How-To Geek

Are you looking for a way to secure your smart home against potential bad actors or intruders? A VLAN is the perfect tool for the job. Here’s how I have my VLAN set up, and how I plan to use it to secure my smart home’s network.

I run a silly little website on Neocities called Whistling Nose Games, Music, and Multimedia. During some downtime last year, I spent a few months relearning web design, CSS, JavaScript, and creating absurd games/music. It has an intentional nostalgic vibe. I'm going to revamp it. A friend, whose design skills are phenomenal, pointed me in the direction of Astro to help me with my redesign. So I gave it a shot and it turned out pretty well.

One of the great things about Android Auto is that you're carrying your infotainment system with you wherever you go. If you own more than one car, you don't have to set up two different profiles. Just connect your phone, and the experience follows you. Likewise, if multiple people share a car, it feels like the specific head unit doesn't really matter. It's the phone that sets the stage and handles everything, right?

Buying an electric car has traditionally meant paying more upfront in exchange for lower running costs down the road. That's been one of the biggest hurdles for shoppers considering the switch, especially when similarly equipped hybrid models often carry a lower sticker price.

Paramount+ added more than 60 movies to its lineup for July, and while tried-and-true Paramount regulars like Top Gun: Maverick, Scream 7, and Roofman still linger around in the streamer's top 10, sometimes you might just want to cut to the chase with a good thriller. Worry not, thrill-seekers; we're here for you.

USB-C is super handy in the sense that every port and connector looks exactly the same, so you never have to wonder whether it'll fit or not. It can be confusing, though, and sometimes, the confusing parts aren't even visible at a glance.

Ethernet has been around for a long time. Invented in the '70s, commercialized in the early '80s, and it's still the fastest and most reliable network technology you can have in your home.

We have all experienced this situation. Your check engine light comes on, and your mind immediately jumps to worst-case scenarios. And if you manage to get to the repair shop, you shudder at the thought of how much they will charge to fix this mysterious issue.

Google is famous for launching new services only to kill them. There are community trackers like Killed By Google that are explicitly dedicated to cataloging the hundreds of projects Google has started up and eventually retired to the digital graveyard. Some of these high-profile experiments include Google Reader and Google+, but some of them were much more outlandish.

HDDs are often seen as highly reliable, and it's true: they mostly are. But just as external HDDs can die on you at any time, so can regular, internal hard drives, and this is still true even if the HDD is new.

Luxury SUVs usually follow the same pattern. They arrive with fresh styling, impressive technology, and big promises, then slowly lose ground as newer rivals bring better features and more polished driving experiences.

Streaming can be an expensive proposition for the consumer. If you're subscribing to four or five services, that monthly bill can add up. That's why you need to make sure you're taking advantage of every feature a streaming service has to offer. That way, you can justify the expense.

Texture comes up often in 3D printing, but it’s almost always about removing it. Things get complicated when you start trying to add texture to models—at least that’s what I thought. A free tool completely changed how I think about 3D printing textures.

It’s no secret that smartphones are already ridiculously expensive, and the ongoing RAM shortage is one reason prices have climbed so much. While experts expect the shortage to ease over the next two to three years, don't expect smartphone prices to fall accordingly. The cost of owning a smartphone is only going to increase, and that's the plan.

Most of my important files already exist in several places, but almost all of those places are connected to something. My PC, cloud storage, and ordinary external drives are all convenient precisely because I can reach them whenever I need something. Unfortunately, that also means I can accidentally delete something, overwrite it, synchronize a bad change, or expose it to malware.

The first VBA macros I added to my Excel toolbar quickly became some of my most-used shortcuts. Since then, I've added five more that save me even more time by automating repetitive formatting, cleanup, and navigation tasks in every workbook I open.

Portable power stations come in all sizes, from those you can carry on a camping trip to suitcase-size ones that can power a home. But the next wave of home backup power is thinner, while being stylish enough to serve as decor—and there’s one brand that has me feeling particularly hyped.

If you think you have to go out and buy a brand-new system to run Plex on, you're sorely mistaken. Here are seven devices that you might have lying around the house that you can turn into a Plex server without spending a single cent.

TV streaming boxes haven’t changed much lately, but I recently placed one under my TV that has not only impressed me — it's impressed everyone I've shown it to. It also happens to lack any tracking and is powered by open source software. This may just be the upgrade your TV needs.

Linux runs everything from the world's most powerful supercomputers to most cellphones to low-power smart devices. However, the Linux community—never a group to not tinker—has been making Linux run on dozens of devices, from calculators to iPods to game consoles.