If you are not yet using a password manager, it’s time. It’s past time, actually. You are way overdue.

Protect yourself

There are three big things you can do to protect yourself online.

1. Use a different password for every website. If someone gets hold of your username and password for, say, gmail, the first thing they’ll do is try that username/password combination at more lucrative websites, such as bank websites. Having a unique password for each site guarantees they won’t be able to get into any of your other accounts.
2. Use a long password—at least 16 characters—that includes lowercase letters, capital letters, numbers, and special characters, like $@%&*. (Yes, I know that looks like I’m swearing. And I am. Because pandemic.) Enter different strings of characters here, to see how the number of characters changes password strength.
3. When a website has it available, use two-factor authentication. With two-factor authentication, to log into a particular website, you need something you know (factor one: your password) and something you have (factor two: such as your phone). After you enter your username/password on a given site, you’ll be prompted for that second factor, such as a number that was texted or emailed to you, or a number or approval from an authentication app on your phone.

“Hey, Sue, my web browser always asks me if it can save some new password I’ve entered. Is it okay to tell it yes?”

No. Saving passwords in your web browser is a bad idea.

If anyone gets into your computer, they’ll be able to access your browser—and have immediate access to every last one of your passwords.

Password manager features to look for

Unless your memory is way better than 99.99% of the population, there is no way for you to remember unique, 16-character passwords for every website you log into. If your memory is that good, email me. I know some memory researchers who would love to meet you.

If you’re like the rest of us, though, you need a password manager. A password manager securely stores your passwords.

In choosing a password manager, there are a few features you should look for.

• Ability to import the passwords from your browsers
• Two-factor authentication. All of your passwords will be stored here, so to be sure no one else can get in, you should have something other than just your password to access them.
• Ability to fill webforms. In your browser, you want your password manager to automatically enter the username and password. You shouldn’t have to type 16 random characters.
• Ability to securely store other information, like credit card information.
• Works across different devices—computer, phone, tablet—and across operating systems, for those of you who have both a Mac and a Windows PC.
• Password generator. Tell it how many characters you want (at least 16) and what kinds of characters you want, such as letters, numbers, and special characters, and it will generate the password and save it for you.
• Ability to share passwords with others. Even better, the ability to add people for emergency access. For example, my emergency contact can click a button in the password manager we both use, and I would have five days (time is customizable) to reply. If I don’t, because, say, I’m dead (!!!), my emergency contact would have access to all of my passwords.

Where to start

Personally, I use LastPass. Dashlane,
1Password, and BitWarden are all worth considering. Keeper is also worth a look, but some people find it less intuitive to use.

These are not the only kids on the password manager block, but they’re good options for anyone getting started. Take a look at the features of each, and pick one. Today. Do it today.

The clipboard manager I’m thinking about is not a manager who stands around holding a clipboard.

Your computer clipboard holds onto things you’ve copied, making them available for you to paste. Apps that manage this clipboard are called clipboard managers.

A little history

Historically, computer clipboards have not been very useful. The clipboard could hold one item. You would copy something, such as text or an image, and it was available for you to paste, until you copied something else. And then that first copied item would no longer be on your clipboard. From what I can suss out, this is how Macs still work, but I have an option for Mac users (and another option for Windows users) at the bottom of this email.

The new Windows clipboard manager

The new Windows clipboard manager will hold multiple things that you copied—up to 4MB of data. It’s hard to picture 4MB of data. For those of you who remember floppy disks*, the most common disk size was 1.44MB, so picture what could be held on 2.77 disks. If you don’t remember floppy disks, 4MBs would be the equivalent of two or three novels. If you’re copying images, it would be about two high resolution photos.

Windows calls this your “clipboard history.”

So, let’s get you access to your clipboard history.

On your keyboard, hit the Windows key and v. You’ll get this little pop-up. Click “Turn on.”

You are now good to go. Everything you copy will be available in your Windows clipboard history. To access it, click the spot in your document, email, etc. where you want to paste. Click Windows key + v. You’ll see a pop-up with the items you’ve copied with the most recent items at the top. Click on the item you want to paste.

