How-To Geek

Synology has been scrambling to fix the PHP2Shell vulnerabilities since the PHP developers released emergency security patches on October 21, and the company confirmed that a number of its NAS packages were affected. Now the story has taken a twist, as Synology reports that attackers are exploiting the flaws, and the US cybersecurity agency CISA has added them to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Synology is now extending security fixes to older DiskStation Manager (DSM) versions, following the discovery of a separate ransomware campaign targeting outdated NAS systems.

You don't have to be doing anything shady to still not want your ISP to know exactly what you're up to. It comes down to privacy, and knowing that your ISP, good or bad, knows a lot about your online habits isn't nice.

Installing a Chrome extension might feel seemingly harmless, but it could give someone else a peek at everything you search for online. You might be taking a detour you never signed up for. That’s what security researchers at Socket have uncovered — 319 Chrome extensions with a collective 13.4 million installations that push people’s searches through hidden servers before landing on Bing or Yahoo. Nothing looks alarming, which is why they stay under the radar.

Netflix has no shortage of movies and shows that have won big during awards season, but finding one that fits your mood can still take a bit of searching through the platform's crowded catalog.

Ever found yourself copying a few rows from an Excel spreadsheet into another part of your workbook, only to repeat the whole process when your data changes? There's a better way. Excel's TAKE function lets you extract the rows and columns you need, so you can build focused reports that update automatically.

It's that time of year again when you have to give free candy away or face the consequences. My kids love Halloween, and it's one of the rare times when they are actively encouraging me to do smart home projects, as long as they're spooky. Here are three projects to try this weekend, if you dare.

I first discovered Waze back in 2014 when traveling to a tech event in Colorado. I flew into Denver and had a 120-mile journey to my destination. It seemed like a simple trip, most of my time would be spent on a single interstate, and the resort was only a few short miles from the exit. About an hour into the trip, Waze suddenly told me to get off the highway at the upcoming exit. I knew I had just over an hour left on this highway, but needing a pit stop, I followed the directions.

Icons in the status bar of your Samsung Galaxy device aren't always intuitive, and seeing a dot flash in the corner of your screen can be worrying if you don't know what it means. While a lot of us have gotten used to the green dot and what it signals, those who have recently upgraded to One UI 9 may have started to notice a blue dot as well.

There are quite a few ports that you probably won't find on a modern TV. RCA and RF were some of the first to go, though for a while some TVs kept analog inputs as an option through breakout cables.

Almost every Linux user will tell you that bloat is bad — you should go with something minimal so you can customize it to your liking. There’s also a popular belief that Linux beginners should stay clear of Arch and tiling window managers, which are reserved for more “advanced” users. Well, Omarchy is based on Arch, uses the Hyprland tiling window manager, and is one of the most bloated and opinionated distros out there. And here’s my argument for why, despite conventional wisdom, I think it’s perfect for Linux beginners.

Are you tired of paying for tons of cloud subscriptions? What if I told you a sub-$100 homelab could pay for itself? Here’s what you need to get started with homelabbing and how canceling just three subscriptions can pay off your investment in around two months.

Windows is Microsoft's operating system, but that doesn't mean Microsoft gets all the credit for shaping the PC experience. Over the years, independent developers created apps that changed how people browsed the web, listened to music, watched videos, played games, and even interacted with Windows itself. These five did more than add another program to your PC: they changed what Windows users came to expect from it.

What do modern Android phones and the classic "Weebles" toys from the '70s have in common? They wobble. It's an epidemic of chunky, off-center camera bumps, and I'm trying to fix it. My first attempt was pretty good, but I'm back with a new and improved solution.

I've owned countless portable power stations, and cold weather or outdoor adventures always bring them to their knees. Charging slows, the battery drains faster, and you run low sooner than expected.

I've been obsessed with Docker lately. I've been using it for a lot of things. I've also been getting back into Raspberry Pis over the last year or so. I was talking with a fellow writer here at HTG about different things to do with a Pi 4 in my budget home lab, and we got toDocker containers. I wondered if I could get them to work on this older SBC. It turned out I had some success with the project. It unlocked quite a few cool new ideas.

We all know our phones have become powerful enough to replace PCs, but far fewer of us have actually tried it. Well, I’ve embraced the pocket computer lifestyle, and I’ve tried out many accessories to make this possible — including many types of keyboards. If you picture yourself plopping your phone down on a table in a coffee shop and getting real work done, here’s the kind of keyboard you want.

I’m always on the lookout for ways I can use my 3D printing to make life a little easier, usually for minimal filament cost. I’ve been taking more chances and printing more models recently, but one recent print has proved its worth more than others.

To end the month, HBO Max is raising the bar in terms of the quality of its content. One of my favorite new movies of the year, The Invite, is now streaming on HBO Max. It's a comedy for adults, a genre that feels like a rarity in today's Hollywood landscape. Speaking of adults, documentaries are a staple for older audiences, and HBO Max has intriguing options.

Let's face it, GPUs aren't cheap right now. If you own one, be it the RTX 5090 or something from 10 years ago, you want to make the most of it. Unfortunate, then, that just one slider can absolutely wreck your GPU performance, but if you check it out, you might be able to turn things around for the better.

Gmail's inbox used to feel like a chore I could never finish. Newsletters piled up, the same questions kept landing in my inbox, and the one message I actually needed was always buried under everything else. But after tweaking a few free Gmail settings, my inbox now handles the repetitive work for me.