New Tricks Daily

Free WiFi at a cafe, airport, or railway station feels like a gift — until you think about who else might be on the same network. Public WiFi is shared with strangers, and on an open network your activity is easier for others to watch. You do not need to avoid public WiFi completely, but you should follow a few simple rules before you connect. 1. Check the Network Name with Staff Attackers sometimes set up a fake hotspot with a name that looks like the cafe's real WiFi — for example, ‘Cafe_Free_WiFi’ instead of ‘Cafe WiFi’. Always confirm the exact network name with the staff, and be suspicious of any network that asks you to install an app or enter a password you were not given . 2. Avoid Banking and Shopping on Open WiFi Do not log in to your bank app, enter card details, or make payments while on a public network you do not trust. For anything involving money, wait until you are on mobile data or your home WiFi. This one habit removes the biggest risk. 3. Use Mobile Data for Sen...

Video buffering in one room, slow internet in another, and full signal near the router — this is a very common home WiFi problem. The good news is that in most homes, the router is not broken. It is just placed badly, or a few simple settings are holding it back. Try these tips in order. Most of them cost nothing. Good router placement alone can fix most weak WiFi problems. 1. Move Your Router to the Centre of Your Home: WiFi signals spread out in all directions. If your router sits in a corner room, half of its signal goes outside your house, where nobody needs it. Place the router as close to the centre of your home as possible, so the signal reaches all rooms more evenly. 2. Keep It High and in the Open: Do not hide your router inside a cupboard, behind a TV, or on the floor. Walls, metal objects, and large furniture block WiFi signals. Put the router on a table or shelf, at about chest height or higher, with open space around it. 3. Keep It Away from Other Electronics: Microwave ov...

A guest visits your home and asks for the WiFi password. You read out a long password full of capital letters and numbers, they type it wrong twice, and everyone laughs — but it wastes time, and now someone else knows your password. Android has a much better way: share your WiFi with a QR code. Your guest simply points their phone camera at the code on your phone, and they connect instantly. They never see or type the password, and there are no spelling mistakes. A WiFi QR code lets guests connect in seconds — without you reading out your password. How WiFi QR Sharing Works When you share a WiFi network on Android, your phone creates a QR code that contains the network name and password in encoded form. Another phone that scans this code reads those details and connects automatically. The guest does not see the password in plain text, which is a small but real privacy advantage — especially if you change your password rarely. This works on most modern Android phones. The exact menu nam...

Nothing is more annoying than WiFi that drops mid-video-call, mid-download, or mid-message. One minute you are connected, the next your phone is on mobile data - or offline. The good news: most WiFi drops on Android have simple causes - a tired router, a weak signal, a damaged saved network, or a power-saving feature switching WiFi off. Work through the fixes below one by one, starting with the easiest. Most people never need the last one. Is your Android phone dropping WiFi again and again? These fixes can help. 1. Restart Your Phone and Your Router Restart your phone first (hold the power button, tap Restart). Then switch your router off, wait 30 seconds, and switch it back on. Give it two to three minutes to fully start up before reconnecting. A quick router restart fixes more WiFi problems than most people expect. 2. Forget the Network and Reconnect Go to Settings > Network & internet > Wi-Fi (on some phones: Settings > Connections > Wi-Fi), tap the network you are ...

If your WiFi suddenly feels slow, or the lights on your router blink furiously late at night, it is natural to wonder who else might be connected. The good news is that most routers let you see every connected device in a few taps, and you do not need any special app or technical skill to do it. Illustration: Your router's device list shows every phone, laptop and smart device using your WiFi. Why Your WiFi May Feel Slow or Busy Before you assume someone is stealing your WiFi, remember that your own home can be busy too. Phones, laptops, smart TVs, speakers, cameras and game consoles all share the same connection, and many of them download updates in the background. Still, if the slowdown is sudden or happens at odd hours, checking the device list is a sensible first step. How to Check Connected Devices on Your Router — Step by Step Follow these steps on a phone connected to your own WiFi: Open your phone's browser and go to your router's login page, usually printed on a st...

If your WiFi password is still the one printed on the router, or an old password half the neighbourhood knows, changing it is one of the simplest security upgrades you can make. You do not need a laptop or a computer for this — your phone and a browser are enough. In this guide, you will learn how to find your router's login page from your phone, change the WiFi password safely, and reconnect your devices without getting locked out. Before You Start: What You Need You need three things: your phone connected to the WiFi network you want to change, the router's admin username and password, and a new, strong password in mind. The admin password is not the same as the WiFi password — it is the one used to log in to the router's settings page, and it is often printed on a sticker on the router itself. If you have never changed the admin password either, do that too while you are in the settings, because the default admin passwords for popular routers are widely known. Find Your ...