Stay Connected and Protected This Holiday Season

There’s no place like home for the holidays, but hosting friends and family in your home also requires plenty of preparation. There are cookies to be baked, stockings to be hung, and gifts to be wrapped. But have you thought about how your internet connection can impact your holiday plans? 

Home Wi-Fi for the Holidays

If you’re hosting family for the holidays–or if members of your household have exciting new devices waiting for them under the tree–you need internet that can keep up with all of the new traffic. Here are a few simple tips to make sure your home is ready for the holidays. 

Tip #1: Location, location, location. Your router should be placed in a central location so that devices in every corner of your home can reach it. Make sure it’s out in the open; objects like appliances, walls, and cabinets can interfere with your Wi-Fi signal, causing slow speeds. But don’t try to move it on your own–call RTC Networks and one of our techs will come out to help you make the move.

Tip #2: Restart your router. Just like humans, routers need a little break from time to time in order to keep working at top speeds. Restarting is one of the simplest troubleshooting steps you can take to fix an internet connection that isn’t working properly.

Tip #3: Upgrade your speed. For the most seamless internet experience, upgrade to 1 Gig service from RTC Networks today. With 1 Gig, you and your guests can enjoy faster speeds, higher quality, and lower latency. It’s the gift that keeps on giving! 

Avoiding Holiday Hackers

It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but the holidays are also one of the most popular times for cybercriminals. Don’t get scammed by an internet Scrooge. Follow the following tips to avoid an internet scam this holiday season.

Tip #1: Watch out for sneaky senders. Many spam emails will look very similar to a real company’s branding and seem legitimate. But take a closer look at the sender’s email address: maybe there is a zero where there should be the letter O, or an extra S at the end of the brand’s name. A legitimate email from a business shouldn’t come from a free email service address such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail. There also won’t be a long, random string of letters and numbers in the email address.

Tip #2: Ask yourself, “Would My Bank Really Ask That?” Many spammers will disguise themselves as a bank or other institution, in the hopes that you will give up sensitive financial information. But remember: your bank will never email you to request things like your password or account number. If a request seems fishy, it probably is. And if you’re just not sure, call your bank and ask if they really need that information.

Tip #3: Think before you click. If an offer or giveaway sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But if you’re just not sure, double check any links before you click. First, view the link. On a Mac, you can hover over a link to see what the link address is. You can also right click on the link and select “Copy Link Address.” Paste this address into a word or text document to see if it looks fake. Rule of thumb: if you don’t recognize the link, don’t click. 

Tip #4: Protect your network. ProtectIQ is a network-level security application that works quietly in the background and proactively keeps malicious websites, viruses, and intrusion away from your home 24/7.  RTC Networks provides ProtectIQ™ for free with our internet service through the BLAST GigaSpire. 

Not sure if you have our RTC BLAST GigaSpire? Contact us at 701.862.3115 to upgrade your router to the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology. 

For a firsthand look at the threats being blocked on your network, download the myRTCnet app and experience the power of control at your fingertips.