Sally has a cable bundle with a billed shared speed of 300 Mbps. She doesn't think she's getting that, though. Leo says she probably isn't, at least not all the time. The key is the phrase "up to." Sally can run SpeedTest.net to see what she actually gets.
Terri bought a new NetGear router but she still can't connect to the internet. Her ISP, Frontier, says that she needs a firmware update. Is this true? Leo says it may be. Terri is using DSLExtreme and Frontier together and it may be that there's an older version of the firmware that's causing the hiccup. Updating the firmware is easy to do. She should go to Netgear.com and download it. Follow the instructions, log into the router, and then run the firmware update utility.
Mark is finding that links aren't changing color anymore. Leo says that with the advent of CSS, links have stopped changing colors and just remain the same color, unless specified in the style sheet settings. One option could be to use the accessibility settings in Chrome to make that change. Google search will change link colors. A feature could be turned off in his browser. He may want to try resetting it. The chatroom says that when you're in incognito mode, the color won't change.
JJ has the Philips Hue lighting system and his lights turned on in the middle of the night. He's discovered that his landlord shares the same breaker with him and after the power had been cut and restored, the lights came on. Is this common? Leo says that the Philips Hue system is really cool, but it can get reset when the power goes out or if there's some sort of change on the breaker. There's no real way out of it short of convincing Philips to change it.
If you're using your mobile phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for your Windows PC, or just trying to stay within a data cap from an internet service provider, you'll want more control over what things get downloaded and when.
First of all, you can easily see in Windows how much data you've used. In Control Panel --> Network and Internet, there's a data usage tab. This will show you how much data has been used and which apps have been using data.
Doug uses Verizon wireless for his home Wi-Fi and he's rather shocked in how much he's been using the last few days. He's only really checking email and such. Leo says that in Windows 10, under the control panel, there is a data usage tab on the Network and Internet. It'll show him how much data has been used and which app has been using it. This can help narrow it down. He should also check his browser history. And he shouldn't leave his browser open if his computer is left on.
A new government study shows that Americans are less likely to share controversial opinions online and over 25% have stopped online banking for fear of privacy and security concerns. 1 in 5 have had a major security breach in the last year, and over 26% won't shop online anymore.
Steve is a truck driver, and he uses a Galaxy Note 4 on Verizon as his primary internet connection. At home, he has Time Warner cable for TV, internet, and landline. Now that he's back on the road, he's only going to be at home for 1 week out of every 6 or 7 weeks. So he's trying to figure out how to get rid of Time Warner at home, and just use mobile internet. He'd like to get rid of Verizon, but it has the best connectivity for him across the country.
Margaret wants to get on the internet, but she's on a tight budget. Leo says that Margaret already has a cable subscription, so she could get a deal through them. She should ask what their cheapest package is, then shop around. DSL will be slower than cable. And the upload/download speeds they boast will be ideal max conditions. For standard email and surfing with little streaming, she should be fine with 1.5 Mbps up.
Harry is reinstalling the Windows Vista OS on a friend's computer and now it's connected to "an unidentified" router with a local access only. He can't get online. Leo advises connecting via hardwire. If that works, then it's a setting that's not allowing it to get online. A driver may need to be downloaded as well. Getting the motherboard drivers from the manufacturer could solve it.
