Surprising Facts That You Need To Know About Your Internet

Surprising Facts That You Need To Know About Your Internet
Technology

Here are the facts about your internet that you need to know. Because the internet is background noise in our busy lives, it's easy to ignore how amazing it is and how much promise it still has. 

Here are some internet tidbits and information that you may not be aware of.

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Wi-Fi is Slower Than Plugging Into Your Router

Despite the latest Wi-Fi 6 advancements, there's still a method to obtain even faster internet performance from your devices by connecting them with an Ethernet cable.


Wi-Fi networks are often a stumbling block in your connection. For example, if your home has a gigabit connection but no wireless router capable of handling gigabit speeds, you won't be able to utilize your ultrafast connection fully.

Even if you have a good router, transmitting your signal via Wi-Fi adds another step to your data's path, slowing it down. You should always plug directly into your network if you play online games or live streams.

Also, Read:
How to Fix Some of the Most Common Wi-Fi Problems
Wi-Fi Problems? Signs That You Need to Replace Your Router
Mistakes You're Making That Cause Your Wi-Fi to Slow Down 


You Can Find Out Your Actual Internet Speed By Looking It Up

If you feel you aren't getting the speed you paid for, the first thing you should do is take a speed test. Connect your device to your router and test your connection numerous times throughout the day to get the most accurate results.

 

You Can Connect To The Internet Without Installing A Physical Wire In Your Home

There are other possibilities if your neighborhood isn't wired for high-speed internet, such as cable or fiber.

Many carriers now offer wireless 4G home internet, some even expanding their 5G networks to include houses. Furthermore, certain localities have fixed-wireless networks, which are frequently provided by local carriers.

Satellite internet can give wireless broadband speeds practically anywhere in the United States for more remote areas.

 

There Is A Lag In Cable Internet Connections

Cable connections within communities share bandwidth, which means your connection will slow down during peak usage hours, typically in the evenings when everyone gets home from work and settles down to rest. Although slowdowns can occur on any connection, they are much more likely to occur on cable because of this.
 

You Are Not Required To Sign A Year-Long Internet Contract

Many internet service providers (ISPs) provide month-to-month internet services with no long-term commitments. There are no fines if you move, upgrade, or switch ISPs before the next month's bill.

Although signing a lengthier contract can save you money, specific no-contract options are even less expensive per month than contract rates.


You Can Change Your Wi-Fi Channel

If you live in a city, you've noticed that when you try to connect a new device, your neighbors' Wi-Fi networks appear. This isn't usually a problem, but in densely populated places, such as a large apartment complex, overlapping Wi-Fi signals can cause problems with your home network.

If you're having trouble with your Wi-Fi, try changing the channel on your router. Routers usually choose their channel independently, but you can do so manually to find a less crowded channel.


You may extend the range of your Wi-Fi To Encompass The entire House

Buy a Wi-Fi extender if you wish to extend the range of your Wi-Fi signal or fill a dead zone. These extend the range of your signal to the farthest reaches of your home. They're especially useful if your router has to be situated far away from your devices. You can also buy a long-range router to extend the range of your signal.

 

Every Internet Device Needs Its IP Address

On the internet, data is sent in packets. Every packet, like a letter in the mail, requires a shipping address and a return address for two-way communication to occur. These addresses are known as "IP addresses," and they are required for any device on the internet to communicate.

This also means that your IP address is broadcast for all to see whenever you visit a website or send an email, even if you're browsing in incognito mode. Although IP addresses do not pinpoint your actual location, they do provide a decent indication of the city from where you are connecting.

Also, Read: How To Find IP Address from Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS?

 

Your IP Address Is Always Changing

Your IP address may appear to be a very private piece of information, but it isn't. While some web servers and large corporations have permanent IP numbers, most IP addresses are assigned dynamically by your ISP and vary every few weeks. ISPs can make the most efficient use of the addresses they control because of this continual reshuffling.

