With more people working and learning from home, you may find yourself asking why your internet is slow. 

On our last Tech Talk, we talked about what the internet is and how it gets to your house. When things slow down, there are a lot of things that can cause your internet to slow down. The most common is the number of devices using the internet - but it's more than your computer or phone. Remember your Alexa, Roomba, smart fridge, smart laundry devices, and more. These things take up a lot of bandwidth. 

One option to speed up your internet is to kick everyone off the Internet. But, we know that's not realistic.

Speed up your internet
First, you should call your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and ask if you're getting the speed you are paying for and if you can get a faster service. You may be able to get a better package than you currently have, which will be worth it for how many devices you have using your internet. 

Move your router
Also look at where your router is located. Is your router in the basement next to a concrete wall where the signal is blocked? Move your router to a central location in your house.

Hardwire your devices
The best way to get the fastest and most reliable speed to your devices is to connect it to the Ethernet, rather than using the Wi-Fi signal. 

Distribute your signal
Another option is to evenly distribute your internet throughout your house. Small Town Tech can extend your wireless signal, even to another building such as your garage. If you're setting up an office in an auxiliary building or in the basement and you don't have a reliable signal in your house, a Wi-Fi booster can distribute your signal.

Tune in on KSDM 104.1 FM, KGHS 1230 AM, KGHS 95.3 FM on Wednesday at 8:40 am for the next episode of Tech Talk. 

Send your tech questions to info@smalltowntech.shop.

I know when the Internet is working, I know it's not working. But... what is it? We get this question a lot... or at least people tiptoe around this question. It's not a dumb question, don't worry. Many people don't really understand how it works. 

We break it down for you on Tech Talk. ​

Learning from the radio
Here's an analogy we like to use. Tech Talk is on the radio... but how does the radio get to my radio station from where we are talking? While recording Tech Talk, we spoke into microphones. The microphone picks up the sound and makes an electrical signal that's processed and sent up through devices to an antenna, and sent out through airwaves. Back home or in someone's car, their antenna picks up the signal and processes it and then you hear the sound of the radio. It happens instantaneously.

That analogy is similar to the Internet. The Internet is a series of computers that are connected to each other. On those computers is the information we are looking for when we go to Facebook, Google, or searching for launching nuclear war. Whoa, nuclear war? We say that because the Internet started with the US Defense Department needing a way to securely share resources. There weren't a lot of computers in 1969 when it was created, and they needed to communicate securely with the computers scattered across the nation. They developed this system to connect computers together to share defense resources.

And now we spend our time playing Candy Crush and browsing Facebook... thanks Internet.

Virtual is physical
But more than that, there are BIG computers - data centers, that are physically connected by wires. If you do a Google search for the backbone of the Internet, you'll find pictures of giant cables across the ocean and everywhere. So back to our analogy of the radio, when you sit at your computer and shop on Amazon (or browse our website), your signal goes from your computer out to the phone/cable line, through a series of data centers. It gathers the info you requested and it comes back to your browser. How the Internet works is all of the addressing and delivery of these little bits of information physically across the cables.

And it happens as quickly as you blink. Next time you Google something, look for how long that search took Google to retrieve. According to Jeffrey Dean from Google, "A single Google query uses 1,000 computers in 0.2 seconds to retrieve an answer." Wow.

The Internet has come a long way. Let's not forget the days when you had to kick someone off the phone to use the Internet just to wait minutes for a website to load. It usually took so long, you gave up before someone said they needed the phone line again.

The Internet has evolved quickly and become a vital part of nearly everyone's lives. 

Tune in on KSDM 104.1 FM, KGHS 1230 AM, KGHS 95.3 FM on Wednesday at 8:40 am for the next episode of Tech Talk. 

Send your tech questions to info@smalltowntech.shop.