Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
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Question from Taylor: I recently bought a refurbished Dell OptiPlex 9020-SFF desktop computer and I really like it.
I know there are faster computers out there, but this is actually the fastest one I have ever owned.
My question is what’s the best way to add WiFi to this machine? [Read more…]
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Question from Fred: I have a 2 year old Lenovo 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 11.
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…]
Question from Deidra: I have grounded my 13 year old daughter for a month for getting into some pretty serious trouble at school.
Part of her “grounding” is a total ban on cell phone and Internet use of any kind.
To enforce that, I’ve had her iPhone shut off and I’ve also turned off the Wi-Fi on our router.
The problem is she’s still finding a way to get on Facebook and talk to her friends because I can see her “liking” stuff and leaving comments. How is that possible? [Read more…]
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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…]
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Question from Jane: Hi Rick. I recently read your post about using a powerline networking kit to access the Internet from a distant room.
Last night I began wondering if that solution would work in my situation.