I won’t be dealing with stopping the milk, changing the council tax details, or making sure the new house is in a good schools catchment area, I will be dealing with the important things.
Will I have a decent internet line?
For the geek, this is essential. You need fast broadband. End of story.
Well, not quite. This is no longer just a question for the geekiest of geeks, who needs a good connection for online gaming or so that the LAN party goes without a hitch, and should be considered essential for almost anyone.
You need to take into account the number of devices that you are going to plug into the web. Your main computer and possibly a backup or work laptop has its inevitable smartphone companion and to that, we can now add a tablet, your Wii (and Xbox and PlayStation 3) and additional devices like an online connected PVR box, a new smart TV, an Apple TV or Google TV box. For those that want to be right on the cutting edge of technology, we can add digital picture frames and connected fridges and washing machines.
Don’t get yourself stuck with a poor quality line, or a line that is theoretically good, but gets throttled by the number of people in the area and the providers “traffic shaping”. Before I consider any flat or house, I always jump online to use an internet speed test, to avoid the areas which are still on a 2Mb/s connection and to make sure that the high speed lines provide something close to the advertised speeds.
What else do I need to check?
It almost seems ridiculous to say but once you have worked out that you can get a high speed broadband line, all of the other geek problems become relatively minor and can really only be checked by going out and seeing the property.
Check whether you get cell phone coverage everywhere in the house, whether there are dead spots in the kitchen or the bedroom.
Check whether your TV will fit into the living room, will the wall you want to mount it on actually hold the your new 55 inch flat screen?
Do you have enough plug sockets in the right locations? If they are in the right place for your gadgets but there aren’t enough, then you can get a multisocket. If they are in the wrong place in the room, you will need to look into an alternative that doesn’t involve running extension cables along the skirting boards.
Are the lounge and the office on the same fuse? With the number of gadgets you are intending to plug in, are you going to be putting a heavy load on one particular part of the electrical system? You don’t want to be unable to switch everything on at the same time, for fear of blowing the fuse.
Moving for geeks - it’s quite like checking the water pressure and just as important.
