The Power of Local: 5 Reasons to Choose a Local ISP Provider Over a Big Box Company

The Power of Local: 5 Reasons to Choose a Local ISP Provider Over a Big Box Company

In the digital age, having a reliable and fast internet connection is essential for both individuals and businesses. When it comes to selecting an Internet Service Provider (ISP), many people tend to gravitate towards well-known big box companies. However, in this blog post, we’ll explore the advantages of choosing a local ISP provider over a large corporate entity. From personalized customer service to supporting your community, opting for a local ISP can offer a host of benefits that go beyond just internet connectivity.

1. Personalized Customer Service

One of the most significant advantages of choosing a local ISP provider is the level of personalized customer service you can expect. Unlike big box companies, local ISPs prioritize customer satisfaction and are invested in building long-term relationships with their clients. When you call a local provider, you’re more likely to speak directly to a knowledgeable representative who can address your concerns promptly and efficiently. This personalized approach ensures a smoother experience when resolving technical issues or making changes to your service.

2. Faster Response Times

With a local ISP, you can enjoy faster response times when you need assistance. Big box companies often handle an overwhelming number of customer inquiries, leading to longer wait times and delayed resolutions. Local ISPs, on the other hand, operate on a smaller scale, enabling them to respond quickly to service outages or technical problems.

3. Tailored Internet Solutions

Local ISPs understand the unique needs of their community and can tailor their internet solutions accordingly. Whether it’s offering packages optimized for small businesses, flexible plans for individual users, or accommodating specialized requirements, local providers are more adaptable to meet their customers’ specific demands. This level of customization ensures that you receive the services that best suit your needs and budget.

4. Better Network Performance

While big box companies may have a wider reach, local ISPs can offer better network performance in their respective service areas. Since they serve a smaller customer base, local providers can allocate more resources to ensure stable and fast internet connections. This results in reduced latency, improved download and upload speeds, and overall better performance compared to big box companies, where network congestion may be more prevalent.

5. Support for Local Economy

Choosing a local ISP provider also means contributing to the growth of your community and supporting the local economy. These companies are often small to medium-sized businesses that create job opportunities within the community. By investing in their services, you help stimulate economic development and foster a sense of pride in your area.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing an Internet Service Provider, the benefits of going local go far beyond just internet connectivity. Personalized customer service, faster response times, support for the local economy, tailored internet solutions, and better network performance are compelling reasons to consider a local ISP provider over a big box company.

By making the switch to a local ISP, you can enjoy a more positive and efficient internet experience while knowing that your decision supports local businesses and the community. So, the next time you’re in the market for internet services, consider looking beyond the big names and explore the hidden gems of your local ISP providers – you may just find the perfect fit for your needs.

How Does Wireless Internet, or Line of Sight Internet Work?

How Does Wireless Internet, or Line of Sight Internet Work?

Salmon Bay Wireless is a Wireless Internet Provider.  What do we mean by Wireless Internet?

Wireless Internet is a pretty simple concept.  But most of us don’t know how it works. It has a lot of moving parts like Fresnel zones, Wifi Protocols, MIMO multipaths, mesh, TDMA, and extenders.  In this blog post I will explain what each of these is in relation to a wireless internet system.

The most simple definition of Wireless Internet is an internet system that doesn’t rely on signals through a wire.  A wireless internet system relies on signals that travel through the air.  Wireless Internet is also referred to line of sight internet.

Think about this in relation to telephones.  In the old days, we relied on phones that were hooked onto a wall and required wires.  Now we have cell phones that can go anywhere, due to towers and satellites in space.

Line of sight Wireless internet is an alternative to internet provided by wires or cables. Line of sight internet requires an unobstructed path from the wireless transmitter to the wireless receiver.  Trees, buildings, and hills make it difficult to establish a line of sight signal. 

How does line of sight internet work exactly?  It’s complicated.

Wireless internet uses IEEE 802.11 technical standard or protocol.  IEEE8 02.11  is used in most home and office networks to allow laptops, printers, smartphones, and other devices to communicate with each other and access the Internet without connecting wires.  For example, printing from a computer to a wireless printer is made possible by IEE802.11 computer protocol or standard.

