In the blink of an eye, it was already the next day.
People could be seen huddling in the corner of the restaurant, giving their comments and criticism about the small square, plastic router placed on top of the table. Elizabeth sat in her chair, her face full of sweats. Even in her highschool days, she had never experienced getting mobbed by this many people, still, she tried her best to calm down.
"Vince, are you sure this... piece of plastic would remove all of our internet problems?" Justin asked skeptically. It would be a lie if he said he trusts a plain looking router. Due to the influence of 'Gaming' advertisements, he believed that the more cooler looking the item is, the more powerful it is.
Though it isn't always like that. Take his laptop for example, although it looks cool with all the flashy lights and cool, edgy design, it could at most be only comparable to an above average computer. Still, there was a belief in the forums, it isn't a belief but much more of a joke that's been spreading. It was that the more lights and has the word 'Gaming' in it, the more FPS people get.
RGB lights? +10 FPS. RGB 'Gaming' Keyboard? +20 FPS. RGB 69,420 DPI 'Gaming' Mouse? +15 FPS, etc.
"Don't brainwash people with your 'more lights more power' belief, Justin." Vincent replied whilst he carressed the router. Justin isn't adept in technology, and doesn't put in the time to learn it, so it was to be expected.
Meanwhile, the other two went back to their seats after watching for awhile. It wasn't because they weren't interested, it was because they would believe what Vince would say, no matter how absurd it is. It wasn't naivity, but more because they trust him fully.
Justin looked at Vince mockingly. He wanted to take a video of Vince hugging the router and upload it to the internet, but that was just a thought, "Alright alright, stop sexually harrassing the router and test it already."
In truth, he was also excited. He was sick and tired of playing when his ping goes up so high that it's unplayable. If their internet problem isn't fixed soon, their skills would slowly degrade to that of a noob.
Vince got up from his seat while holding the router as if its the holy grail, and he slowly walked towards the counter. After getting permission from Apollo, he walked back to where the outlet was.
If his guesses were right, the router he held in his hand would be game-breaking. At first, it was only small hints like how the router in the restaurant looked like, and then it turned into the internet speed. It's already the twenty-first century, and technology has far surpassed what it was before, hence making laptops become much more capable to handle high internet speeds. Normally, laptops in the past could handle about forty to fifty megabytes or roughly three hundred to four hundred megabits; but now, they could easily handle three hundred to four hundred megabytes.
There are many factors regarding internet speeds and how a gadget uses that, but that would mean wasting two to three paragraphs1. However, Megabytes and Megabits are much more easier to explain. Simply put, one megabyte is equivalent to eight megabits, so three hundred megabytes is equal to 2.4 Gigabits, basically, it's super fast. That speed alone is overkill for anyone, but that speed only applies to modern-day laptops available in the market. In theory, the internet speed on a laptop could go over ten gigabits per second, but because of a bottleneck, laptops could only use a certain amount of internet speed. But a bottleneck in Apollo's laptop is basically non-existent, it could handle internet speeds up to one hundred Peta Byte or one million megabytes.
Vince gently plugged the router onto the socket, his expressions filled with excitement. Although he doesn't know who made the router Apollo uses, it was normal for him to assume that it was him.
The four lights blinked for a couple of seconds before it became a stable blue light. Seeing that, Vince navigated his phone and turned on the Wi-Fi function and connected to the router. After that, he then opened a speed test app. A speed test application basically tests the Latency (ping), download speed, and upload speed of the internet connection. Those listed were only the basic functions of a speed test app, although there were advance functions, there was really no reason to get into detail.
The speedometer on the speed test up jolted up and the numbers below it continued rising and reaching one gigabit per second, and maxing out at 1.5 gigabits per second. It was also the same for the upload speed.
Getting out of his daze, Vince hurriedly went towards the table where his laptop is placed, confusing the spectators. But the spectators followed not long after.
Vince quickly arrived at his table and sat down, the spectators on the other hand just stood up behind him. Without even making himself comfortable in his chair, he connected his laptop to the router. After that, his hand immediately held the mouse tight and clicking it a couple of times to open a browser. The browser quickly loaded and his fingers fluttered across the keyboard.
After pressing the enter button, what he typed redirected him to a speed test website, the same speed test he used on his phone. The page loaded instantly, he navigated the mouse towards the minimalistic 'Start' button at the center of the screen and clicked it. The entire action was done in only a little over ten seconds!
It was more or less the same except for the results. Instead of only being over 1.5Gigabits, the internet speed reached 5Gigabits per second!
"So... fast..." Vince muttered
"No shit!" Justin exclaimed, his voice a little shaky because of excitement. Never had he dreamed that there would be a day that he could see their internet be this fast. Their internet was by no means slow, in fact, it was fast. They have an internet speed of over one Gigabit in their homes and in their gaming house. However, fast download speed doesn't mean lower latency. There are many issues as to why that happens, but latency itself is a complex issue.
There are a couple of issues that people would often think of in regards to latency. Among those issues are: The distance of the device to the router, the hardware of the router itself, and the type of network the router is using i.e 3G, 4G, etc. Of course, there are also technical issues such as the type of line the ISP is using, but going into even more detail would be too much of a hassle for the narrator.
The spectators also exclaimed their surprise at how fast the router is. They weren't foreign to technology at all as it is basically the norm, but an internet this fast would only be seen in conventions where ISP's are testing, or rather, boasting their internet speed to the public.
Vincent turned his gaze towards the counter and was about to call Apollo when he saw him blowing smoke out of his mouth, with a rolled cigar in between his index and middle finger and a relaxed expression on his face. The bitter scent of the smoke gently went through his nostrils. Tasting that little amount of smoke, all sorts of foreign flavors immediately attacked his taste buds, making him lightheaded, but at the same time relaxed.