Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
As you probably know, your router allows everyone in your home or business to connect their computers, phones and other devices to the Internet.
Unfortunately, if its security isn’t completely locked down it can also be used by hackers to do nefarious things online while making it appear that YOU are the culprit.
If you have a WiFi-enabled Windows PC there might come a time when you’ll need to switch your connection to a different WiFi network than the one your machine is currently connected to.
For example, your laptop might automatically connect to a network with a weak signal when you know there’s another network available with a much stronger signal.
Or perhaps it automatically connected to an insecure unencrypted network instead of the secure network you intended to use.
Whatever the reason, you can easily switch your PC’s Wi-Fi connection from one network to another one with just a few clicks of your mouse. [Read more…]
Question from Beverly: I’ve always thought that Internet and WiFi were just two names for the same thing, but someone told me they were different.
Is that true? If it is, what’s the difference?
Rick’s answer: What that person told you is accurate, Beverly.
While WiFi and the Internet are frequently used together, they are in fact completely different technologies that serve two very different purposes. [Read more…]
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Question from Amanda: I bought a smart TV for my living room but the WiFi in there is too weak to maintain a solid connection.
There’s enough signal in there for my laptop and tablet to use the Internet with no problem, but it just doesn’t allow the streaming to work as it should.
I’ve been doing some research about ways to boost the signal on that end of the house and I keep seeing the terms “Wi-Fi Extender” and “Mesh Network Systems”.
I’m really confused about these devices. What’s the difference between them and which one should I get? [Read more…]
Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.
Question from Fred: I have a 2 year old Lenovo IdeaPad laptop. It was working fine till yesterday evening but now the Wi-Fi won’t work.
I thought it might be a setting, but the Wi-Fi adapter isn’t even showing up in the Device Manager under Windows 10.
Since it won’t work with Windows, I tried booting into Linux Mint (I have a dual-boot setup). Mint won’t recognize the Wi-Fi adapter either so I’m thinking it must be a hardware problem.
Can this be fixed without costing me an arm and a leg? [Read more…]