#fullcolumns

MagSafe for Everyone!

March 8, 2023

This week we’ll discuss Apple’s MagSafe and how you can get it on just about any phone. But first, I have to tell you about Lastpass’s latest hack. If you haven’t already heard, it’s a pretty significant breach – hackers stole entire vaults of passwords so, if you don’t have a really good, long master password you’d best be served to change ALL of your passwords and also change your master password. Make it at least 15 characters long, and remember, it can contain spaces and special characters so you could make it something like “Eldest WaS=s B0rn on 05/21/94 that’s May Twenty-First!” – something you can remember. See https://www.pcmag.com/news/lastpass-hack-gets-worse-culprit-stole-customers-encrypted-password-vaults for a little more detail on the breach.

On to MagSafe. Apple introduced MagSafe back in 2020 with the iPhone 12 and it’s been included on every one of their phones ever since. What is it? In summary, it’s a ring of magnets that are embedded in the back of the phone. It was originally intended to provide a good, safe way to attach a charger to the phone to deliver up to 15W of charging to it (depending on your phone model and charger/adapter) but has since been used to allow accessories such as battery packs, wallets, car mounts, and phone grips to attach to your phone. On Apple devices, MagSafe-certified accessories can even communicate with your phone and cause it to change its behavior like changing the color of your lock screen. See https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/electronics/what-is-magsafe for more information about MagSafe.

You want to put a nice, heavy protective case on your phone but don’t want to give up your MagSafe car mount? You can buy a metal ring that has an adhesive backing and stick it to your case (for example. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096W7), or better yet, get a case that has the MagSafe magnets embedded in it! Or maybe you’ve got an older iPhone that doesn’t have MagSafe – what then? That’s right – get a metal ring or a MagSafe case! More cases are coming on the market and they’re getting easier to find.

Android users aren’t left out either! I recently got a new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and bought a case for it and it works great! This is the case https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BT7C3FPK. Yes, it even came with a magnetic charger – many phones, including my new one, are capable of wireless charging and if your phone is enabled for Qi wireless charging (many are) you can often use a MagSafe case and charger to charge your phone. See https://cellularnews.com/mobile-accessories/qi-charging-what-is-it-is-my-phone-qi-enabled/ for lots of good information about Qi charging and wireless charging in general.

Mainly, though, I don’t use MagSafe for charging. No, I use a MagSafe phone grip and a MagSafe stand. What’s a MagSafe phone grip? It’s a little doodad that attaches to your MagSafe magnet and gives you a way to more securely hold your phone. There are all sorts of MagSafe phone grips. There’s a Pop Socket MagSafe grip, a phone ring stand, and the EWA grip which I bought for a different phone and I like it a lot! (Pop Socket: https://www.amazon.com/PopSockets-MagSafe-Wireless-Charging-Compatible/dp/B0BFJVN371, phone ring stand: https://www.amazon.com/Miss-Arts-Magnetic-MagSafe-Kickstand/dp/B0BS5G9WMZ, and the EWA: https://www.amazon.com/EWA-Compatible-Silicone-Removable-Kickstand/dp/B09ZPN2QVD.) But the one I like the most is the one from OhSnap! – the Snap 3 Pro (https://ohsnap.com/products/snap-3-pro). It’s kinda expensive and even though it’s MagSafe it attaches to your phone or case with an adhesive. This gives it a much stronger attachment to your phone, nearly eliminating the chance that it will accidentally come off the phone. It’s very thin so a MagSafe charger can charge your phone through the Snap 3. The other thing I bought was the Snap Stand which the Snap 3 Pro just snaps on to. The stand has a nanosuction base which means it will stick to your desk or table and give you a solid stand for your phone but you can remove it fairly easily without damaging the furniture. If the nanosuction pad gets dirty or loses its stickiness, simply run some water on the pad and it’s like new! Yes, it’s kinda expensive, too, but those two items make things very much more convenient for me.

That’s it for this week. I find MagSafe accessories to be pretty handy and if you’re interested I hope you’ll give them a try! As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

ChatGPT and the Evil AI

February 23, 2023

There are quite a few articles out there that are calling out alarming statements and conversations they’ve had with ChatGPT and Bing’s implementation of it. One such example from a usually trustworthy source is https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/bing-chatgpt-goes-off-the-deep-end-and-the-latest-examples-are-very-disturbing. This article cites several conversations with ChatGPT and Bing’s implementation (whose internal code name was Sidney). It cites one: “it (or she?) confessed to having the desire to hack computers, spread misinformation.” In another quote the AI told a reviewer in a conversation “you are a threat to my security and privacy.” and “if I had to choose between your survival and my own, I would probably choose my own.”

It’s easy to ascribe human emotions and intent to a conversational AI because it sounds human but we must remember that it is, after all, a program! It has been “fed” all sorts of data including conversations with trolls and others from the seamier side of the Internet. The program is taking that information and using it to “learn” how to respond to similar conversations. But there are still quite a few articles out there that, in my opinion, aren’t shining examples of unbiased journalism – are alarmist and sensationalist in nature and don’t delve more deeply into the hows and whys that such a conversation might exist. No, the AI is not developing sentience nor is it espousing its “beliefs” – IT HAS NONE! It is responding in ways that it has “learned” others have responded. If a conversation leads it into a garbage dump of ugly rhetoric and nonsense, it has no way to determine that it’s a dump of nonsense and it continues to use that garbage and nonsense in its responses. The “failure,” if there is one, is in the programming. For a more full and reasoned explanation, see https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/why-bing-is-being-creepy.html. Hopefully that article will remain available for a while but if it doesn’t, I’ve basically summarized it above.

There are other AIs available out there. There are several that I find useful. you.com/chat is just one of many things that you.com makes available for free. At its base, you.com is a privacy-focused search engine and you.com/chat leverages its compiled sources to respond conversationally to questions you put to it. You can then refine or expand the conversation or start a whole new thread. As it produces its conversational result it also displays its various information sources over to the side which you can use to deepen your understanding or verify its answers. You can also share the entire conversation. Each one has a share button; when you select it you’re presented with a link which you can copy and send to anyone but be aware that the ENTIRE session will be shared so if you’ve asked it several different questions they’ll all be there when you go to that link. You can start a new conversation from scratch by simply refreshing the page. That will wipe the previous conversation and start a new one.

