There’s nothing like working from home to really put your internet to the test.

Whether you’re transitioning to work from home full time, or just need the capacity to fill in the gaps occasionally at night or over the weekend, you’ll soon find that all internet is not created equally.

Fiber internet is vastly different from the DSL and copper cable lines we’ve known since the internet became widely used, but it is by far the best choice for working from home. Here’s why.

No more signal sharing

A huge benefit of fiber is that your home gets its own independent connection to the internet. Does that shock you? It’s a dirty little secret of the cable industry that customers actually share their internet signal with neighbors. When the system gets congested, you experience lag time and poor performance.

With fiber, you get a wide-open pipe of high-speed internet (C Spire fiber customers get 1Gbps, for example) delivered straight to your home—more than enough to provide lag-free internet to all the smart devices, laptops, TVs and smart phones in your home.

Symmetrical uploads and downloads

High bandwidth for downloads, or the content your computer pulls from the internet, is only half of the story for professionals who work from home. Many companies today automatically store their employees’ file updates to the cloud as a backup. That means data is traveling both ways, downloading and uploading, as you work throughout the day.

The same concept applies to videoconferencing and online collaboration. In order for your team to have a productive meeting online, they have to hear and see you in real time, just as you hear and see them without delay. Fiber gives you the ability to have symmetrical uploads and downloads, so your computer is able to send data as quickly as it receives it.

Fiber is reliable

Fiber optic lines are more insulated against outside interference like electromagnetic and radio signals, making the signal much more secure. Also, fiber maintains signal strength over far greater distances than cable. Copper cables are limited to roughly 330 feet, or about the length of one football field. Fiber-optic cables, however, have the capacity to run nearly 25 miles without losing strength. That’s the length of 440 football fields. And since most fiber lines run underground, weather-related outages are a thing of the past.

Get the most of your internet with smart WiFi

Even the best internet is a dud if your router stinks. A typical WiFi router’s signal weakens as it spreads through the home, leaving noticeable “dead zones” where your devices drop off the network. These usually lurk in corners at the edges of your home where the signal simply cannot reach.

But a Smart WiFi system, which uses mesh and adaptive technologies, blankets your home with overlapping signals that cover those previously dead spots and share the demands all your connected devices put on your internet. It’s a good idea to invest in smart WiFi when you upgrade your internet to fiber.

Get the speed you need to work from home.