Line of sight internet signals have something called the Fresnel zone.  This is the area that surrounds the visual line of sight.  Once the radio waves leave the antenna they expand into this area – the Fresnel Zone.  This means to get a strong signal you will need a clear line of sight.  This clear line of sight ensures a strong signal strength.  If there is 20% or more signal blockage in the Fresnel zone, there will be a lot of difficulty establishing a wireless internet link with a strong signal.

To increase this signal, wireless internet uses range extenders, also known as wireless repeaters, to take these radio signals and relay them to another network.  

If there are multiple devices like a computer and a printer, for example, that need to be connected, a wireless extender can push the radio signal over a distance to make this possible. 

Think about using your computer in one room, and having your wireless printer in a different room – separated by walls.  The wireless signal may not be strong enough to reach that printer because of those walls.  An extender or repeater can extend the wireless internet signal to the other room, making it possible to print on that wireless printer.

Once again, this relies on IEEE 802.11 technology protocols.  The extenders bridge the gap between devices.  Wireless extenders should be protected with passwords.

Below is a table of different Wi-Fi Protocols and Data Rates.  802.11 is the standard protocol for wireless internet.  802.11n is the fastest and has the most flexibility regarding frequency.

 

Protocol

Frequency

Maximum data rate (theoretical)

802.11g

2.4 GHz

54 Mbps

802.11a

5 GHz

54 Mbps

802.11b

2.4 GHz

11 Mbps

Legacy 802.11

 

802.11n

2.4 GHz

 

2.4 & 5 GHz

2 Mbps

 

450 Mbps

 

Wireless Wifi relies on something called Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO). This allows many transmitters and receivers to transfer a lot of data all at once. All wireless products with 802.11n support MIMO. This technology helps allow 802.11n to reach higher speeds than products without 802.11n, as shown on the table above.

MIMO relies on multipath technology.  Multipath is the natural way that radio waves behave when they are transmitted.  With multipath technology, radio waves will ricochet around off walls, the ceiling, and even objects.  The antenna receives these multipath signals from different angles and at different times.  

This behavior by radio waves used to slow down the radio signals, but with MIMO and multipath technology this bouncy behavior actually increases the speed and range of the radio waves.  

Ubiquiti Networks, an American technology company, uses the TDMA system.  TDMA stands for the TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) protocol.  This protocol prevents noise during radio transmission and outperforms traditional 802.11 protocol based networks.  

The TDMA protocol allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using its own time slot. This allows multiple stations to share the same transmission medium (e.g. radio frequency channel) while using only a part of its channel capacity. See the image below.

There are some issues with TDMA.  It works best if there is one station in control of everyone using that channel.  This control point tracks who uses it and when.  If there are multiple controllers, it can become very chaotic.  Think of small children in a classroom.  If a teacher lets them all talk at once instead of raising their hand when it’s their turn, it’s very loud and doesn’t make any sense and everyone is yelling.

If you use Ubiquiti Networks Airmax TDMA system this allows the user to schedule time slots to avoid radio wave collision, and allows the user to prioritize voice or video uses.  It also is among the most efficient wireless network systems in use today.

Salmon Bay Wireless uses the Ubiquiti Networks Airmax TDMA system which makes us the best wireless solution for businesses and home users.  Check our speeds and prices here.

New Tower in Ballard

New Tower in Ballard

Salmon Bay Wireless has rolled out a new antenna in Ballard.   This is great for the area, as it provides customers with a local company with outstanding Internet Service.  We also feature low pricing. The new antenna gives customers an alternative to massive corporations that don’t have great customer service and require contracts. 

Salmon Bay Wireless doesn’t require contracts.  We provide 10 Mbits to hundreds of Mbits. We can service homes, condos, apartments and businesses.  Installation is free with pre-paid service.

Installation is easy – we attach some small hardware to get the tower signal.  (Our largest hardware option is smaller than a satellite tv dish).  Then we install a router in your house that is the standard size of most wireless routers.