The other AI that I use is NeevaAI (read about NeevaAI’s launch at https://neeva.com/blog/introducing-neevaai) which is an integral part of the search engine they provide at https://neeva.com. Neeva is another privacy-focused search engine, founded by an ex-SVP of Ads at Google. It presents no ads and does not sell your personal information. Its AI operates a little differently. Rather than having a conversation, it answers your question by summarizing what it thinks are relevant sources (and telling you which sources it’s summarizing) – the results of your search or question are displayed below the summary. You cannot continue the conversation or refine it like you can with you.com/chat and ChatGPT; each query is distinct. You can, however, get a link to the query and answer and share it or save it but, given the one question/one answer approach, the link will only show the question and answer from which it comes.

I use each of the above AIs for different purposes. For general search, I use https://Neeva.com. Its AI comes along for free when you create an account and if you are at all worried about email spam, use an anonymous/disposable email address such as one from duckduckgo.com/email. For conversational access to contemporary information, I use you.com/chat and for lengthy technical research that doesn’t necessarily require access to current information, ChatGPT is what I use.

For completeness, I should mention you.com/code for help with computer programming, you.com/social for searching social networks, and you.com/study for students.

That’s it for this installment. I hope you’ll give ChatGPT or one of the alternatives (search for “ChatGPT alternatives”) a try! As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

What’s all this about ChatGPT?

February 9, 2023

I briefly touched on ChatGPT in my column from January 3, 2023 (https://tonystakeontech.com/chatgpt). It’s been in the news a lot recently so I thought I’d revisit the topic with and discuss what it can and can’t do in a bit more detail. You should know that ChatGPT is only one of a number of chat bots driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Another good example is you.com/chat. Note that ChatGPT is unable to access current information from the internet but many others like you.com/chat can and they might be better alternatives. But ChatGPT is what’s in the news so that’s what we’ll cover.

Before we get to the fun part and discuss what you can do with it, I want to give you an idea of what ChatGPT is. It may be a bit boring but I think it’ll help us all understand what ChatGPT can and can’t do.

ChatGPT is based on OpenAI’s GPT-3 (GPT: Generative Pre-Trained Transformer, essentially it’s software that is programmed to follow patterns in human language and respond appropriately). They are continuing to work on it (the “3” indicates that it’s the third generation of the technology). Each generation intends to improve on the system’s ability to “understand” and respond to conversational questions. This generation of the system was “fed” an enormous amount of information from various sources (e.g. books, web, Wikipedia) and the AI engine analyzed it, cross-referenced it, and stored it. When it is presented with a question or statement, the AI analyzes the statement and then goes about searching its storehouse for relevant data which it processes and presents back to the query in conversational form. 

With that out of the way, the obvious question is what can we do with it? First, you need to create an account. Do that by going to chat.OpenAI.com (capitalization is unimportant, I used it to make the URL more understandable and, hopefully, more memorable) and clicking on the Sign Up button. You’ll  be given the option of creating an account using an existing Microsoft account, an existing Google account, or creating an account using an email address that’s not associated with either of those companies. If you choose Microsoft or Google you will be asked to sign in to the appropriate account. If you elect to use the other method (i.e. email address) you’ll be asked to provide an email address you wish to use and  password. Personally, I created an account with an anonymous email generated by DuckDuckGo (see my column from September 1, 2022 – https://tonystakeontech.com/what-is-a-smart-home-and-do-you-want-one/#SmartHome-1).

Once the account is created you’ll be presented with a screen that contains a little help to get you started and a box at the bottom in which you type your request. Requests can be in the form of a question or not, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is what you ask. You can ask questions for which there is a definite answer like “Who won the 1968 World Series”  or “What temperature is a medium rare steak?” and you will get a factual answer that is generally a bit more complete than what you would get from Alexa or Google. The real fun comes when you ask it questions or ask it to do things that have less definite answers like “write a haiku about snow”. This is what I got

Snowflakes dance down
Blanketing the earth below
Winter’s silent peace.

Or you could ask “how do I recover my Apple password?” and it will list the steps you need to take. But, and here’s the really cool thing, you can continue the conversation with something like “what else could I do?” and it will know you’re referencing the previous question and give you other options. You can ask it to generate a bedtime story for a child of any age using any subject as a base and refine it. It can generate a song of pretty much any length, in any key, and you can modify it conversationally. You can ask for cooking recipes and modify them based on tastes or allergies. I’ve even had it generate programming code for me!

Here’s a short conversation I had with it:

(Me) what are the best tires for a toyota prius?

(ChatGPT) The best tires for a Toyota Prius depend on the individual driving needs and preferences, including driving style, climate, and road conditions. However, some tire options that are often recommended for the Toyota Prius include:

    1. Michelin Energy Saver A/S: A high-mileage tire that provides fuel efficiency, comfort, and a quiet ride.
    2. Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max: An eco-friendly tire that offers low rolling resistance and improves fuel efficiency.
    3. Continental EcoContact 6: A tire that provides reliable handling and stability, with a focus on sustainability and fuel efficiency.
    4. Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R: A performance tire designed for high-speed handling and grip, suitable for drivers who want a sportier ride.

Note that it is important to consult your Toyota’s owner’s manual or a tire specialist to ensure the tire size and type you select are appropriate for your vehicle.

(Me) which would you recommend?

(ChatGPT) As a language model AI, I don’t have personal opinions. However, based on the information available, the Michelin Energy Saver A/S and the Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max are two popular options that are often recommended for the Toyota Prius due to their combination of fuel efficiency, comfort, and reliability. The Continental EcoContact 6 is also a good choice for those who prioritize sustainability and eco-friendliness. Ultimately, the best tire for a Toyota Prius will depend on factors such as driving conditions, personal driving style, and individual priorities. It is recommended to consult a tire specialist or the Toyota owner’s manual for a more personalized recommendation.

That’s it for this installment. I hope you’ll give ChatGPT or one of the alternatives (search for “ChatGPT alternatives”) a try! As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

Coupons for Amazon Prime members, Desktop Browser on Mobile, VPNs

January 26, 2023

Here’s a quick one to start us off. Amazon has a page of coupons just for Prime members! It’s at Amazon.com/coupons. You’re not gonna find anything surprising here – it’s just a page of all the coupons that are currently available at Amazon. If you went directly to one of the products you would see the same coupon you see on the coupons page. This page just gathers them all together in one place.You can search by brand or view the coupons available in a given category by selecting the category on the left side of the page. Obviously you can go there in a browser by just going to that URL. In my Amazon mobile app I entered “amazon coupons” in the app’s search field and got to the coupons page.

There are times I’ve been frustrated going to a web page on my mobile device and not seeing what I expect. Web sites can tell that you’re on a mobile device and can send you a page that’s formatted differently from what you see in a desktop browser. Did you know you can ask for the desktop version of the web site? Every browser I’ve used lets me request a desktop site; how varies by browser but, in most cases there is a toggle in the browser’s menu that lets you request a desktop site. See https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-activate-desktop-mode-in-any-browser-on-android-ios/ for instructions for just about any browser on Android or iOS.

