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Digital Literacy How the Internet Works The Internet Your Big Picture Review

Kendall Williams
Kendall Williams
1,031 Points
Posted by Kendall Williams
Kendall Williams
1,031 Points

How do I find out if my apartment uses a modem/router combination or just a router to connect to the internet?

I live in China and things (especially electronically) are not always what they seem to be. I was wondering if there was a way to look at my connection device from a software prospective and find out what it is? obviously my ultimate goal would be to increase speed.

Luc de Brouwer
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Luc de Brouwer
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 17,939 Points
Luc de Brouwer
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Luc de Brouwer
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 17,939 Points

I am not sure what your question is regarded to but I can give you some information.

Wherever you live there is always an ISP (Internet Service Provider) where you can get an internet subscription. You pay what you get, so in most times you will pay for subscriptions that have like speed 30 mbps 60 mbps 120 mbps etc.

In order to receive 'internet' from your ISP the ISP will give you a modem which will receive the information it needs to provide you internet services, it contains your external IP address etc. However in most situations people buy an extra router to extend the range of the WiFi signal, or to reroute traffic from the modem through the router because of faster internal speed etc.

You can't increase the speed. You'll have to upgrade your subscription in order to get faster speed. The only thing you can do is to buy a faster router so your internal network can use the maximum speed of your ISP subscription.

I hope this information will help you out. If you want to figure out how it is configured, I suggest googling the command ' ipconfig /all'

1 Answer

Sam Wight
Sam Wight
64 Points
Sam Wight
Sam Wight
64 Points

You seem to be wanting to maximize your internet speed. If you're trying to find your router or modem, as asked in the title, the best thing would be to contact the person or people in charge of the apartment and ask them about it. Often, apartments will only offer one ISP (Internet Service Provider), or will have one bundled with the apartment. Someone in charge should be able to tell you what ISPs are available, or what ISP the apartment uses, and any other information about internet related issues that you may have.

Luc was correct in saying that there's no way to increase your Internet speeds. There are, however, ways to maximize it. Here's a few things you can to to make sure that you're getting the maximum possible internet speed that your ISP offers:

  1. Get connected directly to the modem. Wifi is much slower than a direct connection to the internet. If your computer supports it, connect to the modem via an ethernet cable or an equivalent.
  2. If you can't connect directly, get as close as possible to the router. Wifi speeds decline the further away you are from the source of the wifi.
  3. If you can, place your router in a central location in your apartment. This will ensure that all parts of your apartment receive about the same signal strength.
  4. Make sure your router isn't out of date. An out of date router will be much slower than a newer, up-to-date one.

Hope this helps!