Once the clipboard limit of 4MB has been exceeded, the items will start being deleted from the bottom of the list. If you want to delete an item now, click the 3-dots to the right of the item and select “Delete.” If you don’t ever want it to be deleted, select “Pin.” If you want to completely clear the clipboard, select “Clear all.”

This does not affect CTRL + v to paste. CTRL + v will still paste your most recently copied item.

If you try out this clipboard history, you’ll notice that it’s a little clunky to use. For example, there is no search function; the only way to find what you want to paste is to scroll. And scroll. And scroll.

Clipboard managers (for both Windows and Mac users)

There are a lot of third party programs… er, apps… that bring much more functionality to the clipboard. These are called “clipboard managers,” and that’s a fair term. They really do manage your clipboard. Or, rather, allow you to better manage your clipboard.

For Windows, I recommend Ditto (free). For Macs, I recommend Copyless 2 (free, but $6.99 for additional functionality). While I’ll be showing you Ditto, Copyless 2 works in a similar way.

When I use my keyboard shortcut to open Ditto, I have access to the last 2,000 items I’ve copied. The default is 500, but in Ditto’s “options,” I increased the limit. (Copyless 2 can handle up to 1,000 copies.)

When I use my Ditto keyboard shortcut, I get a pop-up that gives me access to my clipboard history. Below is my current Ditto pop-up. Items with a yellow sticky note icon are items that I’ve designated with a “sticky clip.” These are items that will remain at the top of my Ditto list until I remove the sticky setting. What I especially appreciate about Ditto is the live search. As I start typing in the “Search” box, Ditto will return all copied items that match what I type… as I type. It’s fast!

I have gold-starred some items. These are items that have been marked as “Never Auto Delete.” Ditto will not delete them until I remove the gold star, or until I manually delete them myself.  

Enough to get started?

Footnotes

* The floppy disk remains with us today as the “Save” icon in a lot of computer apps**. I found some 3.5″ floppy disks when I was cleaning out my office. I kept them. I also found zip disks, but I don’t think I kept those.

**In case you missed it, “programs” are no longer called “programs.” They’re now called “apps,” as in “applications.” “Apps” originally just referred to programs on mobile devices, but at some point the terminology made the jump to computers. I’m not completely on-board with that shift, but this is not the first time I’ve lagged behind an English language change. Nor, I am certain, will it be the last.

Zoom has two kind of updates: prompted and manual.

With the prompted updates, when you run Zoom on your computer, Zoom will give you a pop-up that says, “Hey! There’s a new version of Zoom. Download it.”

With the manual updates, Zoom doesn’t tell you that there’s a new version. You have to hear about it on the street. Or through a local tech newslettery-type publication, such as this one. The manual updates are for minor changes. Some of those minor changes bring useful features, so it’s usually worth doing the manual updates.

Which version of Zoom do I have?

Run Zoom on your computer. Click the gear icon in the top left corner, select Statistics. The version number will be at the bottom of that page.

The last prompted update from Zoom came on September 28^th. That gave us version 5.3.1. The most current Zoom version was released on December 21^st, giving us version 5.4.7.

What are some of these minor updates?

You can read them all here, if you’d like.

Here are some of my favorites (text copied from source).