Your IP address changes every time you connect to a new Wi-Fi network if you're using a mobile device like a phone or laptop. Your home, office, and the coffee shop down the street all have separate networks and ISPs, so there's a varied pool of addresses to choose from.


VPNs Can Be Used To Circumvent Geographical Constraints

Although IP addresses can not pinpoint your specific location, they do provide websites with enough information to limit the material you see based on your location. Netflix, for example, caters to diverse audiences in the United States and the United Kingdom. Using a virtual private network (VPN) is one approach to get around these limitations (VPN).

VPNs connect your device to one of the service's remote servers via an encrypted connection. You use that server's IP address to connect to the rest of the internet. To put it another way, if you connect to YouTube over a VPN server in Canada, YouTube only knows that a device in Canada wishes to watch some videos.


The World Wide Web And The Internet Are Not The Same Things

Even though the terms internet and World Wide Web are sometimes used interchangeably, the Web is simply one component of the internet. Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web in 1990 as a mechanism for sharing information via web pages and web browsers.

Email, bulletin board systems (BBSs), Usenet forums, and internet relay chat were all previously used on the internet—the physical network of servers, cables, and other devices (IRC).

While the World Wide Web has grown exponentially since its inception in the early 1990s, new internet applications emerge daily. Mobile apps, messaging services, online games, and smart devices all use the internet but do not have a presence on the World Wide Web.


Since the 1960s, The Internet Has Existed

While most people are familiar with the internet because of the World Wide Web's popularity in the 1990s, it has been there since 1969. The internet's foundation, known as ARPANET, began as a network between only four universities: UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah.

New protocols for "internetworking" were adopted as new networks popped up and wished to link to one other. The entire network became known simply as "the internet" as talks of internet protocols, and internet transmission became increasingly prominent.

 

Our Data Does Not Follow a Straight Line Because Of The Cold War

While the internet is similar to traditional telephone networks in many respects, accessing a website does not provide you with a direct line to the server. The server, on the other hand, sends packets in all directions.

Because each packet contains the destination's IP address, routers across the internet will attempt to find a path to that address. Because containers can travel in any direction between your device and the server, they frequently arrive out of order and must be processed before your data can be rebuilt.

During the Cold War, the concept of packet switching was born. It was created to create a completely decentralized communication system immune to nuclear attacks. A packet-switching network has no central hubs. Hence it can continue to function even if huge chunks of the network are destroyed.


DSL Isn't As Old As Fiber-Optic Technology

Fiber is the most dependable and fastest way to connect to the internet. Fiber-to-the-home has only recently become popular, and ISPs are scrambling to keep up with demand by expanding their fiber offers.

Fiber, surprisingly, is a relatively new technology. Fiber-optic communication was first used commercially in the 1970s, almost 20 years before DSL became a high-speed alternative to dial-up internet connections. Much of the internet's essential infrastructure was already employing fiber-optics at this point, but most homes and businesses were still using slower DSL and dial-up connections.

Fiber now reaches people's houses, which is a significant improvement. While DSL and cable are going their physical limits in terms of data transmission speed, fiber still has a lot of untapped potentials. It's been the finest for nearly 50 years, and there's no sign of it changing anytime soon.

 

Because Satellite Internet Travels at The Speed of Light, It Is Slow

Unfortunately, when looking at things on an astronomical scale, the speed of light isn't that rapid. Geosynchronous satellites, such as those used for satellite internet, orbit 35,786 kilometers above the earth's surface.

Although light travels 31 percent slower in fiber than in vacuum, it gets your data to its destination faster. A signal sent by fiber may only go a few hundred kilometers. In contrast, a satellite signal will always travel tens of thousands of miles, regardless of the location of the server you're connecting to.

It takes 239 milliseconds for a signal to travel there and back—and that's just one leg of the voyage. Satellite connections have a high delay because of this. It's also why low-Earth satellite constellations like Starlink have the potential to improve satellite internet speeds significantly.

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