Ever thought about ‘cutting the cord’ of traditional cable? Back in the day, the only way to access channels beyond your TV antenna was traditional cable. The cable company would come to your house, hook up your box, and hope for the best. It was expensive, and you often paid for channels you didn’t actually want, but they weren’t any other choices available. With internet streaming on the rise, the traditional cable TV monopoly is losing its footing. In 2020, an estimated 44.3 million households have ditched regular cable for streaming services, and most of them say they aren’t missing out on anything. With new streaming services coming out every month, there’s no better time to cut the cord on cable. But where do you start? What is streaming? ‘Streaming’, in video terms, can be two things: on-demand streaming or live streaming. On-demand streaming gives you the freedom to watch your shows whenever you want, without worrying about your schedule getting in the way or remembering to set a show to record. Services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, and AppleTV are just some of the most popular on-demand streaming platforms. When looking to change up your TV routine, look at what you most want to watch. Not all shows are available on all platforms, and a lot of platforms also produce their own exclusive content that will never air on live, traditional cable. Make sure your favorites are available on your chosen platform! Live streaming platforms are more similar to traditional cable with live channels. One of the top selling points of live streaming platforms like fuboTV and Sling is that they have access to live sports. Other platforms like Hulu are a hybrid of both, with on-demand and live content available, depending on the plan you choose. Streaming Devices Once you decide to cut the cord, you’ll need a streaming device to connect your TV to your new streaming service. If you’ve already invested in a Smart TV, you’re all set! But if you’re looking for a way to connect, you have a couple of options. The first option is to use a device you already have, like a gaming system. Newer consoles like Xbox and Playstation have apps available for most major streaming services. Other options include the Amazon Firestick, Apple TV, Roku, and Google Chromecast. These devices connect to your tv either by USB or HDMI, so be sure to check what will work with your TV. Roku won best streaming device from ‘cnet’ this year for its variety of available streaming apps, simple interface and easy search feature. Roku isn’t made by a streaming service, so they don’t have any particular loyalties either. There are several different Roku devices to choose from, so there’s probably an option for you! Google TV’s Chromecast device was rated second-best overall, Apple TV 4k got the top spot for Ultra HD streaming, and the Amazon Fire TV Stick was rated the best budget option. Check Your Internet Speed Now that you’re ready to cut the cord, you need to check your internet speed. Faster internet means less buffering and pausing while watching your new streaming service. Most services have their own recommendations, but the faster the better. For example, Hulu recommends 16 mbps for high quality, 4k content, but only 4 mbps for regular HD. Netflix’s recommendations are similar, 25 mbps for 4k and 5 mbps for regular 1080p. However, you can manually adjust these in your streaming settings, but it may affect the image quality. If you’re on a plan that includes a data cap, be on the look out for those as well. If you spend a lot of time on your streaming service, you may need to raise your cap, or look for a reliable, high speed, wireless, non-data capped provider like Wisper! If you’re already a Wisper customer, you can check your speed anytime on our website or Wisper Home app, and check with our team if there are higher speeds available in your area. So if you’re interested in cutting the cord on your cable provider, whether you’re looking to cut down on your monthly expenses or just looking for new things to watch, take some time to research different live streaming and on-demand services…. Read More

Does this sound familiar? You’re on a Zoom call in your home office, maybe in the middle of a presentation, when suddenly everything freezes and your call is dropped. How about working on a spreadsheet online when your internet crashes and your work is lost? If you’re working from home, this can be incredibly frustrating! Most of these issues get blamed on the wifi, and rightly so. If your connection is slow or jumpy, it can kick you off or refuse to connect at all. For most of us working from home, wifi has become the most essential accessory in our homes, but how do you get the most out of your wifi? Of course, choosing an internet provider you can count on makes a huge difference. Check to see if Wisper is available in your area! Plugging directly into the router would solve most connection problems, but what if that’s not an option? Here’s a couple easy ways to get the most out of your wifi. Router Positioning It’s not always possible to plug right into your ethernet, and that can make it difficult to get a steady connection. One way to make connecting a little bit easier is to pay attention to the position of your router. Sometimes just a small shift can make a world of difference. Choose a central location – Router positioning is often limited by the location of your wires, but if you can, try to pick a spot in your house that is in the hub of your home. Don’t forget to check how many walls your signal has to pass through to get your devices. The closer you can get to the most popular wifi access points, the easier your router’s job will be. Clear the way – Is there anything in front of your router? It might seem silly, but something as small as a book or a lamp can affect the strength of your signal from the router. High vs Low – Is your router closer to the floor, or the ceiling? Keeping your router up higher on a shelf or table makes it easier to create a clear line of sight to your devices and strengthen your signal. Antennas – If your router has an external antenna, don’t be afraid to move it! For example, setting antennas at either a 45-degree diagonal or parallel to the floor will