9 Steps to Set Up Your Home Fiber Optic Network
Here’s a fact. The internet is getting faster. Technology has a way of doing that. In most reports, that’s a good thing. The downside is that your current online connection will seem slower unless you find a more robust connection that allows you to keep up.
If you’re talking about internet connection upgrades, it only means one thing — fiber optic networks. Fiber internet is faster, safer, and more efficient than any other type of internet around. Unfortunately, it is not widely available yet.
But it will be one day. Who knows? Maybe you’re among the lucky few 25% of Americans already have fiber connection access. Either way, we dare you not to keep reading.
What You Need to Know About Fiber Optic Internet
Fiber is considered to be both the present and future of broadband internet. It’s the present because already around one-fourth of US internet users have access to it. It’s the future because it is a completely new redesign requiring a unique infrastructure different from what has been before.
The materials used and the way they work seem almost like science fiction. While we wouldn’t be foolhardy enough to say that there will be never be a faster type of internet, it’s hard to imagine it from where we stand.
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So what is it that’s so special about fiber optic?
Defining Fiber Optic Internet
Fiber optic internet is a type of data cable filled with thin glass or plastic fibers. Rather than the copper wires that serve as the backbone of traditional internet types like DSL and cable, fiber uses flashes of light beamed along the fibers to carry the data.
The bottom line of all this technology improvement is that it results in an internet speed for the user that is about 20 times faster than anything that has come before. That’s why everyone is so interested in fiber connections.
What’s so great about the miraculous fibers that power this new broadband? We’ve already mentioned that they are faster. The reason is that copper-based technology needs an electrical signal in order to operate and tends to pick up interference. This means the signal degrades as it goes.
Glass fiber, on the other hand, needs no electrical current to operate. The light flashes along the fibers are subject to almost no signal degradation, thus going much farther and faster. You can expect speeds of 1 to 2 Gbps from fiber in raw numbers.
Additional benefits include:
• No ISP throttling because bandwidth is almost limitless
• Same speed for uploads and downloads
• Many more multiples of devices can be used without noticeable slowing of speed
