WiFi Security For Small Businesses

internet, broadband, data, computer, wifiIf you’re running a small hospitality business, a cafe, bar, bistro, hotel or guesthouse, even a salon or spa, many of your customers will be expecting you to supply free WiFi.

If you have contactless card machines then you probably need to use WiFi to make them work, and it’s no additional cost to open up the network and let your customers use it since it’s accepted, and expected by many that this service will be available to them. The problem is that in making your WiFi available to everyone, everyone, including you, is vulnerable to hacking.

It’s nice to think that ‘hacking’ is something that happens far away to other people, that it’s only worth hacker’s time to attack huge corporations and steal billions of pounds at a time. The reality is that with the availability of code on the Dark Web and the massive proliferation of laptops, internet enabled phones, and smart devices, it’s easy and cheap for anyone with a will to to find a way to hack into your business’s WiFi and use it to harm you or your customers.

Fortunately, there is a lot you can do to protect yourself, your reputation, and your customers from attacks which don’t take a great deal of tech savvy or programming skill. Read more

Persistent Myths About Broadband Busted

broadband deal, better broadband, no contract, no line rentalSwitching broadband ISPs used to be difficult, but now, with many more suppliers on the market, it’s time to put those myths to sleep

The problem with myths is that they become received wisdom which, once established, can be hard to debunk, refute or explode. Not only are many of them wrong, in the ISP industry they can cost you, our customers money, and leave you on a broadband package which doesn’t serve your needs.

Switching from one supplier to another isn’t the painful process it used to be, especially if you’re out of the minimum term of your contract, and doing so can save you money, especially if you’ve been on the same plan for a long time.

Fibre Broadband is All The Same

Fibre broadband isn’t all the same. Fibre to the Cabinet or Curb, also known as FTTC, is indeed faster than the old copper phone lines which broadband internet was being supplied until quite recently, but it still relies on a copper wire element to get from the cabinet or ‘curb’ into your home. This final transfer of technology means that you can receive the internet on your old router, but it also means that there is a considerable slowdown in the speeds you can achieve in your home.

On the other hand Fibre to the Property or Premises (FTTP) means that there’s full fibre connection from the local exchange right through to your router and out through the wifi or ethernet cable which was designed to handle superfast data, unlike phone lines. That means much more speed, up to 900 Mbps reliably hard-wired into your house. You can’t use your old modem/router though, as they are not compatible, and can’t approach the speed and signal quality a new fibre router needs to be able to deliver. Read more

Have Great Broadband, But Still Have Slow Wi-Fi?

Installing A Mesh Network Could Be Your Solution To Wi-Fi Shadows And Dark Spotsmesh disk, mesh network, broadband network, home network, home broadband

While your broadband provider gives you incredible internet access speeds, you may find that too many users at the same time and the distance you are from your router can have a significant effect on the speed that you’re able to surf the web. What can you do about it?

Several things can affect the speed you get when you’re actually browsing, the distance from your router, the number of people trying to use the internet at the same time, walls, or even heavy furniture can all have a detrimental effect. While the position of your router is important, there are some things which just can’t be overcome that way, so you may need to invest in a mesh network to solve dark spots.

The Further You Go The Slower The Flow

Wireless routers can only deliver a strong signal for a limited range. As you get toward the extent of that range you will see speeds slowing as the weaker signal affects the amount of data your devices can receive. The router is designed to have a limited range as making them more powerful would mean that householders would find that all their neighbours’ Wi-Fi signal was coming through as strongly as their own, which causes a variety of problems including ‘noise’, interference and tethering problems for devices which automatically connect to the strongest signal.

So people living in a larger than average home, or who want to extend their Wi-Fi’s reach into the garden have to find a way of broadening the reach of their reception. One of the best solutions available at the moment is a mesh network, a series of devices (usually in the form of ‘disks’ or ‘satellites’) which can be dotted around the home to improve signal wherever you are. Read more

How To Find Out If You Can Get Full Fibre Broadband In Your Area

The government aims to get almost all (at least 95%) of homes in the country connected to an ultrafast full fibre broadband network within the next few years, and Briant Broadband’s partners, CityFibre are one of the infrastructure companies who’ve been give the task of doing that.

If you’re interested in getting your broadband from Worthing’s only genuinely local broadband internet service provider, you can check if your home is in an area where Full Fibre is available instantly by entering your postcode into our Full Fibre Broadband Checker.

If your home or business premises are covered you’ll have the opportunity to order right now, and we could have you connected incredibly quickly. (Our record is 30 minutes from receiving a query on Facebook to having the customer online!)

If you’re not currently in an area which has lightning fast full fibre connectivity at the moment, you’ll be given the option to choose our Superfast Wireless. Because of the logistics of rolling out a national infrastructure programme, some remote and rural areas won’t have fibre broadband on their streets for some time yet. What our wireless option does is give you the choice of taking up a service which delivers more than twice the speeds which are currently available using the copper cable phone network which is currently in place.

Because all of Briant Broadband’s packages are flexible, once Full Fibre does come to areas where Wireless is currently the only other option, you will be able to upgrade to faster plans without admin fees, no line rental, and without having to change contracts or broadband providers.

And if you are in an area which can be connected right now, you get that choice too! So if you find that the speed you originally opted for isn’t fast enough for your family of movie buffs and gamers, you can change up any time you like with a quick phone call to our Worthing based office on 01903 221999. You can also change down if you’re not using anything like the amount of data you anticipated, or pause your plan altogether if you’re going to be away from home for 30 days or more. That’s right! If you’re not using the data, you don’t have to pay for it, and we won’t even charge you an admin fee to pause it either!

We aim to get all of our customers connected within 48 hours of receiving their order, and we promise to give you a month’s FREE broadband if we can’t meet that commitment, we also give you each a month’s free internet when you introduce a friend to Briant Broadband. It’s a new way of doing things, but it’s our take on fast, friendly, expert local customer service.