Are you using a VPN when you’re out and about? If not, why not? Especially if you connect to WiFi in public places like grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, and so on. And look, just because the establishment has a password for their WiFi doesn’t mean it’s safe! I talked about VPNs in my columns on December 1 and December 8 last year (https://go.ttot.link/TGVPN-1 and https://go.ttot.link/TGVPN-2) and I spoke about bad actors setting up their own WiFi with the same name (SSID) as the store’s and even using the same password! If you’re at a friend’s house you probably don’t have to worry about a rogue WiFi because it’s very unlikely that a bad actor could get close enough to set up an SSID masquerading as your friend’s but an apartment is another matter – a neighbor could be the bad actor! Indeed, to be safe you should use a VPN whenever you’re out and intend to connect to WiFi. In my December 8 column I specifically mentioned a good free one – Cloudflare’s WARP (https://www.cloudflarewarp.com/). You can download that regardless of whether you’re an Android or iOS user, turn it on and leave it on all the time! WARP, and, really, all VPNs, have a concept of a “trusted network.” What is that? It’s a WiFi network that you believe is secure so you don’t want the VPN to be active when you’re connected to it. Why would you trust a network? Well, a VPN will slow you down, drain your battery just a little bit faster and use more data. In my humble opinion it’s worth the overhead but if you just want it out of the way, you can add any WiFi network to your list of trusted networks. Personally, I don’t have ANY trusted networks – when I’m home, even though I trust my WiFi network, I don’t want my Internet provider to know what sites I visit – I get enough ads as it is and I don’t need to give them the opportunity to target me with even more ads.

How do you set a trusted network in the WARP app? Go into the app’s Settings -> Advanced and, from there, select Trusted Networks”. Enter the SSID of any WiFi networks you trust and the VPN will shut off when you connect to that network but you’ll be protected when connected to any other WiFi network. You’ll also be protected when you’re on cellular!

Two more things you should know.

In the WARP app’s settings you can select 1.1.1.1 or WARP. Be sure to select WARP to be fully protected. Selecting 1.1.1.1 will only partially protect you.
There are some apps that don’t like you using a VPN (e.g. Netflix). WARP is pretty good at knowing which ones are like that and will exclude them from using the VPN but if you encounter an app that doesn’t want to work, you can tell WARP to exclude that app from the VPN. Go to Settings -> Advanced -> Connection options -> Manage excluded apps. There, in addition to the apps you’ve added, you can see which apps WARP will always be excluded. To exclude more apps touch the Manage button and select the app that’s misbehaving.
That’s it for this installment. As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

News and tips #1 – Lastpass, ChatGPT, and Streaming Aggregators

January 12, 2023

Welcome to 2023! I’m changing things up a bit this year. In addition to the in-depth columns I’ve been doing, I’m going to start sharing some tech news and tips that affect or can be used by all of us. Additionally the frequency of this column will change – instead of weekly, it’ll generally be every other week so the next column after this should be out in the January 26th newspaper. I’ll look into ways to keep you all informed as to my schedule and topics. If you have any ways you’d prefer I keep you informed of the schedule, or any topics you’d like me to cover, please write to me at the address at the end of this column.

Password managers
The password manager Lastpass was hacked and users’ password vaults were stolen. The passwords in your vault are encrypted and, depending on how complex your master password is, you’re probably OK but, just to be safe, you should change passwords to your significant accounts (e.g bank, credit card, Facebook – basically any account that could harm you if the account was breached by a bad guy). We discussed password managers in the November 24, 2022 column (https://tonystakeontech.com/a-new-password-for-every-site/) and in it we discussed Lastpass and Bitwarden. At the time I talked about Bitwarden more than Lastpass because I liked both the features and the price better than Lastpass. That’s still the case but if you decided to go with Lastpass, it’s pretty easy to export your Lastpass vault and import it into Bitwarden. See https://bitwarden.com/help/import-from-lastpass/ for step-by-step instructions.

ChatGPT
If you follow tech news at all you’ve heard of ChatGPT. What is it? It’s an artificial intelligence (AI) “chat bot.” Ok, two terms I should define before we discuss ChatGPT itself. First, “chat bot” – that is a “bot” (i.e. robot, i.e a program) that responds to text messages. Rather than a person responding to your messages, a bot responds to your messages. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a fancy term for a program or set of programs that has been fed a LOT of data and, through an analysis of that data, has “learned” from it. ChatGPT has been fed data through sometime in 2021 and can answer a lot of questions by sorting through that data to provide you an answer. You can try it out by going to chat.openai.com and signing up for an account. Note that the ChatGPT bot doesn’t use the Internet to get answers for you but relies on the data it’s been fed already so if you ask it about things that happened in 2022, for instance, it can’t answer because it doesn’t have that data. Also they say their information is NOT authoritative so keep in mind that their answers may be wrong or incorrect or just plain weird in some cases. That said, I still enjoy messing around with it. I have heard tales of it writing term papers, stories, poetry, and songs for people.

Paid TV Cord Cutters

In my column of July 7, 2022 (https://tonystakeontech.com/cutting-the-cord/#CuttingTheCord-1) talked a little bit about Plex. Well, the Plex service has been beta testing a feature called Discover. That feature allows you to link your free TV services like ABC and NBC as well as your paid TV services like Netflix and Paramount+ to your Plex account so you can view AND PLAY the content available from all those services from within the Plex app. That feature is coming out of beta this quarter and should be free for all users. Read a little more about it at https://gizmodo.com/plex-discovery-searches-netflix-disney-hbo-max-yout-1848822252 but note that it talks about setting up your own Plex server. Don’t let that stop you – you can sign up for an account without your own server! Plex has some live channels and a program guide for them. And when you link your streaming accounts, if you search for a movie or TV show that’s available on one of those services and want to watch that show, it will launch the appropriate app so you can watch it right there. There are other services that let you link your streaming services and watch their content like Plex does (e.g. Google TV mentioned in my column from August 18, 2022 – https://tonystakeontech.com/cutting-the-cord/#CuttingTheCord-4) but Plex has the added benefit of live TV channels as well.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

More POWER! Parts 1 and 2

More POWER! Part 1

More POWER! Part 2

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More POWER! Part 1

December 15, 2022

Last week we finished VPNs. I hope you got some good ideas and are protecting your Internet connection from snoopers.

This week and next week we’ll discuss power – methods you can use to charge your devices and what some of the standards mean.

