How-To Geek

Most people run a speed test the same way you check weight on a scale, as if one number tells the whole story. The number tends to look good, but it is a really narrow way to judge your connection quality. That Wi-Fi speed test has almost nothing to do with how a connection works in real conditions. It's better to know what it is doing before you assume it is correct.

It's a good time to be Guy Ritchie on Netflix. The Brit grit master has got a hit series, The Gentlemen, in its second season that's in the streamer's Top 10. Plus, the movie that series is based on is here, as is the recently added The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, both of which we have the details on below as part of this week's roundup that is decidedly savage.

For a single unit conversion, Google wins on convenience. But if I have a bunch of measurements to convert, I don't want a scrap of paper covered in random numbers, or to keep copying values out of a spreadsheet and back again. Excel's CONVERT function lets me keep the measurements, units, and results together, while reusing the same formula for as many conversions as I need.

Connecting your Android phone to a new Wi-Fi network is usually something you do without thinking. You find the network, enter the password, and get on with whatever you need an internet connection for. But that quick process can expose you to problems you might not notice until it's too late, especially when you're using networks you don't fully control.

If you've spent any time using the Linux terminal, you've probably used the grep command. It's what you use to quickly find a search term in a file or find all the files containing that term. It's useful, reliable, and fundamental to most terminal workflows. That said, grep is old — more than 50 years old. A lot has changed since then — our computing habits have evolved, and new technologies have emerged.

Are you always throwing out old USB cables? You’re not alone; cables and the ports into which they fit can be frustratingly delicate.

Controlling humidity levels in your home is extremely important. Its presence can contribute to wellness challenges, as well as affect the integrity of your home and possessions.

When you hear Kubuntu, you might think of the Linux-based operating system by the same name. But have you heard of Kubuntu Focus? It's a separate hardware-focused brand that sells machines with Kubuntu pre-installed and pre-configured. I've spent the last few weeks with the Kubuntu Focus Ar Gen 1 laptop and I have to say, I'm not all that impressed with the hardware.

The streamers are going all out for the last full week of September with a terrific lineup of new movies. First up is a music biopic about a landmark folk singer before he went electric. If you like rom-coms, you'll appreciate Prime Video's selection this week.

VS Code is one of the most popular editors out there—it is relatively lightweight, has an extension for everything, and has a core that is open-source. However, the actual download you get from Microsoft isn't; that version comes with telemetry, a proprietary license, and a marketplace that is limited to Microsoft's own builds.

Alexa and Google's Gemini are convenient, but they have trade-offs. You pay for convenience with your privacy, subscriptions, and sometimes even ads. Beyond the obvious privacy concerns, there is also a practical performance issue: most of the processing done by those types of devices takes place on cloud servers, which can introduce noticeable latency.

Sound matters. Among the many labels you’ll encounter when setting up a soundbar or home theater, “ARC” and “eARC” are sure to pop up. But what do they actually mean, and why should you care?

When you get a new phone or device, the first thing people think about is what to do with their current one. More often than not, they trade it in to get money back or lower monthly payments on their new device.

Months after the initial tease, the first Googlebooks are available to pre-order today. The Android laptops are as high-end as promised and can compare well against rival Windows PCs — at least, if you're heavily invested in the Google ecosystem.

America is obsessed with true crime. I once talked to my friend's dad, who told me he puts on a documentary every night and falls asleep to "death and crime." It's a bit morbid, but it doesn't take away from the fact that these scandalous docuseries are extremely popular. You can find true crime on Hulu and HBO Max, but Netflix is still one of the top destinations for true crime.

My Plex library had grown far too large, and it was time to downsize it. I could delete stuff, sure, but I wanted to keep most of what was there. So, I turned to converting my entire library to H.265, and it saved me nearly 10TB of space.

I recently went through my box of old computer junk and discovered an old laptop. After checking it out, I discovered it had 8GB of RAM, a slow quad-core processor, and a battery that is ready to quit after 10 minutes.

Buying a 10GbE switch for a network where almost everything still runs at 1GbE sounds unnecessary. If your computers, access points, printers, and other devices still have Gigabit Ethernet, spending money on a 10GbE switch can look like buying hardware for a problem you do not have. That was my situation, and I still bought a 10GbE switch.

A high-end or "professional" webcam can cost hundreds of dollars these days, which will give you a major sense of disappointment when you set it up and realize you don't look any better than before, using a cheap camera.

Most people assume their printer is the least interesting thing on the home network. It sits there, waits for jobs, and doesn't do much else. But it's actually one of the most active and noisy devices on your whole network. The settings I changed after that audit weren't dramatic, but they kept me safer than I have been in years.