Sunday, April 1, 2018

Understanding Wifi Part 2


In my previous article on this topic I outlined some terms and concepts to help you better understand Wifi and some of the issues you may encounter. This article goes under the skin of wifi to help you grasp the concepts.


Promises Promises
Many moons ago I attended a sales seminar where the teacher coined an adage I’ve tried to adhere to it went “promise a lot and deliver more”. This unfortunately is not an adage any internet provider I’ve encountered adheres to rather its completely the opposite. Take your pick of any of the providers you’ll get the same “promises” while the delivered product falls far short of that.

What consumer would sign up to a broadband service if the provider admitted “Our broadband service is patchy, oversubscribed, running on outdated and poorly designed and maintained infrastructure and will disappoint you more that elate you”. So they spin it with promises of speeds and service that would knock your socks off. I’ve yet to see any such service provided on a sustained basis.

So given the above you can be sitting on top of your broadband modem/router and have a 100% wifi signal and still have a terrible internet experience. If you understand that you are well on the way to coping with wifi in Ireland. Incidentally phones and tablets account for this in their design so don’t be fooled just because your RTE news page loads like a bullet. Chances are it’s from the phone/tablet cache and not real time. Laptops and desktops don’t generally use this trick hence I will hear my phone works fine but my laptop is dog slow. That is generally not true unless the signal quality differs between devices or there is a problem on the laptop.


Poor Broadband or Poor Wifi
Indentifying if the root cause of your poor internet connectivity is down to your broadband or your wifi is where technical skill and experience come into play. If I had a euro for every person I’ve encountered that has assured me they know the reason their connectivity is poor and were completely wrong Id be sitting on a beach in Jamaica.

Wifi is a signal therefore it is subject to a host of environmental factors which can affect it. Likewise not all wifi broadcast equipment is equal and in my experience when it comes to the quality of broadband equipment installed in homes you will not be supplied with top end equipment on your 12 month contract. Investing in equipment that suits your environment and needs can significantly enhance your internet experience.

Everyone claims to know everything about wifi – few actually do.