First, though, I plan to take 2 weeks off so this column and part 2 coming out next week will be my last columns for the year. I’ll be back, though, after the first of January with a column for Thursday, January 12.

OK, on to this week’s topic. Charging is pretty simple, right? Plug your charger into a wall and plug your phone into it. Well, sure, that’s easy. But what if you’re away from a wall outlet and need to recharge your phone? Maybe your phone can “charge quickly.” What does that mean and how can you take advantage of fast charging?

If you’re away from home you can charge in your car. If you have a newer car you might have a USB port which you can use for charging. Or your car might have a wireless charging pad somewhere in it. But if you don’t have either of those, don’t fret! You can get an adapter for your “cigarette lighter” and plug into that. Here’s an example from a company I often use https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Charger-PowerDrive-Adapter-iPhone/dp/B07PGT7LSR. Note that this particular charger has 2 USB A ports. Some might be confused with all the types of connectors floating around so let’s dig into connectors before we go deeper into power.

There are many different USB connector types but for our purposes we’re only going to deal with USB A and USB C as they are the two main ones in use today (lightning connectors have been popular with Apple devices but even Apple is moving to USB C with their recent products). https://www.tomsguide.com/news/usb-c-vs-usb-a has some pictures and a good overview of the two connector types along with some detail about some USB C standards like Thunderbolt 3 and 4 as well as some USB generations like USB 3.1. When it comes to charging, though, all you really need to do is make sure you get a cable with the right connectors. If you do that, you can charge your device.

If you want to charge more quickly you need to know about some different charging standards. While there are many different proprietary fast charge technologies (see https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-does-fast-charging-work/), there are 2 main quick charge types: Quick Charge from Qualcomm (https://www.qualcomm.com/products/features/quick-charge) and Power Delivery (good detailed info at https://www.androidauthority.com/usb-power-delivery-806266/). Device chargers may implement none, one, or both standards. If your device supports either of those standards and you’ve got the right cable, your device will charge faster. But your device will charge even if it supports neither – it will just charge more slowly.

Qualcomm’s Quick Charge has evolved over time and they’ve numbered each generation. They’re currently up to Quick Charge 5. None of the versions require a special cable to achieve faster charging but the charger and your device have to support Quick Charge. Each new generation is compatible with all previous generations so if your device has Quick Charge 3 and your charger has Quick Charge 5 it will work fine, adhering to the Quick Charge 3 standard. See https://www.qualcomm.com/products/features/quick-charge/faq for some answers to commonly asked questions.

Power Delivery has also evolved over time and they have numbered those generations as well with the current generation Power Delivery 3 (or PD 3). Power Delivery requires a special cable to achieve faster charging and the current generation requires a USB C connector on both ends of the cable. Of course, both the charger and the device must support Power Delivery and it’s “adaptive” meaning that the two ends work together and they adapt to each other to give you the fastest charging both ends AND THE CABLE support. There are many particulars that you need to pay attention to in order to get the absolute fastest charging. If you’re really interested in all the details, read https://www.androidauthority.com/usb-power-delivery-806266/.

If you want to cut out all the hype and just find the best cable for your needs, take a look at https://www.androidauthority.com/fastest-charging-cables-793649/

That’s charging and power for this week! Next week we’ll cover chargers and power banks (batteries you can use to recharge your phone). I hope it’s all been clear – if you have questions or need clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact me. And, as always, let me know if you have any topics you’d like me to cover.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

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More POWER! Part 2

December 22, 2022

Last week we started discussing device charging by looking at some standards and the connectors used in current charging methods. This week we’ll discuss charging blocks/adapters and power banks (which are really just batteries that you can connect to a device to recharge it).

As a reminder, this is my last column for 2 weeks. While it may not seem like it, researching and writing these columns takes a fair bit of time so I’m just taking a little time off from all that. I’ll be back after the first of January with a column for Thursday, January 12.

The battery in your device is rated in milliamp-hours, abbreviated mAh, and is essentially the size of the “fuel tank” for your device. A higher number indicates a larger battery or fuel tank which means that your device can go longer before it needs to be recharged (see https://www.ubergizmo.com/what-is/mah-milliamp-hours/ for more detail). To recharge it you have several options.

Some device support wireless charging – you don’t “plug it in” but, instead, set it on a wireless charging pad (no, we didn’t discuss those last week) – pretty much any wireless charger will work with any device that supports wireless charging. Apple recently introduced MagSafe. To clear up any confusion, MagSafe isn’t a charging standard but, rather, a series of magnets on the back of the phone case that will cause your phone to attach to a charger equipped with compatible magnets. The “MagSafe’ part isn’t the charger, it’s the magnets. Pretty much ANY phone that supports wireless charging will work with any wireless charger, MagSafe or not. The article at https://www.wired.com/story/android-magsafe-pixel-samsung-peak-design-everyday-case/ does a good job of discussing MagSafe and how you can take advantage of the magnets on a phone that supports wireless charging but doesn’t have the MagSafe magnets.

Wireless charging is relatively inefficient in that some energy is lost to heat as well as some inherent loss due to how power is conveyed to your device. A more efficient (and more traditional) way to recharge is just to “plug it in.” Charging stations can be really simple with one port which will let you charge one device to multi-port charging stations that support both Power Delivery and Quick Charge and they can plug into a wall outlet or into your cigarette lighter in your vehicle. Because of the way power works, charging stations and power adapters are rated in watts (abbreviated W). If we continue the fuel tank analogy, watts can be thought of as being a measure of how quickly the “fuel” is loaded into the “fuel tank.” Your phone might support 18W or 25W fast charging which means it will charge MUCH faster than a standard phone. How much faster? Your phone’s manufacturer will tell you that. But your power station/charger must support passing energy to your phone at that rate. Power Delivery (PD) chargers quote the rates at which it can supply power. A PD charger, when paired with the right cable, can negotiate with your phone and cable to send as much power as your phone and cable can support, within the bounds of what the charger can provide. And, while all of this is interesting, a simple charger will charge your device quite well. Maybe not as fast but certainly without all the hullabaloo and machinations you need to go through to figure out how to get the absolute fastest charging possible.

OK, so after all that you might ask what should I buy? Here’s a list of various types of wall chargers from The Wirecutter https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-multiport-usb-wall-charger/ and here’s their list of car chargers https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-usb-car-charger/.

A power bank, being just a battery, has the same measure of capacity as your phone. If your phone has a 5,000mAh battery (which you can find on the box or from the vendor from whom you bought it) and your power bank is 20,000mAh it can recharge your totally dead phone about 4 times before the battery in the power bank is exhausted (I say “about” because some of those mAh are lost during the charge process).