• Enhanced nonverbal feedback and reactions:
  Nonverbal feedback options are moved to the Reactions button, and all reactions will be shown in the corner of the participants’ video. The host will see each participant’s reactions in the participant list, as well as the aggregate numbers of each reaction at the bottom of the list.
• Raise hand for host and co-host
  Hosts and co-hosts can utilize the raise hand feature along with meeting participants and webinar attendees.
• Poll reports available during live session 
  The meeting or webinar host will now have the option to download the full poll results when the poll has ended during the live session, rather than waiting until the meeting or webinar has ended. This will launch their browser and begin the download of the CSV poll report.
• Enhanced co-host privileges over Breakout Rooms
  Co-hosts have the same breakout room controls as the meeting host, such as starting or ending breakout rooms, assigning participants, etc.
• Move participants to main session from breakout room
  Hosts and co-hosts have the option to assign a participant back to the main session, rather than ending all breakout sessions.
• Share multiple programs at once 
  Users can select multiple desktop programs at once for sharing, instead of sharing their entire desktop. Other programs and unoccupied areas in the desktop will not be visible to the viewer. The sharer will always know which applications they are sharing by an extensible green border. Only the user employing this feature will need to be on version 5.4.3, viewers can be connected with older versions.
• Suspend participant activity 
  New option in the Security panel to immediately suspend all participant activities, which will mute all video and audio, stop screen sharing, end all breakout rooms, and pause recording.
• Pin chat messages 
  Users can pin a message in a channel, which is displayed at the top of the channel. Pins can be removed, replaced, or hidden. A log of pinned messages is accessible in the channel options panel.
• Virtual Background support for additional CPUs
  Virtual Backgrounds are now supported for i3 5th-gen and above, i5/i7/i9 3rd-gen and above, all including Y-series. These CPUs will support Virtual Backgrounds at 15fps and 360p.
• Scheduling with custom Join Before Host time limit 
  Users can schedule meetings with Join Before Host set to allow participants to join 5, 10, or 15 minutes before the scheduled start time.
• Search starred messages [in Chat]
  Users can search through their starred messages, or filter a search to only starred messages

I’m convinced. How do I do a manual download?

Visit this webpage. Click the first Download button (“Zoom Client for Meetings”). Open your computer’s Downloads folder, find “Zoominstaller.exe,” and launch the file.

That’s it. If you’d like, follow the instructions above to confirm that you now have the newest version, 5.4.7.

I have three screens, and one of them is relatively small. Sometimes I’ll have browser tabs open on all three screens. For the tab that’s open on the smaller screen, I want to zoom in to make the text bigger.

CTRL + will zoom in

CTRL – will zoom out

CTRL+0 will reset the zoom to the default.

Chrome treats each tab as its own individual entity. Zooming in on one tab does not affect the zoom settings on another tab.

With Firefox, however, zoom in on one tab, and you zoom in on them all. These days, Firefox is my primary browser, and with my one small screen, I only want to zoom in on the tab that’s open in that screen, and not the tabs that are open in my larger monitors.

The solution is provided by Mozilla (the makers of Firefox) support.

1. type about:config in your address bar and press enter
2. if Firefox asks you, say you’ll be careful
3. search this string browser.zoom.siteSpecific (if it doesn’t exist, create one, it’s a boolean string)
4. set it to false (rightclick > “Toogle”).

Ta da! Now I can zoom in on only one tab, and all of my other tabs remain unchanged.

The problem: I have a file folder that contains assignments that I have not yet updated for next term. How do I remember that I have not updated these, besides using a clunky README file?

There are a lot of sticky note programs out there, but almost all of them only put sticky notes on your desktop. I have enough stuff on my desktop—albeit corralled by Fences, but still. Frankly, I needed something that was more context dependent. I only need a reminder about these particular files when I’m looking at the folder they’re in. I don’t need the sticky note anywhere else. If you live by sticky notes in your home, you probably put the sticky notes where you need them—on the fridge, in the fridge, on the bathroom mirror, on your bedside table. You probably don’t have one wall dedicated to all of your sticky notes.

The solution that was love at first sight is Notezilla (Windows, iOS, Android; Mac only via the web; 30-day free trial; $29.95 one-time fee plus tax for limited updates or $14.95 annually plus a one-time additional $15 charge with all updates included).

A sampling of what Notezilla can do

Notezilla works with file folders. I create a sticky note and attach it to the file folder. Whenever I open the folder, the note appears.

Notezilla works with websites. Here I’ve added three sticky notes to my Google calendar for this week. Any time I visit this webpage, I will see all three sticky notes.

Notezilla works with programs. Here I’ve added a sticky note to my desktop Outlook. When I launch Outlook, the sticky note appears.

Notezilla will also happily add sticky notes to your desktop and to files. It will not, however, add sticky notes to your fridge.

How Notezilla works

Notezilla resides in your Windows system tray. If the Notezilla icon is only seen by clicking the up arrow in your system tray, you can click and drag the icon down on the bar.

