How Technology Can Make Your Christmas and New Years Merry and Bright

If you plan to celebrate the holidays, traveling, working, or at home entertaining through to the new year, having reliable technology is important to ensure make sure you can accomplish your goals. Technology that makes sure you can stream your favorite holiday tunes, make your flights to your holiday destination, and keep up with what's going on in the office plays a big part in this digital world we live in. If you need help with making sure your technology helps you stay relaxed, productive, and merry, check out these quick and easy tips to help make sure your gadgets make you happy this holiday season.

Strengthen Your Wifi Signal. It doesn't what your goals are for using the Internet, you won't accomplish anything if you have a weak Internet signal. A weak wifi signal means you can't make video calls to co-workers, plan trips or stream holiday movies. Nothing beats having your entire home or office wired for the Internet, but not everyone has that benefit. You may have had an IT knowledgeable friend suggest getting a bigger router, but most routers will only cover up to 2,500 square feet. There are two solutions. First, make sure you're getting fast Internet from your Internet provider. Check out www.speedtest.net to perform a test while standing next to your router with your Windows or Macintosh laptop or download the app to your Apple or Android smartphone. When running the test, you want to look for a download speed of 25Mbps and an upload speed of 10Mbps. You have speeds fast enough to stream video calls, as well as stream music and movies. Of course, higher is better, but anything lower means you need to see if you can upgrade your service or switch to a faster provider. If your internet is plenty fast, then you can focus on strengthening your wifi. To boost that signal, focus on getting a mesh network for your home or office. Mesh devices from Google and Eero can extend your wifi and are easy to set up.

Protect Your Wifi. It's always tempting to give out access to your wireless router to customers, kids, family, and friends, but you need to keep that information safe. Someone connected to your wireless can unwittingly download ransomware to their devices, which can spread across your wireless network and infect your devices. With the danger of Ransomware, there is the risk that your important information can be lost forever. Make it a point to set up a guest wifi network for customers, children, and company to use. A guest wifi connection is a separate connection that keeps any bad information or infections from spreading to your network. dd

Use Your Smart Devices. Those Alexa and Google Home devices can help relieve stress during the holidays. Yes, you use them to listen to music, but you can also use them to keep tabs on your home or office if you have smart doorbells or cameras, especially if you have packages showing up at your door. Create routines to control those smart light bulbs and smart plugs when you're going to grandma's house and beyond. You can also use these devices to make video calls to your family and friends. One more thing you can do to reduce stress is to take advantage of Siri or Google and use speech-to-text to dictate emails and text messages.

Get Cyber Secure. 2021 has seen an increase in cybercrime targeting home and business users and you know that will spill over into 2022. Make sure you know what steps you need to take to protect yourself, your family, and your team members from cyber threats. Most cyber threats come ibn the form of phishing, SMShing schemes or Vishing scams that attempt to get your data. Train your workforce to identify these threats as well as family members. Also, protect yourself from device theft as well as credential stuffing which takes your existing leaked data which criminals use to log into your online accounts. Finally, get out of the habit of using passwords and use passphrases for your online accounts. Need help creating one, visit www.useapassphrase.com

Stay Connected With Technology. Bring your offline connections online. Yes, I know face to face is better, but social media, as well as video chat apps, can help your relationships going and the ability to stay in contact with your loved ones. With social media instant messenger, you can connect with people without giving out your personal details. Apple has gotten on the bandwagon and allowed Apple users to send out Facetime invitations to Android users. Life is short, so connect if you can face to face, but in the meantime connect with your connections online to ensure you don't miss out on those magic moments near and far.

Your tech and gadgets devices are meant to make your life easier, more entertaining, and even more practical. However you plan to utilize technology this holiday season, make sure you don't overdo it. Technology should always be used at a tool for a means, not an avenue for all things. And remember, if tech stresses you out because of tech issues, don't hesitate to reach out to me.

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Want to ask me a tech question? Send it to burton@callintegralnow.com. I love technology. I've read all of the manuals and I'm serious about making technology fun and easy to use for everyone.

Need computer or technology help? If you need on-site or remote tech support for your Windows\Macintosh, computers, laptops, Android/Apple smartphone, tablets, printers, routers, smart home devices, and anything that connects to the Internet, please feel free to contact my team at Integral. Our team of friendly tech experts organization can help you with any IT needs you might have. Reach out to us a www.callintegralnow.com or phone at 888.256.0829.

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