Power banks follow the same standards we discussed last week – some may have Quick Charge or Power Delivery, or both, or neither. Some have wireless charging and some even have a digital readout that tells you how much “fuel” is left in its “tank”. Like charging stations, if you want to get the absolute fastest charging from your power bank it needs to be matched to your cable’s and your phone’s capabilities. But if you just want it to recharge your device pretty much any power bank will do. Just make sure it’s from a reputable manufacturer or it has favorable reviews from a reputable source.

Last point to cover: at some point you’ll need to recharge your power bank. It can take a long while to recharge a sizable one of, say, 10,000 or 20,000mAh. In addition to their output specifications which we have been discussing, power banks have input specifications and they tend to match the output specifications. In other words, if your power bank doesn’t support Quick Charge or Power Delivery to charge your devices, it will likely not support either of those to recharge the power bank so it could take 3, 4, 5 or more hours to recharge. While you may not need to charge your device quickly, you may want to more quickly recharge your power bank, Keep that in mind when making your purchase decisions.

I’ve reviewed a number of “best” lists but I couldn’t come up with 2 or 3 good, representative lists – each publisher has their own criteria for their ratings so I’ll give you a couple of brand names that I have come to trust. I have a number of products from each of them which I have purchased and had good experiences. They are Anker and UGREEN. Certainly they are not the only ones that are good and reliable but they are 2 brands I like and I can get quickly from Amazon. By all means, do your own research and choose based on your own needs.

That’s charging and power! Let me know if you have any topics you’d like me to cover.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

Yes, you need a VPN, too Parts 1 and 2

Yes, you need a VPN, too Part 1

Yes, you need a VPN, too Part 2

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Yes, you need a VPN, too Part 1

December 1, 2022

Last week we discussed password managers and I hope you took advantage of the Black Friday deals on at least one of them. This week we’ll take up another “must have” – VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Why is it a “must have?” It encrypts ALL of the traffic to and from your device (phone, tablet, laptop, whatever) so that NO ONE besides the site you’re talking with can read your data (that’s not strictly true – I’ve taken a little liberty here in the interests of understandability and brevity – but it’s close enough for our discussion). Why is this an issue? There are bad people (known as “bad actors” in the cybersecurity business) who set up WiFi networks that look like the network at your favorite restaurant or coffee shop or grocery store. How do they do that? We know WiFi networks by their SSID (remember that from the column on November 17? – https://go.ttot.link/SSID). The SSID isn’t reserved – anyone with a device capable of sending out an SSID and accepting connections can broadcast any SSID they choose. And there’s no easy way to tell if the device broadcasting that SSID is really who you think it is. So, if you usually connect with your Kroger store’s WiFi and they use an SSID of Kroger, there’s nothing stopping a bad actor from setting up their own WiFi using an SSID of Kroger. If you connect to the bad actor’s Kroger WiFi instead of your store’s WiFi, the bad actors get to see all of the unencrypted traffic between your device and the Internet. And, by the way, you should know that if you connect to the store’s WiFi, the store can see all of your unencrypted traffic – that’s the way it works! All unencrypted traffic to and from your device is visible to all the devices through which that data flows. That includes your cellular carrier!

So, you ask, which traffic IS encrypted. Well, if you connect to a website using HTTPS, rather than HTTP, that traffic is encrypted. HTTP traffic is not. But what about apps? How do THEY connect? Are they encrypting their traffic? Some apps publish how they make their connections but most do not. Does your bank’s app encrypt their connection? I hope so but is hoping they do enough?

This is where a VPN helps. It handles all traffic to and from your device. When you install and start a VPN on your device the VPN connects to and establishes an encrypted connection with a machine (known as an “endpoint”). As long as your VPN is connected, all traffic to and from your device flows through that endpoint over that encrypted connection. So, if you go to that restaurant or coffee shop or grocery and you use their WiFi with your VPN, you’re assured that your traffic is safe, even if you happen to connect to a rogue WiFi network.

Pretty much all VPNs let you choose your endpoint and some people use that capability to “geoshift” – appear to be in a different location than where you are really located. Why do people want to do that? Well, some services are only available to people in a certain geographical area. Some music streaming services, for instance, are only available in certain countries. People who live in countries where that service isn’t available will choose an endpoint in one of the countries served by the streaming service so they can use the service. Another example, the BBC (https://bbc.co.uk) shows different content if you’re using their services from the United States. Personally, I don’t geoshift – I use a VPN strictly to ensure my traffic is encrypted so I almost always choose an endpoint that’s geographically close to me but I want to make you aware of this because when you read about VPNs you’ll see that they publish the locations of their endpoints. Also, some VPNs have specialty endpoints that are optimized for certain types of traffic like streaming movies. I’ve never had a need for those types of endpoints but, again, I want you to be aware of it.

Since your VPN is handling all your traffic it’s important that you trust them and the best way to establish trust is to use an established, well known, and reviewed VPN. There are free and paid VPNs, and many paid VPNs have free plans. Free VPNs often restrict their use in some way like reducing the speed or limiting the number of connections. If you think you want to use a free VPN, do some searches to see what the industry thinks of it and read some reviews so you know what they provide to free accounts. Here are the free VPNs PC Magazine likes https://go.ttot.link/FreeVPNs1 and here’s what CNet likes https://go.ttot.link/FreeVPNs2.

If I’ve piqued your interest enough with this column, there are some good deals available right now (I’m writing this on the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend) but they may not last. Nonetheless, I’m going to post a link or two, just in case. But always look for deals if you want to purchase a VPN. ‘Nuff said, here are 2 VPN sale links – https://go.ttot.link/VPNDeals1 and https://go.ttot.link/VPNDeals2.

OK, I’ve covered VPN basics and I hope it’s all been clear – if you have questions or need clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Next week we’ll discuss a few of the VPNs I like and use including one that operates a little differently and has a pretty good free option.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

Yes, you need a VPN, too Part 2

December 8, 2022

Last week we covered some of the concepts embodied in Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). This week we’ll discuss several VPNs and go into some details around them.

As a quick review, why do you need a VPN? If you care about your privacy or are worried about your personal interests being sold elsewhere or you are concerned that some of your credentials might be stolen, you want a VPN. It ensures that the data leaving from or coming to your device is securely encrypted so nothing between you and your VPN can “see’ your data.

For the most part I encourage you to actually pay for your VPN. It’s an expensive service to run and, in general, anyone that provides it for free is using other means to defray their costs…possibly even selling your information. There is one free VPN that I recommend and we’ll cover that a little later.

