Blacksburg, Virginia, 06/10/2022

The Internet and I got to be friends almost 30 years ago and as I wrote in the article, Connecting Electronically Wasn’t Always So Easy, my Internet speeds and connectivity have struggled to keep up with my business needs.

In the fall of 2013, I was getting 22.51 Mbps down and 5.26 Mbps up. By 2020, the best cable service I could get managed 481 Mbps down and 22.8 Mbps up.

That might look fast but those highly asymmetric cable speeds just did not allow for easy, consistent video conferencing or the quick transfer of very large files to and from the cloud. Those two things define my business life.

Fortunately a move to a not so remote area and buying a new home in a subdivision with fiber (which I like to call a Fiberhood) changed everything. Having symmetrical fiber made a huge difference in what I can do from my home desk.

We got  our symmetrical 500 Mbps service the day after we moved in the house. We never even bothered to sign up for cable at our new house  but we have gotten very good at streaming very good at streaming so television has not been a problem. An inexpensive VOIP service gave us another phone line besides our smartphones.

However, technology marches on and as I got more bandwidth, I wondered if I would notice even faster speeds as we seem to be generating ever larger reports- a recent one was 139.6 MB.  I happened to find out that my service provider (I am not on a network with any involvement from our company, WideOpen Networks) had lowered their pricing. I called and found out that I could could get symmetric Gig service for less than I had been paying for symmetric 500 Mbps service - which proves there is nothing like competition to drive down prices.

I quickly signed up for symmetric Gig service and within a couple of days I was disappointed with the speeds that I was getting. This is not my first time around the Internet block and I have a good idea of what speeds the networks that we build deliver. I had been getting close to 480 Mbps up and down with my 500 Mbps hard-wired connection via our Gig Ethernet switch. With my new Gig services, my hard-wired speeds were rarely above 680 Mbps up and down. I called customer service and got the  suggestion that it was just overhead from my network. She told me switching to a different router would have little impact.

Luckily, I have a son who is a system administrator and network architect. I called him and he explained to me that the advice of a few years ago to buy your own router was outdated. He said new inexpensive chips allow fiber service providers to lease to customers excellent high-end routers that are more than capable of providing great speeds and reliability for home users.

I was initially skeptical since my very reliable Google router with mesh network was only two or three years old, but I did some research. I found out that my provider was using Calix Gigasphere routers which I knew were on the short list for ones that we are planning on offering for own WideOpen Networks’ customers.

That sealed the deal.  I called up and arranged to get one of the Calix routers. A few days later the technician arrived and just as I hope our technicians are, he was even five minutes early. I had the name and password of my old WiFi network ready. That was important since we have twenty-five devices on our network, many of them wireless, ranging from my original Kindle Fire to our garage door opener. The technician unplugged the old Google router and plugged in the new Calix one. I downloaded the CommandIQ app from the Google Play store to my smartphone, created a new account, logged into it, gave the new WiFi network the exact same name and password as the old one. Next we tested the wired connection on one of my hard-wired computers. Even at noon the speeds were a huge improvement.

Then I did wireless tests that mostly involved me running the network speed test on the Calix CommandIQ app in every room. The wireless tested fine. Even better than the speeds, there seems to be no need for a mesh network. All our devices worked fine, including our LG television, the iPads, the Chromebooks, all our Macs, Windows computers, even my Linux computer and the WiFi on both our smartphones. I did not get locked out because I still able to open our WiFi-enabled garage door using my smartphone. Our speeds are now regularly in the high 800 Mbps even during busy times of the day. In the not so busy times, we hit over 900 Mbps.

You can go crazy running speed tests especially if you are trying to do it wirelessly with computers and have no idea what kind of WiFi connectivity that the computer has. I easily ran over half a dozen different speed tests and never got the same result twice. As my son likes to say, at speeds of anything over 500 Mbps per second, there is either something between you and the test server impacting performance or the server cannot handle higher data rates. In any case with a new router it is more than likely something beyond your network keeping your from hitting over 900 Mbps.

Good advice is sometimes hard to come by but I think that I am safe in saying that if you have fiber and your speeds are not where they should be, maybe it is time to look at one of the routers supported by your service provider. If they are good fiber provider, you will likely be pleased with the results and there will be no pointing fingers at equipment since it came from the service provider.

- David Sobotta, VP of Sales

Streaming your choice of video channels is what the future holds. I spend a good chunk of my day job looking at the prices of Internet services across the country.

Blacksburg, Virginia, 02/21/2022

I studied cable, DSL, and fiber services in dozens of counties and communities last year. That along with my personal experience with prices and as an early streamer starting several years ago has helped our family to continue to save money after switching from cable and its expensive packages to fiber and streaming services.

