Networking

Dave has bought two iMacs and they've both died after two days. Leo says it sounds like a power surge in his house that's causing it. Leo advises a power conditioning surge suppressor. It'll have a battery and circuitry that cleans up the power so there's an even flow without surges. Leo likes Tripp Lite and APC, but CyberPower is Leo's current favorite.

Eric uses the Hotspot mode on his Note 8, but not every device can see the Wi-Fi connection. Leo says that there are two frequencies, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The phone does both. So he should check on that. He should also check on the encryption he's using. His devices should at least see it, though. It sounds like SSID hiding may be turned on in the phone's hotspot settings. If it is, then he should uncheck it. He may want to take it into his carrier store.

Bill has powerline adapters for his internet access and his Wi-Fi signal isn't very good. Rich says when powerline adapting, he will need to be on the same circuit in order for the router to work right. A better solution is to go with a new mesh router. He can expand the network with a simple access point beacon. Rich uses Eero. It's a little more expensive, and there are others including Plume. But this is a better way to improve the wireless signal in his house.

Dan got a new router from his ISP and he can't change the router settings. They're grayed out. Rich says while he can change the router settings in the router, he can also change them in his computer's OS. He'll have to be sure he has administrator access in the router to make any changes. The other option is to buy his own router.