Sep 7, 2021 | Home Technology, Wi-Fi

Now that your internet is zipping along about as fast as humanly possible, how do you get the most out of your Wi-Fi? Here are some tips, along with information on the benefits of Gateway Fiber’s Wi-Fi for your home and family.

Placing the Connection Point in Your Home

Let’s start with finding the best place to place the router. Optimal router location depends entirely on the layout and size of your home. Be aware of how many devices will need the signal at one time and where they will be located throughout the home.

Keep the home’s building materials in mind, as well. Concrete and steel tend to hinder Wi-Fi signals, while wood and wallboard pose less of an obstacle. Objects you might not think of, such as mirrors and windows, can bounce or block signals, too.

Need more coverage for a larger network? It’s rare, but if the signal isn’t reaching the entire home, we offer an extra mesh entry point to supplement the router. However, most customers find the single unit is perfectly fine for great whole-home coverage.

Setting Up Your New Wi-Fi Controls

Remember the old days, before you got your screaming-fast internet from Gateway Fiber, when you had to manually set up extenders, including passwords and technical details? That was rough. Get one thing wrong and you might have to start all over.

Not anymore.

With Gateway Fiber’s easy-to-set-up Wi-Fi, life is better. Once your router is plugged in and running, download and set up the Plume Home app (available in Google Play and Apple app stores), and within seconds, it's active. It’s that simple.

Control Access

How do you control who does what on your network? Not everyone needs full access all the time, so Plume allows you to set up temporary passwords, parental controls, and restricted access. These conditional controls let you determine who has access to certain features and for how long.

You can even turn off internet access entirely or to certain devices so the kids aren’t lying in bed all night surfing the web when they should be sleeping.

In addition, you can lock out certain sites and limit access to social media and other categories through filters you control.

The babysitter is coming over tonight to watch the kids. It’s okay if she streams her favorite show after the kids are in bed, but you don’t want her to have full access to the entire Wi-Fi system such as the cameras and anything else tied into the smart home system. Or some guests are staying for the weekend, and you want them to have their own network password just for the weekend. In both cases, you can set up a separate password that allows you to control their access and expires when they leave.

Activity Monitor

Each family member can tailor their profile to their specific needs and internet usage, from kid-friendly surfing to wide open access for adults. The best part? Parents can control them all and adjust as desired.

Need to monitor when your kids are online and what they are doing? The Home app includes tools to let you see when devices are used, for how long, and what they accessed.

Device Protection

If your house is full of smart devices (the average US household has 26), you might be concerned that they could get hacked. While we don’t envision a Terminator-style life-or-death encounter, an outside cyber influence could mess with the thermostat, turn off your pre-programmed coffee maker, or disable your security cameras. The app has built-in device quarantine that prevents hackers from using one device to gain access to other devices tied to your home network.

Our Wi-Fi also lets you control your smart devices such as a video doorbell, outside camera, and lights while you are away. It can even adjust the thermostat on your way home.

Speed Check

Have you ever wondered if you’re really getting all the connection speed your internet service provider promised? You could run an online speed test that can test your upload and download speeds at the moment.

But how do you know your system is up to speed all the time? Plume’s intelligent network management tools include a constant speed monitor that can be set to alert you if your speed slows below a certain threshold.

Peace of Mind

One advantage of a Gateway Fiber Wi-Fi setup over most other mesh networks is its interaction with the cloud. The Home app manages numerous features such as multiple passwords, a dynamic environment, and artificial intelligence that constantly monitors and optimizes settings seamlessly. For example, if your home power goes out, the app stores your settings and information much like a cloud server stores your data files in case your hard drive crashes. Once power is restored, so are your settings, back to the way they were before the lights went out.

No matter what your Wi-Fi needs, Gateway Fiber’s mesh system helps you surf, play, and stream faster and more securely.