There was a time when the internet was a fascinating concept. Literally, it meant interconnected network and that was all. Before the possibilities of the interconnected network were explored and eventually expanded, you got one cable: the Ethernet cable that plugged into your massive desktop computer. And to do so, you had to unplug off all other communication to your house.

Fortunately, things changed, computers got smaller and portable and so did the internet. Let’s get a deeper insight into the history of the internet and how our way of living has changed because of it:

Dial up connection:

The beginning of the internet was complicated. If you had a landline connection in your house, you had to use the same cable to plug into your computer to get on the internet. The caveats were plenty: disconnection in the landline and therefore defunct; expensive internet data, not to mention the whole thing was slow!

However, what this internet brought was a completely different way of communication. Online communities were born and it gave rise to the internet culture. People met in chat rooms, developed relationships, and networked with like-minded people.

Modem-router connection:

Once the internet established a place in houses, the attempt was to make it simpler, better and more accessible to as many people as possible.

This change came alongside the miniaturization of computers. They became more portable in the form of laptops which became more accessible by the general public. People started knowing how to plug in an Ethernet cable to get on the internet.

This meant that people also started putting things on the internet like music, movies, books, information of all kinds, etc. This brought a disruption in not only the technology but also in a variety of other industries.

Doing homework for kids was easier, communicating with someone across the globe was far cheaper and seamless than before. Most of all, this was not limited to offices and didn’t require a deep understanding of technology. It was for the average consumer.

WIFI:

The next shift came with the invention of the Wireless network. Once laptops became popular, it was unpopular to sit in a place just to use it. Wi-Fi made moving around with a laptop, while still using the internet, possible. You still had to connect your modem or router to the internet line in the house via an Ethernet cable, but at least you were free to move around.

Since anything wired has better connectivity than wireless, this required improvements to the cables in use. The wiring in the houses had to be with better, newer Ethernet cables, like the cat4, cat5, cat5e cable, and cat 6a cable. The latest one was enough for all industries to leverage the internet.

Now that the basics are covered and we are moving towards constant connectivity, streaming high-resolution movies and games, and cloud architecture, the demands of the average user’s internet have shifted again.

The wiring in the houses needs to be with cat 7 cable or cat 8 ethernet cable, and you also need to use that on your routers and modems. Even if your house doesn’t need this advanced speed, if you are rewiring the house, it is better to future proof it.

Mesh WIFI:

The next best thing to happen to consumer accessible internet, since Wi-Fi was mesh network Wi-Fi. Its main use is to eliminate Wi-Fi dead zones that can happen in a house. The bigger your house, the more difficult it is to get decent Wi-Fi coverage in all parts of it.

With the mesh Wi-Fi system connected to a cat 7 cable or a cat 8 ethernet cable, you can experience seamless internet connectivity in all areas of your house. Not only that, but your device will also be handed off from one node or zone to another as you move through the house.

If you use the internet only on your phones and laptops, you can make do with cat5e cable and cat 6a cable, but if you want to turn your home into a smart home that has multiple IoT devices that need to run on fast internet, you should splurge for the more expensive, top tire Ethernet cables.

Last Words

The coming enhancement of the internet is 5G connectivity. It promises almost no lag and negligible ping time in the cloud-computing era that we currently live in. But it is still a couple of years out. So, if you want to get the best internet experience right now, you can do so by upgrading your cables, and devices.

When it comes to consumer technology there is always a balance you need to find: use what’s most comfortable for you while also making sure that the device you are buying is future proof for at least more than a couple of years.

5G connectivity will change the internet and once again, the way we use it. For the foreseeable future, Ethernet cables are here to stay and therefore we’ve stocked them at SF Cable. Browse from our wide selection, and contact us if you need more information about which cable is right for your use.

Source: https://www.sfcable.com/blog/brief-history-internet/

Ethernet cables are one of the most important elements of any electric system. If they don’t work properly, the rest of the network would become nonfunctioning. Any type of disruption would make faulty Ethernet Cable’s performance slow.

Today we will be checking out some of the signs that indicate if your cable is performing up to the standard or not.

It Often Loses Connection

If you plug the cable into the Ethernet adapter and the light doesn't turn on, it could indicate a problem either with the cable or the adapter. Also, if you are seeing display messages like ‘network connection is lost’ or ‘no connection’, then something’s wrong with the system’s ethernet cable. In such cases, make sure that you’ve connected the cable properly. Otherwise, a bad cable will not work even if properly connected.

You Always Have Slow Connection

If your connection keeps dropping or runs very slowly, there are chances that you have a damaged cable. If there is a tear on your cable, it can break down the internal wire connection and can cause a short circuit. If you find a bent cable, try straightening it with your hands. In case it is too beat up, you will need to replace it.

Connection Restored With A Wiggle

Wiggling the cable re-establishes a failed connection. If you do this too often, it also means that you have a broken connector on your hands. Ethernet cables have a built-in plastic lever that secures the cable into place within the Ethernet adapter port. If this lever breaks, the connection will drop.

Do You Keep Replacing Them?

This is the ultimate sign that you need to check your network ecosystem. If replacing the ethernet cable eliminates the problem, then it’s well and good. But if the same problem persists with the new cable, the problem relates to the network. There could be some malfunction happening.

In such cases, there are three types of network cable issues you should look for:

Testing Connectivity Issues

These issues are majorly because of a faulty cable. Consider taking a quick test to check the connectivity. To check, try plugging the suspected cable into the network device or network connector of another computer. Typically, the jack you plug the cable into is the part of a network adapter. It provides the interface between a computer/ network device and the network cable.