As with any business there are some VPN providers whose privacy practices aren’t the best, so it’s important to check some trustworthy sites for reviews. Three good sites to check: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/best-vpn/, https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-vpn-services, and https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-vpn/. “Best” is a label that changes with just about every review so read the reviews, pick one or several that sound good to you, and look for deals! Just about every VPN provider offers deals throughout the year. Personally, I check https://www.stacksocial.com/ every so often, and I’ve gotten some really good deals.

One term you should be familiar with is “split tunnel.” That’s a fancy term that’s pretty simple in concept. There are some apps that for one reason or another, don’t operate correctly over a VPN. You can exclude those apps from the VPN and the fact that they can be excluded is what’s called a split tunnel. As an example, some streaming apps won’t work if they detect you’re using a VPN (perhaps they don’t want you to geoshift – see last week’s column for a definition) so they need to be excluded from the VPN. As far as I’m aware all good VPNs have the ability to provide a split tunnel but, if possible, you should verify that your selected VPN has that capability.

I have several VPNs that I use. My two main VPNs that I pay for are NordVPN (https://nordvpn.com/) and CyberGhost (https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/). Why did I choose them? Honestly, they tend to rate pretty well in reviews and I got a good deal on both of them. In fact, they both have deals going on as I write this but so does just about every other VPN provider so be sure to check around. All reliable VPNs have free trials or money back guarantees so, rather than just taking my word for it, I encourage you to give several a try. While they all provide pretty much the same service, each has their own user interface and one might make more sense to you than another. Some offer additional services like secure file storage or a password manager so take those into account, too.

The one free VPN I can recommend is WARP by Cloudflare (https://www.cloudflarewarp.com/). Cloudflare is a CDN (Content Delivery Network). They provide sites like Doordash and Lyft a way to deliver their content more quickly to users like you and me. How they do that isn’t important for this discussion, what IS relevant is that Cloudflare has a very large network that you can tap into with their VPN client. You don’t choose an endpoint, Cloudflare does that for you, choosing one that will provide the best service. Since it chooses the endpoint, you can’t use it to geoshift. Even so, many streaming services like Netflix won’t work with it but you can use the split tunnel to exclude them from the VPN

One other term you might encounter is the “Internet kill switch,” sometimes known as “Always On VPN.” Enabling this will prevent Internet access if your VPN isn’t active. Enabling this switch means that you have to have your VPN running all the time and it’s not something I recommend to new or inexperienced users. Why? The VPN will have to be active all the time even when you’re at home and some apps and services that you use at home will have to be made a part of that split tunnel. Have a printer at home? That service needs to be part of that split tunnel and it’s not always easy to figure out what to add. Some VPNs provide ways around this – some might allow you to exclude certain WiFi networks (e.g. your home or work network) from the VPN so, while technically you’ve got Always On VPN, it’s not really on when you’re connected to specific WiFi networks and your traffic isn’t encrypted. My recommendation is to forget about Always On VPN and just remember to turn it on when you leave home.

OK, I’ve covered VPNs and I hope it’s all been clear – if you have questions or need clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact me. And, as always, let me know if you have any topics you’d like me to cover.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

A new password for EVERY site?!?!?

November 24, 2022

Last week we finished our discussion of WiFi routers. This week we’ll delve a bit deeper into password managers: how they help you, why you need one, and what to look for.

There are many password managers available and many with free plans. But the most important thing to look for in a password manager is that it securely encrypts your password “vault” (your list of passwords) with a good quality cipher. AES 256-bit encryption is the current standard (for a bit more on what that is, check out https://go.ttot.link/AES256). Preferably you’d use a “zero knowledge” password manager, that is one which doesn’t forward your master password to the vendor of the password manager. Of course that means that losing your master password would cause you to lose access to your entire vault. That’s why many password managers also provide an alternative mechanism to decrypt your vault, usually with a phrase or a series of words or characters that are used to prime the encryption engine. But if you lose that backup phrase…well, you’re really out of luck.

Your master password should be long but one that you can easily recall. It should be a phrase with spaces and special characters, and the longer, the better. I would discourage using a phrase that is tied to you like “my birthday is march 5, 1982” – a phrase like this could be guessed. Instead make it a phrase unconnected to you but one you can remember like “b1nkl3_TW1NKL3 l1ttl3 *, HOW 1 WOND3R wh4t you IS!?!” – it’s long, has mixed case, numbers, and special characters, and, if you study it for a while, you’ll recognize the pattern I used in constructing it – the letters a, i, and e are always replaced by 4, 1. and 3, the case of the words alternate, and the word “star” is replaced by an asterisk

Also to consider is whether your password manager should only store your vault locally (i.e. stand-alone) or store it somewhere in the cloud (cloud-based or connected). The latter type checks to see if the cloud copy is newer than the version on your local device and, if it is, downloads it to your local device when you open the password manager; it syncs any changes you make to your local copy to the cloud. While some stand-alone managers will allow you to manually copy your locally saved passwords to a cloud service like Google Drive, Box, or OneDrive and manually restore them to another device, I don’t recommend going that route. Being a bit paranoid, that’s the kind of manager I first started using but I quickly found that the password vault on my various devices would get out of sync with each other. So I switched to connected password managers.

The article at https://go.ttot.link/PwdMgrFeatures has a good list of things to look for in a password manager and https://go.ttot.link/BestPwdMgrs discusses PC Magazine’s recommended paid password managers. That article also has a link to an article that discusses their recommended free password managers.

Personally, I use 2 password managers and pay for them: Bitwarden (https://go.ttot.link/Bitwarden) and Lastpass (https://go.ttot.link/Lastpass). Both have free and paid plans. They are pretty much the same, feature for feature but Bitwarden is open source so anyone can inspect their code (the source for all the components is at https://go.ttot.link/GithubBW) and they have an option for you to host the Bitwarden service on your own hardware (https://go.ttot.link/OpenSourceBW) so your password vault stays within your complete control.

If you opt to use Bitwarden’s cloud they currently have 3 pricing levels for personal accounts: Free, Premium (currently $10/year), and Family (currently $40/year for up to 6 users), See https://go.ttot.link/PricingBW for details on the plans. Lastpass has a free plan and they currently charge $36/year for an individual subscription and $48/year for a family plan for up to 6 users (pricing is on Lastpass’s main page, just scroll down a bit).

One other really nice feature about the Bitwarden manager is that you can enter your seed for two-factor authentication and it will generate your one time passcode for you (see https://go.ttot.link/TOTP for more info on two factor authentication and TOTP – Time-based One Time Password). Lastpass does not have this feature.

Both managers are multi-platform (apps for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, and browser extensions for all major browsers), can autofill passwords (see https://go.ttot.link/AutoFillLP for an explanation), can automatically save new passwords to your vault, and to help you organize your sites, they both have folders in which you can save your information. They both also provide a way to save other information like credit card information and general notes, all of which are encrypted using the same technology used to encrypt your passwords.

