Why Rebooting Your Router Fixes So Many Problems (and Why You Have to Wait 10 Seconds)

Did You Know? “Mob rule”, or governance by a mass of people using intimidation tactics, is formally known as “ochlocracy”. Geek Trivia The Black And White Gangster Film Kevin Watches in ‘Home Alone’ Is Called? Gangster's Paradise → Angels with Filthy Souls → Prohibition Party → Tommy Gun Lane → Advertisement Dashlane - Never Forget Another Password Dashlane has a slick Web 2.0-type interface with a host of similar features--like syncing, password auditing, assisted automatic password changes, and alerts in case of security breaches. Dashlane has definitely led the pack in the good interface department Click here to download Want to Change Your Email Preferences? At some point in the past you subscribed to the How-To Geek newsletter, but if you'd like to change the frequency or unsubscribe, you can do so by clicking the button. Change my Subscription (or unsubscribe) Today's How-To Geek Articles Is Wireless Charging Slower Than Wired Charging? What Is DirecTV Now, and Can It Replace Your Cable Subscription? How to Stop Incoming Phone Calls from Ringing On Your Mac and iPad Why Rebooting Your Router Fixes So Many Problems (and Why You Have to Wait 10 Seconds) Why You (Probably) Don’t Need a Crazy-Powerful GPU Like the GTX 1080 Ti What’s the Difference Between Microsoft Office’s Desktop, Web, and Mobile Apps? How to Customize Firefox’s User Interface With userChrome.css How to Use a Custom Background in Gmail How to Pin WhatsApp Conversations to the Top of the Chat List Stop Complaining That Your Browser Uses Lots of RAM: It’s a Good Thing Today's Review Geek Articles Best Photo Calendar Services Geek Comic Today's Tech Term Through-Hole Technology Through-Hole Technology (a.k.a. Thru-Hole Technology) refers to an electronic circuit design where components (like resistors and capacitors, for example) are mounted by inserting their pins through pre-made holes on one side of a printed circuit board and then soldered into place on the other side. What We're Reading This section contains what we're reading from around the web, along with commentary from our editors. Think of it like your daily digest of the most interesting things online. Introducing Messenger Kids, a New App For Families to Connect Parents can give their kids permission to use the service, which also offers parental controls. [Facebook Newsroom] People have spent over $1M buying virtual cats on the Ethereum blockchain Virtual currencies are serious business. [TechCrunch] Apple's had a shockingly bad week of software problems Root without a password on macOS was just the first course. What a mess. [The Verge] Is Wireless Charging Slower Than Wired Charging? Look, Apple is making wireless charging cool again with the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X. I’m glad! But there are things you should know about this technology—like how fast it’s going to charge your phone. You know, practical stuff. Read This Article → What Is DirecTV Now, and Can It Replace Your Cable Subscription? Streaming television is getting more and more popular, allowing users to get away from standard cable packages and into something that fits their lifestyle. DirecTV is one of the first traditional “cable” companies to get in on the action with DirecTV Now. Read This Article → How to Stop Incoming Phone Calls from Ringing On Your Mac and iPad When someone calls my iPhone, it rings, as you’d expect. But so do my Mac and my iPad. It sounds like a teenage band at their first rehearsal: everyone's trying to play the same tune, but they're not doing it at the same time. Read This Article → Why Rebooting Your Router Fixes So Many Problems (and Why You Have to Wait 10 Seconds) The internet is down, but you know what to do: unplug your router or modem, wait ten seconds, then plug it back in. It’s second nature at this point, but why does it actually work? And is there some magic to the ten second number? Read This Article → Why You (Probably) Don’t Need a Crazy-Powerful GPU Like the GTX 1080 Ti For us PC gamers, there’s a desire for the latest and greatest hardware, and there’s a definite cachet to having the coolest, fastest rig on the block. But in today’s PC gaming market, there’s really no reason to shell out for the most screamingly fast (and expensive) graphics card you can fit into your case. Read This Article → What’s the Difference Between Microsoft Office’s Desktop, Web, and Mobile Apps? Microsoft offers several different ways to run the various Office programs—as desktop apps, as mobile apps for Android or iPhone/iPad, and online in a web browser. As you might imagine, the online and mobile app versions aren’t as robust as the desktop version, but you might still find them useful. And for some of you, they might be all you need. Here’s the breakdown. Read This Article → How to Customize Firefox’s User Interface With userChrome.css Firefox Quantum‘s interface is still extremely customizable thanks to its userChrome.css file. You can edit this file to hide unwanted menu items, move the tab bar below the navigation toolbar, view multiple rows on your bookmarks toolbar, and do other things that normally wouldn’t be possible. Read This Article → How to Use a Custom Background in Gmail If you spend as much time with a Gmail window open as I do (thanks, Multiple Inbox feature!), you’re probably over the rather dull default theme. And even if you’re using one of the many custom themes available, maybe you’d prefer something else. Good news, everyone! You can use a photo from the web or your own computer as the background image, just like on your computer desktop. Read This Article → How to Pin WhatsApp Conversations to the Top of the Chat List WhatsApp has a neat feature where you can pin certain people to the top of the app. This means you can keep the important people in your life in the same place, above the rest of your chats. Here's how to do it. Read This Article → Stop Complaining That Your Browser Uses Lots of RAM: It’s a Good Thing It’s been a complaint about Chrome for years: “it hogs so much RAM!” And now that Firefox Quantum is here, the fire rages on—some users see less RAM usage than Chrome, while others see similar amounts. And it seems to have a big hand in what browser people are using. Read This Article → Advertisement Dashlane - Never Forget Another Password Dashlane has a slick Web 2.0-type interface with a host of similar features--like syncing, password auditing, assisted automatic password changes, and alerts in case of security breaches. Dashlane has definitely led the pack in the good interface department Click here to download