work the best for a two-story house. Free up Your Bandwidth Are you trying to spread your signal too thin? Sometimes just one application can suck up all of your available bandwidth and slow down your connection. Things like downloads, streaming, and gaming all take up an enormous amount of your wifi capabilities. If you’re having trouble staying connected during work hours, take a look at what else is going on in your home. Are the kids playing video games in their rooms? Is your significant other streaming Netflix upstairs? Setting a schedule of who can use what and when can really help open up your bandwidth. Cutting down on multitasking can also make a difference. It’s tempting to watch a video in the background while getting your work done, but this can create a pretty significant slow down. You can also make sure the kids are offline by a certain time using systems like profiles and parental controls. Signal Boosters If you want to get really serious, signal boosters, or wifi extenders, might be a good investment. Boosters work by grabbing your wifi signal from another room and amplifying it, before projecting it back to the room that you’re in. So if your office space is in the back of the house or on a different floor, placing a booster near your device can help create a stronger signal and keep you from cutting out. For Wisper in particular, we recommend mesh wifi extenders, but there’s plenty of options out there. Wifi extenders connect to your internet via wifi, and can be plugged in just about anywhere to amplify your signal. This creates two separate networks within your home, so you can choose to connect to the one that is strongest in different areas of your home. You can connect your living room smart tv to the original network on the main floor, but keep your office devices on the extended network when working upstairs. Mesh wifi works by creating a single, seamless network. Mesh networks use multiple devices, or ‘nodes’, placed strategically around the house to amplify your overall signal. Your devices will automatically connect to the nearest node, essentially eliminating any dead spots. Mesh systems tend to be more reliable and don’t require you to switch between networks when connecting in different parts of the house. They can also be useful for offices, schools, or if you have multiple people working from home or online learning.  … Read More

“Don’t talk to strangers on the internet, they’ll try to kidnap you!” As kids who grew up at the same time that the internet was coming into its own, we heard things like this constantly from our parents. Don’t put your real name on the internet, never give out personal information, and don’t respond to requests from people you don’t know in real life. A lot of us ignored that advice and spent a lot of time in chat rooms telling complete strangers our A/S/L (age/sex/location), or at least pretending to. There were no parental controls, no ‘safe search’ settings, and pop-ups were a constant annoyance. We chatted with strangers on AIM and made internet friends on Myspace, thinking we were old enough to stay out of trouble. Kids these days are often given an iPad before they take their first steps. They grow up taking technology for granted as a part of everyday life. So how do you teach them about internet safety and making good choices online? Parents turn to parental controls to keep their kids away from potential internet threats. Types of Parental Controls So where do you start? There’s a couple of different types of parental controls to look at when setting restrictions for your kids. Filtering and blocking restrictions limit access to specific websites, and filter out certain words or images. Kids search for some crazy things, and can easily stray into the less kid-friendly parts of the internet. Options like Safe Search keep potentially unsafe content from showing up in the first place. Blocking outgoing content helps keep your kids from putting sensitive or personal information out online. Once it’s online, you can’t get it back, and being able to keep them from sharing it can save you a lot of headaches. Time Limits let you determine how long your kids should be online for, and at what times of the day. Even adults have a hard time limiting our screen time, how can we expect our kids to? Setting and discussing time limits helps avoid the “five more minutes” fight and gives kids a chance to decide when and how they want to spend their screen time. Monitoring tools allow your kids to explore online, but keep you informed on where they’re going and what they’re looking at. We want to be able to trust our kids, but it never hurts to keep an eye on them, especially online. Monitoring tools can send you alerts when your kids venture out of the kind-friendly realm, or help you keep track of what they’re posting on social media. These settings can be made directly on phones or tablets, through your mobile provider, or in our case, your wireless provider! Our Wisper Home App and Wisper Care Plan allow you to set filters, block content, and make changes from your phone. It also alerts you any time a child’s profile attempts to get past the controls. You can apply them to TV’s, laptops, or any device that connects to the internet. Talk to Your Kids About Internet Safety In addition to restricting content, it’s important to teach children how to navigate the internet to help stop problems before they happen. Careful What You Share: Information that gets put out online stays online, so it’s important to show kids how ‘oversharing’ can happen and why it can be bad. Setting family guidelines about what information is ok to share helps set rules for kids to follow. As an example, try googling yourself and looking at the results together. Maybe your high school honor roll comes up, or maybe your resume, but whatever it is, be sure to point out how it got there, and how easy it was to find. Phishing for Information: Children and older adults are the top targets for phishing attempts, but children don’t know how to look for sketchy email addresses or grammatical mistakes. By teaching them to recognize common scams, like someone asking for credit card information, you can prevent your data from falling into the wrong hands. Password