After dragging it, it will always be visible.

When you need to create a new sticky note, left-click on the Notezilla icon in the system tray and select New Note. Or use the keyboard shortcut: CTRL + SHIFT + U. And, yes, you can change this shortcut in Notezilla’s preferences (right-click on the system tray Notezilla icon, and select Preferences. Click the Hotkeys tab.)

Click the 3-bar menu icon to do any number of actions. By default, your new sticky note will be attached to your desktop. If you want to attach it to something else, select “Stick to Window” (or use the keyboard shortcut: CTRL + w). Notezilla will show you everything it can stick your note to—basically, it’s everything you have open and probably some things that are running in the background. Explore the features on this menu at your leisure.

On the sticky note’s main toolbar, you have a few additional tools.

• The pushpin icon will keep your sticky note on top, which only seems to be relevant to desktop sticky notes.
• The white square icon will hide your sticky note. It’s a temporary hide. If your sticky note is attached to a folder, for example, minimize the folder and then maximize it, your sticky note will reappear. For hidden desktop sticky notes, left-click on the Notezilla icon in the system tray and select “Show all desktop notes.”
• The yellow bar/green arrow icon will “fold” your sticky note so you’ll only see the first line.
• The red X icon will delete your sticky note.

Stuff to be aware of

There may be a delay of a second or so for your sticky note to appear/disappear. For example, for the sticky note I have attached to a file folder, when I minimize the folder, the sticky note remains for a second before disappearing. When I maximize the folder again, the sticky note takes a second to reappear. That same delay happens for my other sticky notes, such as those that I have for websites. I can live with the delays.

When I was first using Notezilla, I’d create a new sticky note that I wanted to attach to a page, but I’d forget to actually do that. By default, all new sticky notes are added to the desktop. If you want to add a sticky note to something else, you need to remember to click on the 3-bar menu icon and select “Stick to Window” or use the keyboard shortcut: CTRL + w.

You can try a fully functioning Notezilla for free for 30-days. When you’re ready to purchase it, visit the Buy Now page. You can select the “subscription plan” ($14.95/year plus $15.00 for the first year; comes with free major upgrades) or the “one time payment plan” of $29.95 (free minor upgrades, but not major ones). Since I don’t know how often they do major upgrades, I opted for the one-time payment plan. Once you get your registration code, right-click on the Notezilla icon in the system tray, mouse over “Help,” and select “Register…” Step one will take you to the Buy Now page. Step two is where you’ll enter your registration code.

Check out Notezilla’s tutorials, which includes handy videos of the different features.

Happy sticky-noting!

You’re happily using your web browser. Thinking you are done with a page, you close a tab. But you were wrong. You were not done with the page.

Option 1: Open the last-closed tab

This keyboard combination will open your last-closed tab in a new browser tab. Works in all browsers.

Windows: SHIFT + CTRL + T

Handy mnemonic: “SHIfT. Wait. I’m in CTRL. Open the T(ab) I just closed.”

Mac: SHIFT
+ COMMAND + T

Handy mnemonic: “SHIfT. Wait. I’m in COMMAND. Open the T(ab) I just closed.”

Option 2: Open browser history

This keyboard combination will open your web browser history in a new tab. Works in all browsers.

Windows: CTRL + h

Handy mnemonic: “I’m in CTRL of my browser h(istory).”

Mac: COMMAND + h

Handy mnemonic: “I’m in COMMAND of my browser h(istory).”

You’ve typed something into a box in your web browser—something very well written, perhaps the first page of what will become the Great American Novel. You close the webpage before clicking the “submit” button. When you go back to the page, everything you had typed in that browser box is gone. You gouge your eyes out.

Or perhaps you’ve spent an hour crafting the perfect Canvas announcement when your computer suddenly reboots. Your announcement is gone. Forever. You gouge out someone else’s eyes.

Been there?

In this week’s Porta Potty Picayune, we are going to make sure you never have those experiences again.

