PEAK Internet

New features and functionality announced for your Clear Access modem

About a year ago PEAK made the decision to make modems from Clear Access its primary customer premised equipment (CPE) for DSL customers.  This decision was made because Clear Access provided a higher quality device that offered the promise of added value through expanded services for customers.  Over the past year some of these features were released, providing simplification to the increasingly complex home network.  Over the next month, we would like to showcase some of the impressive functionality Clear Access is building into its devices that will soon be available to you.

Face it – you’re no network administrator.  Even if you were, the last thing you want to do when you get home is troubleshoot your daughter’s Internet connection or figure out why your latency is affecting your gaming on Xbox Live.  The complexity of today’s home networking is rapidly increasing; and with the introduction of so many Internet-enabled devices around the home it’s only getting worse.

The Clear Access modems, offered by PEAK Internet, offer a complete home networking solution so you can relax and enjoy the technology coming into your household.  Through a “connected home” concept, the new modem has the ability to provide Managed WiFi, Parental Internet Controls, Home Monitoring, and Home Network Optimizing.  In addition to these offerings, Clear Access will soon provide integrated services with other organizations to bring home Power Monitoring through Smart Grid technologies, Online Backup from Carbonite, Online Device Management (printers, etc.), and control over other bandwidth enabled services.

This is a lot of information and too many promises to deliver on in just one article, so the one takeaway is to stay tuned for more information coming out about the next generation of releases.  If you haven’t already tried them yet, several of the new services are already available.

Managed WiFi:

New modems from Clear Access offer a Managed WiFi service that can be enabled at your request.  This lets a trusted PEAK support agent create a secure wireless broadcast with a password so unknown users aren’t accessing your network.

Time Blocking:

The Time Blocking feature allows you to set limits on your devices that access an Internet connection.  If you are interested in implementing limits on computers, gaming consoles, or other devices, this feature will do the trick.

Parental Controls:

Content filtering allows you to set which websites and general content are allowed to be viewed on your connection.  If you need a layer of control on your connection, this is a good place to start.

Of all the features mentioned, I am most excited about the Home Control Panel for devices and integration with Application Partners.  I don’t have descriptive details yet, but from what I have seen it will provide an enriched Internet experience.

In brief, the Home Control Panel gives you an easy listing of all the devices accessing your network and all the services you are using (time blocking, parental controls, WiFi).  You are then able to take actions based on your services.

The Application Partners feature allows you to have access to a network of different services all in a portal format.  This interface will give you one screen to manage all the different home computing services you utilize.  Services like Online Backup, Home Security Monitoring, and others are planned as part of this offering.

Thanks for tuning in.  We’ll be using and reviewing these services in-depth and reporting back via PEAK Chat, so check back for additional information. If you would like to see a sample of these services, come into the PEAK office and try it out.