Do you live in our new service area?  If you do check out our website for more information by submitting a service inquiry today or email [email protected]. Give us a call at 206-400-8000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 Wonderful and Wacky facts about the Internet

14 Wonderful and Wacky facts about the Internet

Here are some weird and wacky facts about the Internet 

  1. The word GIF (the GIF image format) is supposed to be pronounced Jiff, like the peanut butter.  When Steve Wilke first came up with the GIF in 1987 that’s what he wanted – and what he still wants.
  2. AOL (you’ve got mail) issued over 50% of all CD-ROM discs in the 1990s. That’s 100% more than the last Fountains of Wayne album.
  3. Google was named after the largest number, called a googol.  Not the dance craze, the googaloo.
  4. Twitter was originally called Twttr back in 2006.  But then they discovered vowels.
  5. This is the first and oldest site on the World Wide Web. It was invented before your parents.
  6. The average search time for a google search is .2 seconds. Google is actively working to shrink this by reading your mind.
  7. The most expensive Google AdWord is insurance. The second is loans.  The most popular search phrase is call your mother already.
  8. The word WiFI doesn’t mean anything and was invented by a consulting firm. This time I am serious.
  9. China has treatment camps for Internet Addicts.  They are called prisons.
  10. The Internet and the World Wide Web are two different things.  The Internet is a computer network and the world wide web is according to Oxford Languages “an information system on the internet which allows documents to be connected to other documents by hypertext links, enabling the user to search for information by moving from one document to another.”
  11. LOL used to mean “lots of love” but now it means “laughing out loud”, although when jokes are as bad as these it means “lack of laughter”.
  12. Prisoners in Norway have Internet in their cells.  This makes it easier to look up the word insurance on Google.
  13. Salmon Bay Wireless is the only Internet Service Providers in the world named after Salmon Bay.  (Salmon Bay is an actual Bay – not the fictional town featured in the Playstation 4 game InFamous).
  14. You are now reading this on the Internet (or is it the world wide web?).  Do you have any weird, funny, or wacky facts about the Internet that you would like to share?  Leave them in the comments.
Things to try before calling for Wireless Internet Support

Things to try before calling for Wireless Internet Support

You may have a day where you experience problems with your Internet.  If your internet slows down or stops working all together it can be frustrating.  Fortunately, there are some easy things you can do to resolve these issues.  Here are some suggestions on how to fix things quickly, so you don’t have to spend your valuable time reaching out for assistance.

First, run a speed test.  Go to www.speedtest.net or www.fast.com.  Is your speed slower than it should be?  Once you have confirmed that there is an issue with your speed, it’s time to try other fixes.

Keep in mind that there is a good technique to test these fixes as you go along.  Type your favorite website’s address into your browser (for example, www.salmonbaywireless.com), and refresh your browser by pushing down the shift key while pushing down the enter key.  If your site displays, then the problem is resolved.

Here are some additional steps to follow if you are still experiencing problems.   90% of Internet issues are resolved with the first two steps.

  1. Restart your Router.  To do this, pull the power cord out, wait 10 seconds, and plug the power cord back in.  Wait 2-3 minutes and then run a speed test again.  This takes care of most internet issues.
  2. Is your account paid up? Go to the payment link you received from us in your email to look at the status of your account.  This link doesn’t change – it should always reference your account information.
  3. If you find that you still aren’t getting internet at all, some basic checks are helpful.  Is your router plugged in correctly?  Make sure that nothing has come loose or is disconnected.
  4. Next, try plugging your computer directly into your router with an ethernet cord.  Are you able to use the Internet?   This test will eliminate the chance that any local wireless issues are occurring.
  5. Check other equipment as well – take a look at your outside antenna.  Is it where it is supposed to be? (has it come loose?).  Is the antenna pointed in the right direction, the direction where it was pointed when it was installed?

An option for advanced users is to ping 8.8.8.8 by using a command prompt.  Did you get a response? Then your Internet is up and working but it could be a DNS issue.

 If these suggestions don’t work then email us or call 206-400-8000.