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How to connect your Roku streaming dongle to Wi-Fi
Your Roku streaming device is obsolete without an active Wi-Fi network
Roku offers several streaming sticks, boxes, and TVs to cut the cord at home and at the office. Whether you choose a Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Chromecast, or another top streaming device, you need a robust Wi-Fi network to unlock thousands of channels and stream on-demand TV shows, movies, live sports, and more.
You're up for many unproductive hours when you work with a weak Wi-Fi signal at home or in the office. A sketchy Wi-Fi connection spoils your group meeting on Google Meet, binge-watching on Netflix, Discord streaming session, or FaceTime call with loved ones. You can always replace your aging router with a capable Wi-Fi 6 router, but if the issues persist, use the tricks below to improve the Wi-Fi signal quality indoors and outdoors.
How to share a Wi-Fi network password on Android
No more playing 'pass around the router card' at gatherings
Using a safe and secure Wi-Fi password is important for your safety. You don't want a hacker or a passerby to log in to your home's Wi-Fi network and use it for conducting illegal activities online. But then, a complex password becomes a problem when you invite friends or family members over to watch a match or for a get-together. Someone asks for the Wi-Fi credentials, and you stare blankly at them, trying to recall the password. Well, you don't have to try that hard. The best Android phones make Wi-Fi password sharing a breeze.
Verizon’s Fios routers now double up as motion detectors in your house
Home Awareness is free to use
If you have smart home gadgets, chances are at least some of your devices help ensure the security of your house and its residents, like smart doorbells, garage door closers, and motion-sensing lights. However, the price for smart motion sensing security and surveillance systems can add up fast. Verizon believes its new (and free) Home Awareness feature for Fios routers is the ideal solution.
Fitbit's new Sense 2 and Versa 4 smartwatches are curiously arriving without Wi-Fi support
Wi-Fi hardware is present, but deactivated
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Fitbit announced the Sense 2 and Versa 4 smartwatches last month, and with the wearables just about to ship, customers should be in for a treat with the latest Fitbit OS interface, taking some heavy inspiration from Wear OS 3. But while the software looks good, these new Fitbit devices apparently won't hold a candle to their predecessors on the connectivity front, as we learn that both watches will arrive with their Wi-Fi hardware disabled.
Your phone (and everything else) might be vulnerable to 'frag' attacks over WiFi
And your laptop, and your smart bulb, and just about anything that uses WiFi
Just days after we heard about the Qualcomm vulnerability that could let hackers listen to your calls, a security researcher has brought to light several Wi-Fi vulnerabilities, some of which even relate to the Wi-Fi standard itself. The new findings affect not just your phones, tablets, and laptops but just about any device that uses the technology that wirelessly connects to the internet.
Android 12 will make it harder to use a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi hotspot
It's all but a legacy option in DP3, with a separate "maximize compatibility" toggle to enable it
Frequent travelers know that Android's ability to create a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot anywhere is a lifesaver. But it's also best to use 5GHz Wi-Fi if at all possible, because the close quarters of use for a laptop result in higher speeds. The latest change spotted in Android 12 Developer Preview 3 really steers users towards that choice, going so far as to hide the 2.4GHz setting in another sub-menu.
Android and Chrome OS can now sync Wi-Fi passwords
Slowly starting to roll out in tandem with Phone Hub
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Getting all your devices logged in on a new Wi-Fi network can be a hassle: entering the same password again and again, hoping you don't make any mistakes. Google started experimenting with ways to simplify this process last year when Chrome OS Canary began syncing Wi-Fi passwords with other devices. That feature never rolled out widely, leaving us to wonder if its development had stalled. Thankfully that wasn't the case, and now Google is working on a new and improved Wi-Fi syncing solution for Chrome OS that's actually starting to roll out to the first few people.
Nest Wifi routers can now prioritize video conferencing as well as gaming traffic
No more "Everybody stop streaming their Netflix shows, mama's got a Zoom meeting!"
Google's routers are already packed with intelligent features like network stats, manual device prioritization, Wi-Fi pause options, or device grouping — not to mention the integrated smart speaker in the Nest Wifi. To further improve on these options, Google has decided to add the ability to automatically prioritize certain traffic via the Home app, such as video conferencing or gaming.
Google Home introduces game-changing media controls and reinstates Routine triggering (APK Download)
Great when you want to cast to multiple speakers at once without setting up a group
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Last November, the Google Home app received a colorful card-based media control interface, which was quite an improvement over the previous one. But multi-room or multi-speaker playback is rather tricky to set up through this card-based interface, and Google seems to think the same. The company has introduced a much more intuitive UI for media controls in version 2.31 of the Home app that lets you cast to individual or multiple speakers and displays on the fly. And Assistant Routines can finally be triggered through the app again following the update.
