Eight years ago, I moved from Amish farmlands to downtown Binghamton which wasn't culture shock for me because I've lived all over the country in huge towns and small ones.

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What was a shock though was how completely awful it was to try to get data on my cell  so I could access the internet. I remember calling my provider and asking them how it was possible that I just moved from horse and buggy territory to a small college city and I could get data just fine in the middle of a cow pasture but not in the middle of downtown Binghamton.

Eight years later and the whole story has changed. I ended up switching cell provers and have no issue accessing data on my cell anywhere but, my WiFi connection at home is a whole new mess.

I live in the middle of the woods in what techs have told me over the phone is a "black hole," and have wished me, "luck, lady." There is just one internet provider where I live and it may or may not work depending on whether an ant walks in the grass or a leaf falls from the tree.

The new game that we play in our house is, "Mama has a conference call that I HAVE to be on so whoever is online, get off now!" And then we use an app to disconnect all devices from our WiFi network and my child sits on the floor with his head in his hands staring at me while I sit in on my conference call.

If your internet connection is so awful at home that you think you could watch a monarch caterpillar turn into a butterfly faster than it takes to load a page online, there are some things you can do to try to boost your speed.

The Walls of Your Home Might Be Blocking Your WiFi

If you live in an old home where each room is its own, rather than living in an open floor plan type space, the materials in your walls like brick and metal could be slowing down your connection.

Hiding Away Your Router Might Be Slowing Down Your Wifi

Not many people actually enjoy having their router out for the world to see, but I bet the ones who do have better connectivity than you do. Did you know that by hiding your router in furniture or behind things can slow stuff down? Where you place your router also plays a role. You'll get better WiFi connection if your router is places somewhere up high.

Too Many Connected Devices Can Slow Down Your Wifi

Think about how many devices you have in your house? In mine, we have a desktop computer, two laptops, three tablets, two cell phones. oh, and we also can only get internet streaming (because I live in a black hole where there is no television access) so we also have three televisions. Oh, forgot to toss in our three Alexa devices. And guess what? They all automictically connect to my home WiFi. I'm guessing your situation is similar to mine. Keep in mind that the more devices connected to your WiFi the slower your signal will be. Knock a couple devices off your home WiFi and you should see a huge difference in your connection speeds.

LOOK: Here Are 30 Foods That Are Poisonous to Dogs

To prepare yourself for a potential incident, always keep your vet's phone number handy, along with an after-hours clinic you can call in an emergency. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center also has a hotline you can call at (888) 426-4435 for advice.

Even with all of these resources, however, the best cure for food poisoning is preventing it in the first place. To give you an idea of what human foods can be dangerous, Stacker has put together a slideshow of 30 common foods to avoid. Take a look to see if there are any that surprise you.

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

LOOK: Here are the best small towns to live in across America

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