Wi-Fi may not be the best choice

#Middlebury #Seniors

Much of the time we want to embrace technology and whatever is the latest and greatest. When it comes to our electronic gadgets, sometimes the newest isn’t necessarily the best.

I suspected I was in trouble when my cable provider insisted on installing a new, fancy modem. Within hours, my computer, hooked up via Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity), was dragging and cutting out. After multiple phone calls over several days, the cable provider sent a technician. His verdict: I have excellent speed for Wi-Fi (how nice), but it’s the nature of Wi-Fi to do that: slow down at the most inopportune times.

I cut to the heart of the problem and went to a big box electronics store where I picked up an ethernet cable, which I ran from the new, fancy modem directly to my computer. It now runs like a champ, at a consistent speed.

While going through this experience, I conducted a small poll of people to ask whether they prefer Wi-Fi or wired gadgets. The results were surprising. Seniors are more likely to say they like wireless. Their main reason? It’s the more modern way to hook up computers, printers and so on.

The ones who prefer the wired gadgets are the younger geeky guys who work in electronics stores and don’t have time to fool with varying rates of speed created by Wi-Fi. Wired connections have more consistent speed, are more secure, are generally faster and aren’t usually affected by the environment.

My printer, still running on Wi-Fi, has now begun to be a problem, no doubt thanks to the fancy, new modem. The solution will be a USB A to B cable running from the printer to the computer.

Researchers say that 73% of seniors are now on the Internet. It might as well be fast, right?

© 2019 King Features Synd. Inc.