Get Ready for Back to School with CityWest

It’s back to school time, and we’re here to give you some cool tips to help you and your family prepare for the new school year! This blog will guide you on how to use some of our most popular HomeNet features, like how to turn off Wi-Fi for specific devices only, set parental controls to limit time usage on electronic devices, and how to restrict certain websites from your child's device. We'll also discuss why having an up-to-date speed will benefit your household. We want to help you manage your time and home network better so that you can have the best upcoming school year. 

You may find it hard to get back into that school schedule routine now that Summer is coming to an end. This transition may be difficult for some, especially when limiting time usage on our electronic devices and knowing when to put them down. But don’t worry, we’re here to help you with that! Our HomeNet app allows you to set up, monitor, and control individual devices by pushing a couple of buttons. Let’s get started by helping you download our FREE HomeNet app by following these quick & easy instructions located on our website: www.citywest.ca/support/internet-support/homenet

Wasn’t that easy? Now let’s help you set up your Basic Parental Controls.

Limiting Time Usage on Electronic Devices with Basic Parental Controls

When setting up Basic Parental Controls, you’ll learn how to set up profiles for family members. A profile allows you to organize and keep track of the devices associated with each person in your home to help you monitor activity and set time limits for each specific person. Watch this short video on how to set up Basic Parental Controls, or follow the steps below:

1. From the main dashboard of your HomeNet app, tap “People” button located at the bottom of your screen, and then tap the + symbol to create a new profile. You can add a name and even a photo to help keep things organized!
2. Select the devices used by the person you’re creating this profile for.
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for any other profiles you’d like to create. All profiles can easily be accessed by clicking on the “People” tab at the bottom of your screen.

Once you’ve completed the above steps, you’ll have essential control functions for each person’s devices. This means you can now turn ON and OFF Internet access and set time limits for each device without interrupting others in the home. This free feature is great for getting your family back on a schedule for school when you have people in the home who just can’t put down their devices or need to watch “just 1 more episode” of their favourite TV show when they should be going to sleep.

Enforce a Healthy Balance of Online Play & Work with Advanced Parental Controls

If you’re impressed with our Basic Parental Controls, then you’ll love our Advanced Parental Controls even more! Upgrading to the Advanced HomeNet features will allow you to monitor usage more in depth. You’ll have access to enable and restrict certain websites, which is perfect for only allowing specific websites for homework and research purposes. You can also limit the amount of time spent on specific apps to ensure a healthy balance of online device usage time. Did you know that by upgrading to the Advanced HomeNet features, a virus protection is automatically enabled that stops threats from getting onto your network and devices? It provides you an extra way to stay connected and protected online.

Check out this video below to learn how to set up individual restrictions for each profile. Call CityWest at 1-800-442-8664 to subscribe to our Advanced HomeNet features for only $7.99 a month, added to your monthly CityWest bill.

Ensure your Internet Speed is Up to Date

Our last tip is to make sure that the Internet speed you have is up to date and able to accommodate all of the users and devices in your home. When your speed is too slow for all the people using the Internet, you'll run into buffering and lagging, which is never fun. Especially if you're trying to get work done and things are taking way too long to load. There are currently more online devices in the average home than ever before. We have Smart TV's, Smart Dishwashers, Security Systems, Gaming Consoles, Cellphones, iPads, and many other devices that can connect to the Internet. Each device that connects to the Internet generally stays connected until you manually disconnect it. That means each device you connect is using your Internet connection simultaneously, even if you aren't presently using that device! When you put your phone down for a couple of hours, you'll come back to all those notifications, which means it was downloading data from online. It's pretty cool when you think of it, but since the demand for devices is so high, you'll likely want to ensure that you have a reasonable Internet speed to accommodate multiple users and devices in your home. Check out our Internet packages below for the most current and up to date options we have available:

Don't have fibre-optics yet? Click here to see your options: Quantum Internet (citywest.ca)