Wi-Fi Archives - Page 4 of 9 - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Is there a surcharge for using WiFi instead of cellular data?

Posted on April 29, 2023

Question from Debby: A couple of months ago I bought my first smartphone.

I absolutely love it, but I got a huge bill yesterday because they said I went over my monthly data allotment by several gigabytes.

I do watch a lot of videos every day, but I didn’t realize it would cause me to be charged extra.

My daughter said I need to use Wi-Fi instead of cellular data but I don’t want to get hit with a big bill for that too. She said using Wi-Fi is free, but I want to be sure since I can’t afford another huge bill.

So will I be charged extra if I use Wi-Fi to watch my videos? [Read more…]

This is why you need a password on your WiFi network

Posted on April 21, 2023

I’m often asked if it’s really necessary to put a password on a Wi-Fi connection instead of just leaving it as an open network.

The reason they usually give is they want to make it easy for their guests to use their Wi-Fi during their visits.

I receive some variation of that question at least a couple of times every week, and my answer is always the same… [Read more…]

How to quickly retrieve a forgotten WiFi password from your Windows PC

Posted on October 31, 2022

I receive dozens of questions every week from readers of the “Tech Q&A” section of this blog, and a question I get fairly often is “How do I retrieve my forgotten WiFi password?“.

It’s very easy to forget your WiFi password (aka Network Security Key) if your devices store it and log you into the network automatically.

Some people go months, or even years without typing in their WiFi password, only to discover they can no longer remember it when it comes time to connect a new computer or mobile device to the network.

If you’ve forgotten the password to your own WiFi network, I strongly recommend that you retrieve it from your PC and write it down for future reference.

Luckily, that’s very easy to do as long as your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 PC is currently logged into the network. Here’s how: [Read more…]

Q&A: Windows is showing my WiFi network as Public. Isn’t that dangerous?

Posted on July 7, 2022

Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter

Question from Kellie: I was messing around with the network settings on my Windows 11 laptop last night.

While I was in there I noticed that my WiFi network is set to “Public” instead of “Private”.

I’ve always heard that public networks are dangerous.

Is that true? And if it is, how can I change it to private? [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I remove saved WiFi networks from my Chromebook?

Posted on March 19, 2022

Question from Mitchell: Love your site, Rick. I have a question for you if you don’t mind.

I recently retired from a job that required me to travel frequently to multiple states.

As you can imagine, I stayed in a lot of different hotels and now my Chromebook has a long list of WiFi networks that pop up when I go to connect to a network.

Since I’m not traveling anymore I’ll never need to connect to most of those networks again. How can I remove them? [Read more…]