For years I used Spectrum Internet. Off-promotion pricing ran about $80/month for 500 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up, or $100/month for 1 Gbps down and 35 Mbps up. I used my own modem and router, which kept things consistent.
Two weeks ago I switched to Google Fiber. For $100/month I now have the 3 Gbps × 3 Gbps plan. They provided a Google Router and two mesh access points, and right out of the box it was blazing fast, easily more than enough for the average household.
But my household isn’t average. I run a home server for file backups, media, and our blog. While the Google Router works well for general use, it was lacking when it came to port forwarding. To solve that, I purchased a wired router capable of handling the traffic, connected my server directly through it, and then routed the Google hardware through that router. This setup gives my server its own LAN, logically and physically separated from the rest of the network.
On top of that, I configured the Google Fiber router’s Guest Wi-Fi as the network for all IoT devices. Since it can operate on its own VLAN, those devices are also isolated from my personal computers. From a cybersecurity perspective, this is a much more secure and efficient division of traffic.
Now that my advanced setup is in place, I couldn’t be happier. I get the full 3 Gbps on wired connections and the maximum possible speeds on wireless devices. For both everyday users and power users like me, Google Fiber delivers excellent performance and flexibility. Highly recommended.