Recovering content from a Canvas page

First, let’s take a look at a new Canvas feature called “RCE Auto-Save.” RCE means Rich Content Editor. When you’re editing text on a Canvas page, announcement, etc., the toolbar just above the text entry box is called the Rich Content Editor (RCE). Canvas recently added an auto-save feature. To turn it on, in each of your courses where you’re the instructor, go to “Settings,” click the “Feature Options” tab, and click the switch next to “RCE Auto-Save” so you have the green checkmark. In some future Canvas update, this will likely be a feature that’s automatically turned on for everyone. For right now, though, if you want it, you’ll need to turn it on manually.

Now if you type something in a Canvas text box, and then close the page before saving, when you re-open the page, you’ll see this popup message:

Click the “Preview” button to see what Canvas auto-saved for you. To restore the content, click the “Yes” button.

Recovering content in non-Canvas webpages

For this kind of recovery, you will need a web browser add-on.

Chrome

Visit the Chrome web store, and add Typio Form Recovery to your Chrome web browser.

Try out Typio Form Recovery. Type content in a box on some webpage, such as this Google form. Close the page before clicking the Submit button. Revisit the page.

Click on the clock icon (you may need to click inside the box to see the icon.)

What you typed will be shown in a popup window. For some webpages, you’ll be able to just click on the text to re-enter the text. On other webpages, you’ll need to copy/paste the text. In either case, your text is there.

Firefox (and Chrome)

Visit the Firefox Add-Ons page, and add Form History Control to your Firefox web browser. This same add-on—Form History Control—is available for Chrome, but it’s not as pretty as Typio Form Recovery. If Chrome is your primary web browser, try them both and keep the one you like best. Try out Form History Control. Type content in a box on some webpage, such as this Google form. Close the page before clicking the Submit button. Revisit the page.

In the top right corner of your web browser, click on the Form History Control  icon (magnifier/pencil). Form History Control will save and make available to you the last 90-days-worth of content you’ve entered in any textbox anywhere using this browser. (I changed the default save for mine to 14 days—90 days seemed… excessive.) The most recent content will be at the top of the list. Right-click on the content you want to enter in the textbox.

From the popup menu, select “Copy clean text only” to be sure that all you are copying is text. In some text boxes, there will be html code that will also be saved—this tends to happen with Canvas pages. If want to include any saved code, choose “Copy to clipboard.”  Paste into the text box.

Privacy

For the privacy-conscious—and you should be—both Typio Form Recovery and Form History Control store your data in your browser; content these tools save does not leave your computer: Typio Form Recovery’s privacy policy and Form History Control privacy policy.

Conclusion

Stay safe out there.

What is the web cache, what are cookies, and why does clearing them solve so many browser issues?

How do web browsers work?

Websites are collections of code—that code is called HyperText Markup Language (HTML). The code is stored on servers (servers are just big fancy computer storage units—think of the hard drive on your computer multiplied by millions and millions). The Internet is what we call the network that links those servers together. When we enter the URL for a website in our browser’s address bar (or click on a link in a webpage), we end up connected to that webpage’s server, wherever it may be in the world. Our browser downloads the code for that page and translates that code into something pretty for us to look at.

Can we see the code?

You bet! In Firefox, pick a page, any page, say, my college’s home page. Click on the 3-dash menu icon in the top right corner of your browser, then click on Web Developer.

And then click on Page Source.

A page will open in a new tab, and you’ll see the code in all of its glorious detail. Anything in between these <brackets> is code. Anything outside of those brackets is text you can read on the webpage. (Similar tools exist for other browsers.)

What’s the cache?

When we visit a website, such as my college’s home page, our web browser downloads the code and keeps a copy of it. When it does that, our browser also notes the date the last time the page was edited. When we go back to that same page later, our browser will compare the page-edit date of our cached page with the page-edit date of the current page. If the two are the same, our browser will show us the version it has stored in its cache rather than take the time and bandwidth to download the one from the website. If it’s the same thing, why retrieve it again?

How things go wrong

Sometimes our browser will use a page it has cached rather than downloading a new one even when downloading a new one is warranted. If a webpage is acting funny (my apologies for using such high-level jargon)—particularly a webpage that requires a login—the first thing to investigate is if the cause may be the browser cache.