Creation: Silly passwords are fun and easy to make, but they aren’t usually secure. A password like ‘ihateschool’ is easy for hackers to break, and even hidden or private information can be revealed. Having a base password like A@ronS! (Aaron’s) with a specific detail to determine which account it belongs to, like A@ronS!T@b (Aaron’s Tablet) help’s keep passwords strong but easy to remember. And don’t forget to log out of devices and accounts when you’re done! This will keep friends and siblings from posting embarrassing statuses or releasing information. Questions? Talk about it!: If your kids find anything online that they aren’t sure about or that makes them uncomfortable, they can come to you. Walk them through what they found, and it’s not appropriate, figure out how to stay away from it in the future. The internet is a fun, educational place for kids to explore and learn, but it can quickly turn dangerous. Parental controls help limit the content your kids can access and keep them from sharing personal information online. Once you’ve decided what kind of limits you want to set, don’t forget to talk to your kids about why you put the controls in place! Teaching them safe internet practices build a strong foundation of internet-savvy to build onto as they get older and restrictions change. Whatever route you choose to take with parental controls, keeping your kids safe online is always the top priority!… Read More

Today there are several ways to get an Internet connection. Families rely on it more than ever for homework, work, entertainment, and to stay connected. Many are familiar with traditional Internet options such as Dial-Up, DSL, Cable, Fiber-Optic, and Satellite. However, fixed wireless is a new name in the game. It is gaining more and more attention as a valuable alternative Internet option. What is Fixed Wireless? Fixed wireless is another way to receive broadband Internet. Users are connected using radio signals, and no cables are needed. Wireless Internet avoids costly, time consuming inground fiber installations. This allows the wireless Internet service provider (WISP) operator to get service where it is needed much faster! It also saves the customer money! It is more common in rural communities where other providers won’t go. It is fast and consistent with unlimited data, which is perfect for streaming all your favorite shows. How Does it Work? How it works is really pretty simple. A wireless broadband provider mounts a radio outside of your home and aims it at a nearby structure. Structures include towers, water towers, grain bin elevators, poles, etc. The structure and the radio securely send and receive your Internet content. A wireless radio (CPE) is installed on the outside of the home. From the outside radio, a cable is run into your home, along with a wireless router. This allows you to connect your wired and wireless devices to the Internet, so everyone in your home can get online. How Does Wireless Compare To Satellite, DSL, Cable, And Fiber-Optics? Satellite: Most satellites are floating in orbit between 100 and 24,000 miles away. That’s how far your data is traveling – so latency (the delay between the signal being sent and reaching its destination) is going to be much higher than just about any other option. By comparison, your nearest Wisper tower will be less than 5 miles from your house. Wisper latency times (i.e. 30ms) are a fraction of that of satellite (i.e. 400ms). Customers who switch from Satellite to Wisper are often amazed by the improvement in Internet speed and reliability. Unlike Satellite, weather does not affect Wisper service. DSL: Only available in towns, or within a certain distance to the DSL Central Office. Usually requires a phone line, so bundling with phone is usually required. Most DSL speeds are between 1 and 3 Mbps. Beware – the older the phone lines in your town or neighborhood, the slower and less reliable your DSL Internet connection can be. If you are looking to cancel your landline telephone and get Internet only, or you want more speed than DSL can provide, Wisper could be your solution. Cable: It can be very fast. Cable providers rank highest on lists of companies with the worst customer service. Wisper’s speeds are comparable to cable, and customers enjoy local, friendly, and knowledgeable support. Fiber: It can be the fastest – but it’s not always. Providers can vary a lot – from the speeds they offer and how much they charge, to how long it takes to repair a cut fiber line and restore an outage. It’s not available everywhere, so if you have the option to choose fiber, you might want to look into it if speed is important to you. Does Weather Affect Wisper Internet? Unlike satellite, which can lose signal during heavy rain, weather does not typically affect the wireless signal. There are some exceptions to this, such as, severe storms and ice. Lightening can sometimes damage tower equipment. Wisper monitors the network 24/7, so tower techs know when there is an outage and can work quickly to restore service at all hours. Ice buildup can affect a specific type of antenna called a Yagi. This is the long, skinny, pronged antenna that is only used in areas with no line-of-sight to the tower. Is Fixed Wireless for Me? If your current internet providers are limited and not offering the speeds you need, it may be time to look into a fixed wireless solution. Service is fast and consistent with unlimited data which is perfect for streaming all your favorite shows. Check to see if it is available in your area! About Wisper Internet The idea of connecting others started when a friend didn’t have Internet access at his business. Therefore, Nathan Stooke accepted the challenge. It took a little research, a few maxed out credit cards, and hard work. After that, Wisper Internet was born. Wisper thrives by bridging the gap in rural America with fast Internet. In other words, we help you connect and create opportunities in your community. Headquartered in Mascoutah, Illinois, our team is known for problem-solving, and spot-on customer service. Above all we have an ever-growing staff, which means you can now find us across Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. To sum up, we are here to help you.  … Read More