set up your internet in a way that can keep your children safe and protected while using the internet. Thankfully, most internet browsers now come with plenty of parental controls that you can turn on to ensure your children don’t end up viewing age-inappropriate content. If your current browser doesn’t have these features, it’s wise to switch to one that does. You should also look for an internet provider that can offer parental controls on their network.
Poor Connectivity In Some Rooms
Some people find that one or two rooms in their home might not benefit from a strong internet connection even if the rest of them in the house do. This can be annoying, as WiFi should allow the whole house to be connected. However, if you live in a large house, then you might find that the connection is a lot weaker in rooms that are quite far from the router. The best solution for this is to buy a router extender that can help the connection stay strong throughout the whole house. Unfortunately, though, the way some houses are built could prevent the internet waves from traveling around the home as well as they should. You could try fixing this with a router extender, but there is no guarantee that it will fix this specific issue.
Unexpected Drop Outs
Do you find that your internet connection randomly drops out every now and then? This can be very annoying, especially if you work from home. There’s no need to worry if this does happen to your connection as it is usually a very easy fix. For instance, your connection might be experience interference from other devices. Changing the channel on your router could help you with this. If that doesn’t work, then you can always try a factory reset, which can fix most internet issues. If you’ve tried that with no luck, then you might have to call your internet provider so that they can send an engineer out to check the issue.
An Unsecured Network
Internet security is another huge concern that most families have. They know that there is a risk from hackers and viruses, and they understand that it is their responsibility to keep their home’s internet security safe and secure at all times. If your connection isn’t currently secure, you need to do something about that right now as a hacker or virus could strike at any time. All you need to do is add a password to your connection. That way, only people who have the password can connect to your internet. Adding firewalls and antivirus software to your devices will also be a big help in keeping your family secure online.
A Connected Device Doesn’t Have Internet Access
Does one of your devices say it is connected to the internet, but you are unable to browse anything online? First of all, simply turn your device off and then back on again. If that doesn’t work, simply reconnect the router. If the internet still won’t work on it, you may just need to refresh its network settings.
Internet problems can be very annoying and frustrating but hopefully all the tips above help you get sorted in no time at all!