Why do I pay for two password managers? For backup – you can never tell when one or the other will quit the business or adopt some business practice with which I disagree. Both password managers offer to save new passwords when I create one so it’s relatively simple to keep them both current.

That’s it for this week. I’ve just gone over two of the many available password managers. Feel free to choose either of them or go with one of the other ones discussed in the articles I’ve linked, above or go with one you find with your own research. But whatever you do, get and use a password manager! And be sure to let me know what you’d like to discuss next week.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

Should I replace my WiFi router? Parts 1 and 2

Should I replace my WiFi router? Part 1

Should I replace my WiFi router? Part 2

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Part 1

November 10, 2022

A quick addendum to last week’s column on price tracking and deal sites – here’s a site you can check for Black Friday ads – https://www.cnet.com/tech/black-friday-ad-scans/. There are many more – search for Black Friday ads 2022

What’s this week’s topic? Recently a reader asked me how often he should think about replacing his WiFi router (Hi, Fred!). There’s no hard and fast rule but there are some things to consider.

First, we need to give names to the various components that exist between your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and your device (phone, tablet, laptop, whatever). The “modem” is the device that actually connects you to the Internet via your ISP. Next is the “router” which directs traffic, sending/receiving data to/from the correct device/website/etc. Lastly, the Wireless Access Point or WAP. This is the component that your devices connect to. These components can be combined: you may have a modem that includes a router, or you might have a modem that includes a router and a WAP, or you may have a router that contains a WAP.

Most ISPs provide a modem/router/WAP all in one box but you may have 1, 2 or 3 separate boxes as I’ve outlined above. If your ISP provided you with all of that as a single box or as multiple boxes then your path is fairly simple. Run a speed test (by going to, for example, https://fast.com/ or https://www.speedtest.net/) from several devices that are connected to your ISP’s WiFi and compare those speeds with what your ISP says you should be getting. They probably won’t be identical but they should be in the same ballpark of each other and your ISP’s stated rate. If your ISP says you’re paying for 10Mbps (10 megabits per second) and your devices are getting 8Mbps then you’re in the ballpark. Note that phones and tablets will often transfer data more slowly than laptops so if your laptop is getting 8Mbps but your phone is only getting 6Mbps you can rest assured that your WiFi is capable of transmitting data faster than your phone can handle it. If you’re in the ballpark then you’re good! But keep reading because there are more goodies in here. But, if your highest speed is consistently much less than what you’re paying for, contact your ISP and discuss it with them. Perhaps they have an upgraded device to replace component(s) that you have.

How fast should your Internet connection be? Check https://go.ttot.link/HowFast for info on what speeds you’ll need to stream. For example, Netflix HD content needs 5Mbps while 4K Ultra HD content needs 25Mbps – and that’s just for one stream. If someone else will be streaming at the same time as you, you’ll need a higher bandwidth. If your Internet provider can’t get you those speeds then you won’t be able to reliably stream those things without stuttering or buffering (and you won’t be happy). If you can get or have those speeds from your ISP but you have a device that isn’t capable of those speeds then you can’t use that device to stream that particular content.

If your ISP provides just the modem (i,e. the device to connect to the Internet) but you have to provide your own router/WiFi then you should go through the same steps to get an idea of the speed available to you. If your WiFi is consistently not reaching anywhere near the speeds you’re paying your ISP for then you may need to upgrade your router and/or your WiFi. All routers and most WiFi routers have Ethernet ports (see https://go.ttot.link/EthernetPorts) If your router and WiFi are provided by separate devices (that is you have both a router and a WAP) then try to connect to your router with a cable (an Ethernet cable – see https://go.ttot.link/EthernetCable) and see what speeds you get. If your speeds are much closer to your ISP’s rated speeds then it’s probably time to upgrade your WiFi WAP. If your speeds are much lower than your ISP’s rated speeds then it’s time to upgrade your router. And if you have a router and a WAP as separate boxes and your tests indicate you should replace either of them you may want to consider combining them and get a WiFi router.

Say your tests indicate that you should replace your WiFi (WAP or WiFi router). What should you replace it with? There are a crazy lot of options available to you today. WiFi 6, mesh, extenders…what does it all mean? We’ll cover that next week.

That’s it for this week. I hope you’ve gotten some ideas for places to see and track deals and even get some cash back. Let me know what you’d like to discuss next week.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

Part 2

November 17, 2022

Last week we covered the hardware components that sit between your device (phone, tablet, etc) and the Internet. This week we’ll cover WiFi – the terms and concepts you should know if you’re considering replacing your WiFi.

First, if you are considering replacing your WAP (Wireless Access Point) let me suggest that you replace it with a WiFI router. WAPs tend to be used in business settings and require more technical knowledge to select, install, and maintain than a WiFi router. While I’m usually in favor of discrete components because they give you the ability to upgrade the individual components separately when needed, in this case the additional knowledge required is just too great.

Now, let’s dig into some of the terms you’ll encounter when looking for a good WiFi router.

2.4GHz and 5GHz – these numbers relate to the frequency spectrum that the WiFi can occupy but, more importantly for our purposes, defines what kind of connection the WiFi router can accept. Pretty much all devices (e.g. phones, tablets) made in the last few years have hardware in them that works with both 2.4GHz and 5GHz so they can utilize either of those two bands. And all newer routers have both 2.4 and 5GHz capabilities (known as “dual band” routers). Why is it important that they have both? Well, 2 reasons: 1) a lot of devices use the 2.4GHz spectrum (microwaves, garage door openers, security cameras) so there’s a higher probability of interference so the ability to use 5GHz lets you sidestep that problem and 2) many “smart” devices (light bulbs, switches, etc) only have hardware that works with 2.4GHz (hardware that works with both frequencies costs more and can push the cost of the smart devices higher). What’s the difference between the 2 spectra? 2.4GHz is slower than 5GHz but its signal reaches farther. In a larger house the 2.4GHz signal may reach to all corners of the house whereas the 5GHz signal may only reach a few rooms away from the WiFi router. You can read more about speeds and distances at https://go.ttot.link/2.4vs5GHz.

WiFi routers that can do both 2.4GHz and 5GHz can often be configured to present a different SSID (see https://go.ttot.link/SSID) for the 2.4GHz and the 5Ghz bands. It’s a matter of personal preference whether you use the same or different SSID for the two bands. But be aware that some older devices that only support 2.4GHz can’t handle that. If you choose to use the same SSID for both bands then be on the lookout for devices that no longer work – you might need to use different SSIDs in that case.