Ways to test for and solve cache issues

Option 1. Clear the cache for the entire browser. When we clear our browser’s cache, our browser doesn’t have any stored code it can use so it has to download the code fresh from the server. In this nuclear option, we can clear our browser’s entire cache, as in the cache for every webpage we’ve visited since the last time we cleared the cache. Here are instructions on how to do this for Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari.

Option 2. Clear the cache for just the problematic webpage. This is a more surgical approach. While we can clear a single webpage’s cache through the browser’s settings menu, the means to do it are buried pretty deep in the settings. Instead, I recommend the keyboard shortcut (yes, write this on a sticky note; I have). Windows: CTRL+F5; Mac: Command+Shift+R, unless you’re using Safari, then Opt+Command+R. Clearing the cache for a single page is my go-to solution.

What are cookies?

Yummy treats. Duh.

Oh, you mean web browser cookies. Browser cookies are (not-at-all-tasty) files created by our browser that contain, say, some types of information we’ve entered for a particular website. For instance, to stay logged into a website, our browser will create a cookie with our login information. When our browser visits that webpage again, it will send the cookie file with that login information to the webpage’s server. Here’s another example. We visit an online retailer as a guest. We put some stuff in an online shopping cart. We close the page without buying anything. The contents of the cart may be stored in our browser’s cookie file for that website. When we go back to the page, our browser sends the cookie file to the webpage’s server, and our shopping cart will be filled automatically with our potential purchases. (Side note: If we’re logged into the online retailer, our online retailer will save the contents of our shopping cart on their own servers; they don’t need our cookies. That’s why when we visit—and log into—that retailer on a different device, e.g., our phone, we can see the contents of our shopping cart.)

Ways to test for both cache and cookie issues

Option 1. Open a private browsing tab. Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari all have private/incognito browsing modes. When we launch a private/incognito browsing session (instructions here), a new tab will open and no code from any website we visit will be saved by our browser. Since our browser won’t keep a cache or a cookie file in private/incognito mode, for any page we visit, our browser will download fresh code and not upload any cookies.

Option 2. Try the page in a different browser. If you usually use, say, Chrome, open the website in, say, Firefox. The web browser we use less often is unlikely to have a cached copy of the webpage or have any cookies associated with the webpage, so the browser will retrieve a clean copy unsullied by cookies.

How to solve both cache and cookie issues

Dump everything. In web browser parlance, clear your browsing data. This will wipe clean your entire browser cache and delete all of your cookies. Here are instructions on how to do that for the most popular web browsers.

What if the webpage still isn’t working right?

The problem is almost certainly then with the webpage and not on your end. Contact whoever owns the website you’re wrestling with.

Let’s take a look at your home Internet setup. With many of us working at home and sharing our home wifi with kids, spouses, ex-spouses, extended family, and the mysterious person you suspect might be living in your basement, here are a few suggestions for evaluating and improving your speed on your home network.

Let’s get some data, first.

1. Using your wifi-connected laptop, tablet, or phone, move close to your modem/router.* On your device, go to Speedtest.net, and click the Go button. Once speedtest is done running, you’ll have two numbers. The first will be your download speed—how quickly information moves from the Internet to your device. The second will be your upload speed—how quickly information moves from your device to the Internet. Your download speed may be significantly faster than your upload speed, and that’s okay.  
2. Next, check with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to make sure that you’re getting the download/upload speed you’re paying for. If your speed is much lower, then work with your ISP to make sure you get the speed you should be getting. Sometimes the fix is easy. I once had a bad cable running from the wall to my modem that was cutting my Internet speed in half. I was paying for a download speed of 80 megabytes per second (Mbps), but getting only 40.

If your Internet speed is close to what you’re paying for, let’s check your home wifi coverage next. Once your modem brings the Internet into your home, your router spews the Internet out over wifi. The closer you are to the router, the stronger your wifi signal will be. (It’s 2020. The Internet is definitely being spewed all over my home. In other years, it has gently cascaded or quietly burbled. Not this year. It’s most assuredly spewing.)  