However, it is easy to go overboard with streaming. The grandchildren show up and their favorite shows are on Disney+, so you subscribe. An older child comes home and wants some Apple TV channels. It only takes three or four spur of moment decisions added to your regular streaming services and you will be paying more than you would be for a cable package.

The way we handle our streaming services is to keep them on a budget. We budget $40 monthly for streaming services. We are Amazon Prime members so I am not sure we would allocate the full $8.99 (stand-alone cost) for Prime video but as you will see, even when we do that, we are still well under budget.

Our four current services for a fee are Prime Video at $8.99 monthly, Paramount+ $5.99 monthly, Britbox $6.99 monthly, and PBS Masterpiece $5.99 monthly for a total of $32.96 for all our streaming services. We also subscribe to the free version of Peacock. I recently canceled Netflix and Acorn while adding Masterpiece and Britbox.

We stream so much that it is easy to run out of new, watchable programs in two to three months. I manage all but one of our channels on Amazon prime so it is easy to see them and the costs all in one place. You also have the advantage of being able to snare some Amazon specials like HBO Max or Starz for $1.99 a month for two months. You just have to remember to cancel them. The picture at the top of the post is what you see in Amazon’s Video channels management console.

My studies across the country along the current Hulu and YouTube pricing I see tell me that about $70 a month will get you a full range of video services. So if you are paying $70 or more for your streaming services, you are not saving money and it is time to go on a streaming budget.

- David Sobotta, VP of Sales

100+ countries are together for a better internet and world. For home & school programs in the US #SID2022

Blacksburg, Virginia, 02/08/2022

Tuesday, Feb. 8 is Safer Internet Day, which will be celebrated this year in over 100 countries. ConnectSafely, the official US host, spoke to parents, educators and young people across the country to find out what’s on their minds when it comes to online safety and wellbeing in 2022. They took the questions and concerns — and a few of their own — to experts in online safety, parenting, bullying prevention, security, and executives at popular apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Roblox. The results were some great conversations with a wealth of advice and insights.

Visit https://saferinternetday.us/ for details, programs and additional resources for parents, guardians, teachers and students.

When you're connected to WideOpen's super-fast and reliable fiber network, what's stopping you from listening to music anywhere in the house? Meet Sonos.

Blacksburg, Virginia, 02/03/2022

Long gone are the days where you can only hear your favorite music in the living room in front of the stereo. Sure, you could wear headphones around the house, or carry around a bluetooth speaker with you from room to room. But what if you want a seamless experience, no matter what room you're in (or, not inside the house at all)? That's where Sonos comes in, the brand of Wi-Fi speakers that has recently been gaining popularity in households across the US.

Sonos has a wide range of products. Their most popular product, labeled "One", is a simple stand alone speaker that you can add to any room of your house. They also sell two different types of soundbars, a subwoofer; outdoor, and even in-wall/in-ceiling speakers, for ultimate space saving.

The best thing about all of these products? They can all sync up to play the same audio, anywhere you have a Sonos speaker in your home. From cleaning around the house, doing laundry, working in the home office, cooking, working in the garage, or just lounging inside or outside, the same music will be playing perfectly synced up wherever there's a Sonos speaker.

The speakers sync up over WiFi, so as long as there's a connection, you can have music. You can control all aspects of your speakers through a smart home device such as Alexa, Siri, or Google Home, and there's also an app available for download to your smartphone. Sonos plays your music from whatever source you might have, including Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music (plus many more).

Other accessories sold by Sonos include a record player, network extender, an amplifier - anything that will make listening easier around your house.

And when you're on WideOpen's fiber network, you can be sure that your Sonos system will always work quickly, and reliably.

To learn more about Sonos and to purchase, visit https://www.sonos.com/en-us/home

Happy listening,

- The WideOpen Team

Blacksburg, Virginia, 01/19/2022

People are always asking, "What makes WideOpen Blacksburg's fiber connection better?" We just talked to a Comcast customer who was trying to edit some photos over the weekend and upload them to their cloud storage. They said it literally took two days to upload the edited photos. They did a speed test, and while they had 300 Meg down, they were only getting 6 Meg uploads.

Our fiber network is fully symmetric, which means our upload and download speeds are equal. If you order our 250/250 service you have 250 Meg down and 250 Meg up. Ditto for our 500 Meg and Gig service: 500 down, 500 up; Gig down, Gig up.

And unlike those "other" companies, we are your local network provider. Our headquarters are right here in Blacksburg, and our staff are all local. Stop by and see us if you have questions.