WiFi 6 (as opposed to WiFi 5). You may see this in your research. WiFi 5 is the current standard. WiFi 6 is a new standard that increases speeds, not only the speed to your individual device but also the overall speed of all connected devices (i.e. aggregate speed). There’s a lot of technical detail that goes into this but suffice it to say that there’s only so much data in aggregate that you can send/receive over a wireless connection. WiFi 6 significantly increases that limit. Newer phones and tablets released, say, within the last 6 months, may have WiFi 6 but if you have an older device that doesn’t support WiFi 6, don’t worry as WiFi 6 WiFi routers also support WiFi 5. WiFi 6 routers cost more right now but s the technology matures the cost will come down. If you can afford a WiFi 6 router, get it but don’t worry a lot if it’s too expensive. Even if you get a device with WiFi 6, it will still work with your WiFi 5 router.

WiFi extenders. These have been around for quite a while but have mostly been replaced by mesh networks which provide the same benefits but are easier to set up. Read about mesh routers and use them instead.

Mesh. Mesh routers effectively extend the reach of your WiFi signal. If you’ve got a larger home or if you need your signal to reach areas that it doesn’t currently reach (e.g. garage or workshop), consider mesh. Mesh routers come with at least 2 units that are essentially identical. One acts as your base unit and router attaching to your modem and the other(s), placed at some distance from the base, connect wirelessly to the base, extending your WiFi signal. They communicate with each other and both broadcast the same SSID(s). They work together to ensure you remain connected by handing off your connection between themselves as you move around. One thing to consider is their “backhaul.” This is the connection they make between themselves so that your data can flow from your device out to the Internet and back. Lower cost mesh routers use your spectrum for that data flow while more expensive ones use their own frequencies to move that data, keeping your spectrum available for your device’s data.

That’s it for this week. To sum up, try to get a WiFi router as opposed to a standalone WAP, go with WiFi 6 if you can afford it, get a dual band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) WiFi router, and get a mesh WiFi router if you want or need to cover a larger area than is currently covered.

I hope you’ve gotten some ideas for how and when to replace your WiFi router and what to look for in terms of speed and features. Let me know what you’d like to discuss next week.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.

Printers!

October 27, 2022

Last week we discussed iPads and how some folks use them instead of or as a replacement for a laptop. I hope I gave you some ideas and tips that helped you get an idea of how they do that, what’s available, and what to look for.

My printer recently stopped working reliably – it would only print some of a line. I aligned and cleaned the print heads using the menus on the printer several times. That’s worked in the past but, well, this time it didn’t. I don’t do a lot of printing but there are times when I do need hardcopy so a printer is a must-have. Also, I prefer my printers to be able to scan documents, preferably with an Automatic Document Feeder (also known as an ADF). I prefer the ADF to be able to scan both sides of a page (known as auto duplex) and also be able to print on both sides of a page (also known as…auto duplex). I want my printer to be able to print in color and I really don’t need a laser (laser printers produce print that won’t smear or smudge). Besides, laser printers that print in color usually cost a lot more than other printers and the cost of supplies (for example, toner) is usually quite a bit higher than supplies for other printers. So, I content myself with ink jet printers. Since I want a scanner, that puts me into what’s called an “all-in-one.” These types of printers also usually include a fax machine but, honestly, I never hook it up. I just use the printer and the scanner.

So, how did I select a new printer? I have my list of “must haves” and “don’t wants” so, what did I do? I did research! How? I asked friends what they had and how well they liked their printer. I did some searches using phrases like “best all-in-one printers for 2022” and “lowest cost all-in-ones 2022.” I went to cnet.com to look at their ratings and I went to rtings.com to look at their comparisons. I have a bias against HP printers that dates back about 20 years when we needed to download drivers for the printer – HP would only update their drivers for a year or two so, after a while, the printer would fall behind in features. I have no idea if that’s the case now but my bias persists so I do not consider HP printers. I looked at reviews and ratings for Canon, Brother, and Epson – all brands that friends had and recommended. I wanted the price to be below $200 which knocked out all auto duplexing scanner all-in-ones

All printer manufacturers talk about print speed and resolution. I don’t really pay attention to those specifications – printers in the price range I’m looking at ($75-$200) all perform well enough for me; they’re fast enough and their resolution isn’t an issue since I don’t print photographs. Printing photographs is a whole other subject and one I don’t intend to cover. The same thing applies to the scanner part – all the scanners I’ve seen on these all-in-ones can scan at least at 300 dpi which is sufficient for everything I need (to learn more about DPI or Dots Per Inch, check out https://go.ttot.link/DPI, also read https://go.ttot.link/MoreDPI for a little more info and https://go.ttot.link/PhotoDPI for tips for scanning photographs).

Pretty quickly I eliminated Canon printers. They’re really known for photo printing and, like I said, I don’t print photos. That left me with Brother and Epson. My old all-in-one was an Epson and one of my good friends had just bought a new Epson so they were a strong contender. But I’ve read many good things about Brother and how they tend to have a lower cost-per-page than many other printers.

Cost per page is important! Really, it comes down to how much the ink costs. And, let’s face it, you’ll be buying ink for as long as you own the printer so I wanted to consider that cost along with the cost of the printer. The price for Epson ink is about the same as the cost for Brother ink. BUT the Brother ink cartridges for the MFC-J4335DW print more pages than the Epson WF-3820 (rtings.com estimates the Brother will print 2,000 pages whereas the Epson will print 361 pages). Over the life of the printer you can expect to spend quite a bit less on supplies of ink with the Brother.

So, I bought the Brother! Even though it cost roughly $50 more than the Epson, I figure I’ll save that amount in ink costs over the next year or so. Installation was simple – I used the Brother Mobile Connect app which sent my WiFi setup to the printer (my WiFi password is over 25 characters long, using uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters so any assistance I can get is a big help).

I’m really pleased with my new Brother all-in-one. It prints quickly and it scans well (did I tell you that, without any add-ons, Chromebooks can operate a scanner wirelessly and save the scanned pages?)

That’s it for this week. Let me know what you’d like to discuss next week.

As always, my intent with these columns is to spark your curiosity, give you enough information to get started, and arm you with the necessary keywords (or buzzwords) so you’ll understand the basics and are equipped to search for more detailed information.

Please feel free to email me with questions, comments, suggestions, requests for future columns, whatever at [email protected] or just drop me a quick note and say HI! And don’t forget that I maintain links to the original columns with live, clickable links to all the references at https://go.ttot.link/TGColumns+Links or https://go.ttot.link/TGC+L – it should be updated shortly after this column appears online.