Today’s homes are brimming with devices that connect to the internet. Technology is everywhere in your home, from tablets to smart TVs to cell phones and smart speakers.
Because you use reliable high-speed fiber internet from NHTC, you can confidently stay connected to the internet for all of your streaming and internet needs. But, if your home is full of devices and people who regularly use them, you may wonder if you need to upgrade your internet speed.
Many factors influence internet performance in a home. For example, the location of your router, obstructions like walls and glass, interference from electronic equipment, and multiple devices can contribute to slow-downs and underperformance.
We’ll help you self-assess whether you should upgrade your internet service plan’s speed. Then, you can choose a speed plan that makes a huge difference in your home’s internet service.
Let’s get started!
How to Count Your Devices Without Missing Any
Given the diversity of devices in a typical home, it can be easy to undercount how much internet-using tech there is in your house! Use the following list and guide to ensure you don’t miss any device.
- First, start by counting your personal devices like your laptop, tablet, and cell phone.
- Second, do the same for every other adult in your home, be it a spouse or a roommate, and count their devices.
- Then, count the number of smart TVs in your home, including televisions that use a streaming stick (e.g., Roku, Amazon Fire Stick).
- Next, count your children’s laptops, tablets, and cell phones.
- Finally, count any smart home devices like smart speakers (think Echo or Google Home devices), smart doorbells (like Ring), smart security video cameras, smart appliances, and smart thermostats.
Once you’ve gone through each of the categories above, total them all up to see how many devices you have. Then write that total down and save it.
Device Bandwidth Usage— How All Your Tech Really Adds Up
Now that you’ve done an accounting of the total number of devices in your home, you need to understand how much bandwidth these devices can take up. Bandwidth, in simplest terms, is the maximum capacity any internet connection can have.
The higher the bandwidth, the more data can be sent to and from your device—which makes a huge difference when you have multiple devices streaming movies in different rooms at the same time!
Thankfully, fiber internet has much greater bandwidth capacities than cable. But too many devices in use at the same time can “eat up” the bandwidth and lead to slowdowns.
Some devices use a lot more bandwidth than others. For example, smart TVs use vast amounts of bandwidth to stream movies and television shows. So, if you have multiple smart TVs streaming simultaneously, you may experience some slowdowns.
Cell phones use bandwidth anytime they use the internet in your home. So, whether conducting a simple Google search, or engaging in a more intensive activity like watching a YouTube video, if your kids are actively using their cell phones, expect they are taking up bandwidth, too.
Laptops and tablets will also use lots of bandwidth for gaming or file sharing. Even your Echo Dot will take up bandwidth if you’re streaming music while getting dinner prepared.
Adding It All Up—And Upping Your Internet Speed
When all the devices in your home are tallied and you consider the amount of bandwidth in use by everyone in your home, you’ll begin to understand why you may need a speed upgrade.
Adding extra internet speed will almost certainly improve the performance of all the devices in your home, given how many are regularly in use.
And the best part of increasing your internet speed is that by providing enough bandwidth, everyone in your home can use their devices at the same time without experiencing slowdowns!
Upping NHTC’s speed tiers—especially by going up to 1-gig per second or 2.5 gig per second—means that your household no longer needs to take turns on who streams which show or movie at a given time or plays online games against their friends.
Faster internet speeds and higher bandwidth will also give you a little more peace at home.
So, when you’re ready, be sure to call the friendly and knowledgeable representatives at NHTC and they will be available to answer all your questions and help you choose the best internet speed plan to meet your home’s needs.
And check out NHTC’s social pages to learn more ways to improve the internet service in your home!