These adapters have one or two LED lights which state that an established connection exists and transmission is happening on the line. After you plug the cable into the network adapter, the link LED should be on to indicate a connection. If it doesn't light up or flash, there might be a problem with the cable or its connector, or both of them.

Testing Performance Issues

If your connection is failing or transmitting data at much slower speeds, you have performance-related issues. This happens generally due to a damaged or bent cable. Usually, you can straighten a bent cable to solve the problem. And if the problem persists, you might have to replace the damaged cable.

To troubleshoot, visually scan the length of the cable and look for sharp bends, kinks, or other physical faults in the cable. If you find a sharp bend or kink in the cable, straighten the cable and check if the problem is solved.

Before replacing it make sure to shake the cable lightly at the connector side to see if the connection can be re-established. If so, then the problem is with the connector. Which also means that you need to repair or replace the entire cable.

Testing Continuity Issues

If there are any faulty connectors, bends in a cable, continuity issues can occur. They can also occur by a cut or a sliced cable, any kind of penetration by objects like a nail, staple, screw, etc. or electromagnetic interference. If you can visually scan the cable length, check for any of these causes. If not, test it with a continuity tester. An electronic device is specially made for this purpose. Such a device can help detect problems caused by EMI, or radio frequency interference.

Still Got Problems?

Even after doing all this if your network keeps failing, it is very likely that issues are with local network configuration, one or more of the network connectivity devices. Like adapters, switches, routers, and so on. Such faults will require a higher level of troubleshooting.

If you are looking to buy new ethernet cables, you can navigate to our ethernet networking cables page from here. From Cat 5E cable, Cat6A cable to Cat 8 cable, we have all the cables to fulfill your requirements.

Constantly getting bugged by the lost signal? Then here’s a guide to help you identify and solve the problems with your ethernet cables.

When your internet speed is slow, you start blaming the game. But it is important to find out the root cause behind that. Today, we are here with a list of solutions which you can apply to achieve an ideal internet set up rendering high-speed data.

Here’s how you can increase the internet speed:

There is a smart way of doing that. Find out the mobile service provider which would give you the fastest service at your preferred locations. Gather a group of friends with various mobile devices and perform a speed test together. You can even organize a speed test meet up where you can visit your friend’s house turn by turn. Note that, it is important to restart the Wi-Fi connection before you run the test. You can achieve faster speeds by even switching the service providers with each other.

You can run the speed tests in the areas where you use Wi-Fi to find out if it’s a dead spot. If you encounter a problem at that particular place, mark it as a dead spot, and you can try moving your router and run the test again to see if the problem is still there. A mesh system like Google Wi-Fi will be a better solution if you can’t move the router to at a better position.

When you are looking to improve the internet speed, the first thing you can try doing is adjusting the antennas on the router. You can try experimenting with various configurations to check the signal strength after each change you make. Sometimes, adjusting antennas can boost the signals. Also, when repositioning the router, it is important that it stays near a phone socket. But sometimes even moving the router from the floor to a chair or table can make a difference.

Most of the internet connection tend to provide faster download than upload speed. So, if your speed is not working so well, it is wise to check the browser history. Since requests from your computer for multiple elements of a page might be stuck in the upload queue.

Major applications which can hammer your systems are the torrent programs. Hence, if you have recently downloaded a torrent, it will automatically limit the uploading for others until you remove the request manually. Even the recent upload of a bunch of home videos into Dropbox can put a strain to your upstream for quite a while. The best way to solve this is by setting upload caps within the individual applications. Check the upload speed and set a cap for about half the reported figure.

Ads are annoying. Plus, they can bog down the internet experience. Especially, when you have a slow connection to go with. Ads fetch more data from multiple servers. Plus, it requires a longer wait before the webpage loads. Hence, it is advisable to look for the ad blockers. Cutting the amount of data sent to your computer by blocking ads can boost the browsing speeds and makes the internet experience more bearable.

Wi-Fi has become a must-have. Since everyone uses WIFI these days, it encourages the use of sending information wirelessly. Which is overwhelming at some point. This could be a big problem in some places where everyone is using wireless devices. All the traffic would create congestion that slows down your internet speed. To get rid of that problem, you can use an ethernet cable which you need to connect to your router. Using Shielded Cat6 cable, or any other suitable Ethernet cable would make internet work faster and achieve maximum speeds.

Even after trying all these, still, your internet connection seems slow then there are possibilities that the problem may lie in your ISP or router. You can connect a device like a laptop directly to the router with an ethernet cable and run a speed test. Disconnect the cable and run the test again. Remember, that the Wi-Fi will always be a little slow, but if the difference between the two tests is larger, the router is probably the problem. If there is not much difference between the two tests, your ISP is the culprit.

Sometimes ISPs limits your internet speed. Often, they do so because you might have hit a certain data cap. At many points, they target video websites, streaming services since they consume a lot of bandwidth. With that said, if you are dealing with throttling, a VPN can help by redirecting your traffic so that your ISP can not identify. Switching to a VPN won’t increase the speed beyond the maximum limits, but, in many cases, it can resolve bandwidth throttling.

There are various ways you can make good use of your internet services by increasing its speed and capabilities.

In the meantime, you can check out the Shielded Cat6 cables over here which will help you enhance the internet speed.

This Blog post is Originally posted here; https://www.sfcable.com/blog/how-improve-internet-speed/

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