Chrome OS 85 comes with Wi-Fi password sync, redesigned settings search, and a mic volume slider
Little details make for an overall better experience
Google is working on a Phone Hub similar to Microsoft Your Phone that will make your handset interact better with your Chromebook, but the company isn't ready to bring the feature to stable just yet. In the latest release of Chrome OS, version 85, the company instead focuses on many little things that make for an overall better experience: Wi-Fi password sync, improved settings search, and a volume slider for your microphone.
Sharing Wi-Fi passwords is one of those awkward parts of modern life that just never seems to have an easy fix. Even with guest networks, you still have to share some kind of information with visitors to your home, and that often means spelling out some nonsense numbers and letter that they'll probably get wrong twice before you just write it down or text it to them. Thankfully, with Android 10, there's a much easier, faster, and simpler way to share your Wi-Fi password, no awkward conversation required.
Android 11 lets you not automatically connect to specific Wi-Fi networks
For those networks you don't always want to use
There are plenty of cases where you might want a Wi-Fi network saved on your phone, but don't want your phone to always connect to it. Maybe your cell service is sometimes faster than your home internet, or maybe you have a public network that you don't want to use all the time. Whatever the reason might be, Android 11 will let you disable automatically connecting to specific networks.
Google Wifi and Nest Wifi updates delivering improved performance on slow connections
Security and stability improvements are included, plus optimizations to the priority device feature
If anyone knows the internet, it's Google. So it makes sense that its Wifi routers are some of the most well regarded products in its hardware lineup. Google expanded Nest Wifi's availability to more countries last month — and with people around the world spending so much time at home these days, it's no wonder. Now users with Nest Wifi and Google Wifi systems are about to get their home internet upgraded, because the company is rolling out an update that will improve performance on slower Internet connections.
Should you buy a WiFi range extender or a mesh router?
Range extenders are often more trouble than they're worth
With it likely your home Wi-Fi network is dealing with more devices in more places than ever these days, it's not surprising if you've considered making the upgrade to a modern mesh network system, or whether one of those cheap range extenders will get the job done for adding coverage to some rooms of your home. In our experience, this is one area where dropping cold, hard cash really is the only bulletproof solution. While there are situations where a simple range extender can get the job done, they're such an imperfect solution that they may just end up just making you want a mesh system more in the end. And while mesh certainly isn't cheap, it doesn't have to be truly expensive—and we think the costs are worth it given the benefits.
How to share Wifi networks on Samsung Galaxy phones
Unfortunately, you'll need to be running Android 10, which leaves a lot of phones out
Android 10 brought with it the ability to share WiFi networks through QR codes, an incredibly useful feature for temporary guests and visitors. Even though Samsung makes a lot of changes to Android, it kept this feature in One UI 2.0. Here's how to share and scan WiFI networks on your Samsung smartphone running Android 10.
Mesh WiFi networks offer a great way to blanket your home in strong wireless coverage, keeping all your devices connected. But as our needs grow, occasionally it becomes time to augment that network with some additional access points. If you've got an existing Orbi Whole Home Mesh WiFi network, now's your chance to upgrade, as Amazon has the Netgear Orbi WiFi Satellite Extender for $50 off, blowing past even Black Friday deals.The Orbi satellite claims to add an additional 2,000 square feet of coverage to your Orbi network, and is capable of providing gigabit wireless speeds.
CES 2020 gave the networking device market a solid head start for the rest of the year. We not only saw a more capable Wi-Fi standard come into being but also mainstream brands jumping in with a pile of new routers and mesh systems. Besides an expanded security camera lineup, D-Link’s CES announcement includes a long list of routers and range extenders that integrate the EasyMesh and Wi-Fi 6 standard.
The latest Wi-Fi 6 standard was established to increase the efficiency of the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum that users have been relying on for decades. Unfortunately, as more of the devices we buy eat up precious bandwidth, these connections can still become congested and slow down like a highway during rush hour. To usher in a faster, more capable generation of high-speed data, the Wi-Fi Alliance has announced a new 6GHz spectrum dubbed Wi-Fi 6E.
Google has spent years cruising down roads to gather data for Street View, but it isn't just after photographic data. The Street View cars also collect information about local WiFi networks, and a 2010 lawsuit alleged Google grabbed too much data. After nearly a decade of legal wrangling, Google is putting this issue to rest by paying a mere $13 million. That's a pittance compared to the billions in damages many observers predicted years ago.