1. On your phone download a wifi signal strength app (e.g., Wifi Signal Strength Meter for Android, Wi-Fi SweetSpots for iPhone). Using the app, wander through your home checking your wifi signal strength. The greater the distance from your router and the more walls between you and your router, the lower the wifi strength will be. The lower the wifi strength, the slower your Internet speed will be. In other words, if you are sitting on your bed and your wifi signal strength is 50%, your Internet speed will be a lot slower than if, say, you’re sitting on your couch where your signal strength is 85%.

    

Knowing where the stronger wifi spots are in your home can help you decide where you’re going to use your laptop for your Zoom sessions. This handy-dandy image shows a modem/router in the lower right corner of the house. The further away you are, the weaker your wifi signal will be.

Important notes

• The more devices that are connected to and using your wifi at one time, the slower your Internet speed will be. That 80 Mbps that I’m paying for is the top speed possible. In practical day-to-day use, I get somewhere between 73 and 78—depending on all kinds of factors, including what is being downloaded/uploaded at any given time on my computer, my phone, my tablet, my wife’s computer, her phone, her wifi-connected printer, our Roku, and our wifi-connected security camera.

Also…

• Your router may use a 2.4 GHz radio frequency or a 5 GHz frequency. This CenturyLink page nicely describes the differences between them. (If you immediately thought the difference between 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz is 2.6 GHz, then you and I should be friends). It may make sense for you to switch from one frequency to the other. If your router is newer (last 5 years or so), you should be able to switch between 2.4 and 5. Your ISP can help you do that.

   

If you have weak wifi spots where you are doing most of your work, you may want to consider adding a mesh network. With a mesh network, you connect an additional router to your modem (sometimes called a mesh hub), and that hub connects via wifi to satellite routers you place around your home. As you move from room to room, your device connects to the satellite router that has the strongest wifi signal. The bigger your home, the more mesh satellites you may want to use.  

********************************

*The modem is what brings the Internet into your home. The router is what creates the wifi signal that your devices use to access the Internet that the modem has brought in. It is very likely that you have one box that houses both your modem and your router. You’re looking for contraptions that look something like these.

The “Type here to search” box in the lower left corner of Windows 10 is handy for searching all kinds of things. Except the Internet. Windows forces you to use their Bing search engine inside of their Edge browser. But I’d rather use Firefox as my browser and use Shortmarks (see this blog post) as my search engine.

Thanks to the $1.99 Search Deflector available from the Microsoft Store, now I can. [Shout out to Ashwin at ghacks.net!] (There is an identical free version available via GitHub, but for such a useful tool, I’m happy to pony up a couple bucks.)

After installing and running Search Deflector, set your preferred browser. These days I’m primarily using Firefox.

Next, set your preferred search engine. It comes with several common and not-so-common ones to choose from. I use Shortmarks, so I’m going to tell Search Deflector to use a “Custom Search Engine URL”: shortmarks.com/s.php?q={{query}}

After clicking “Apply,” I’m good to go.

On my keyboard, I hit WINDOWS + S (for “search”) and my cursor goes to the “Type here to search” box. Then I type “web: {search term}”. Search Deflector launches Firefox. If Firefox is already open, Search Deflector will open a new tab. The search term is sent to my preferred search engine, Shortmarks. If my search term matches a Shortmarks shortcut, the corresponding webpage will open. If my search term does not match a corresponding Shortmarks shortcut, then Shortmarks searches the web using the default search engine I have set up with Shortmarks.

Example 1. The single letter h is the Shortmarks shortcut I have for my college’s homepage: highline.edu. WINDOWS + s directs my cursor to the “Type here to search box.” I type “web: h” and press enter. Firefox opens a new tab and loads my college’s homepage.

Example 2. I want to search for Betty White’s birthday. WINDOWS + s directs my cursor to the “Type here to search box.” I type “web: betty white’s birthday” and press enter. Firefox opens a new tab where Google, in large font, tells me that Ms. White’s birthday is January 17, 1922.

Happy searching!