Home Technology Tips – 2024

This post provides some simple home technology tips for people who may be having difficulty with their home internet or WIFI system or mobile devices. We hope that you find it informative and useful. If you have any questions about home technology, please call TE Reliable Home Services at 941.313.2254 for help.

Mobile Device Tips For Better Home Technology

Mobile phone service in southwestern Florida is spotty as you move inland, away from the coast. Phone companies have not been able to keep pace with new development. The result is that you may not have service at any given time, which can be quite annoying. Sometimes, the poor cellular reception extends to emergency 911 services, which can be a significant safety issue.

If you find yourself in the above situation, here are some tips to mitigate the problem:

Use the WI-FI Calling Feature on Your Phone

Both Android and Apple (IOS) phones have a feature in the Settings section of the phone, called Wi-Fi Calling. This enables your mobile phone to utilize your home WIFI network to make and receive high quality phone calls via a technology, called VOIP or voice over internet protocol. Simply put, when you talk on a mobile phone, your voice is digitized. With Wi-Fi Calling, the digital signal is sent and received via the internet, instead of using a cell tower. The beauty of this feature is that it’s completely free. Keep in mind that the feature will only work when you’re in range of Wi-Fi, which means that you’ll likely not be able to use it outside of your home.

Force your phone to use the nearest cell tower

When you travel, your mobile phone automatically jumps from cell tower to cell tower, providing you with the best reception. Sometimes, the technology doesn’t always jump, causing you to have a weak signal or no signal at all. An easy fix to address this is to go into the Settings for your mobile phone and put your phone into airplane mode for 10-15 seconds and then turn airplane mode back off. This will force your phone to reacquire a signal from the nearest tower.

Use a mobile device signal booster

Mobile device signal boosters are widely available from online retailers, like Amazon. These boosters can significantly amplify a weak cell signal so that you no longer have interrupted or dropped calls. The booster typically has so sort of antenna which is mounted outside of your house or condo and some additional hardware inside your house or condo to transmit the amplified signal to your phone. Depending on the device and the construction of your home, you may be able to install the device yourself.

WIFI Tips For Better Home Technology

A good, strong WIFI signal is increasingly critical for almost everything that we do at home. Home electronics, like the Nest Thermostat or the Ring Doorbell, rely on WIFI to provide updates to you, informing you about AC issues or packages on your doorstep. Great WIFI is also critical for watching any streaming video or listening to any streaming audio. And we all rely on great internet access via WIFI to look at our email, browse the internet, or look at the latest Facebook postings.

If you change internet providers, do not change your WIFI ID

Many people are ‘cutting the cord’ and switching from their previous internet & cable provider to a lower cost alternative. If you do that, DO NOT change your WIFI ID. When you change your WIFI ID, you’ll need to completely reconnect all of the electronic devices in your home to your new WIFI network. That would include your thermostat, your video doorbell, your cameras, your mobile devices, your TV’s, etc. In some case, reconnection is easy. In other cases, you may need to do a factory reset to erase the previous network ID.

If you ‘cut the cord’, carefully consider your new video provider alternatives

OK, you have made the decision to save some money and ‘cut the cord’. That’s great, but take a few minutes to think about how you’re going to access your favorite video programming. Why? Because now you’re streaming video instead of receiving it through a cable. You’re now purchasing access to video separately from your internet services. There are countless alternatives for video content providers. For example, you might use YouTube TV, which provides access to local TV channels and popular national video channels. Or, you might subscribe to Netflix, which is a provider with many TV shows and movies. The point is that when you total up your monthly bill for internet services plus all of the video services you use, make sure that you’re actually saving money.

Make sure that your WIFI network is robust

Most people have a single WIFI router which receives the signal from the internet provider and creates a WIFI network in your home. Depending on the location of the router, the strength of the WIFI signal at the other end of the house, may not be very strong, significantly impacting your experience. This is likely a problem in larger homes and homes with a large number of connected devices. To fix this, you may need a WIFI extender or you may need a mesh network. An extender is a hardware device that connects with your existing WIFI network to extend the network. An extender is an easy fix if you only need to improve your network strength in a single part of the house. A mesh network is an advanced technology that uses multiple devices around your house to create a ‘mesh’ to ensure that WIFI is always strong, all the time.

Contact TE Reliable if you need help with Home Technology

TE Reliable Home Tech is available if you have questions or need help. Call us at 941.313.2254.