Gadgetory

it's happened to all of us you're in the middle of a raid trying to submit an assignment five minutes before it's due or about to watch an important penalty kick when everything just freezes and that little yellow icon says no internet connection frustrating as it may be unless there's been an infrastructure failure outside of your house at least you know a relatively easy fix go over to your router which probably has some indicator lights blooping that there's a problem unplug it wait a few excruciating seconds and plug it back in although you've probably missed something critical in the interim you're at least back online now but why does this seem to happen so often seemingly out of nowhere well here's the deal although we think of a router as a simple little box that sends your internet connection to your devices there is a lot going on under the hood just like a full blown desktop PC routers have their own CPU memory mainboard IO and even operating system all of which help it manage data traffic deciding what needs to be sent where and these components of a router can get overloaded similarly to how having 40 browser tabs multiple HD video streams and a game running at the same time might bring your laptop to its knees pushing tons of data through your router to lots of different devices can also slow it down sometimes to a screeching halt further complicating matters is the fact that most home internet connections use what are called dynamic IP addresses you see Internet service providers typically assign IP addresses which are like street addresses to help Internet traffic find your devices to each of their modems only for a certain period of time when this period expires your ISP will give you a new one but if your router is very busy it might not latch on to the new IP address and continue trying to use the old one which is kind of like trying to receive mail at your old apartment your router might be yelling as loudly as it can for Google to deliver that darn Chinese food order but no one down at the city wok can hear it scream and while we're on the subject of chicken fried rice your router also might be cutting out because it's as hot as a wok many of us are guilty of this but shoving your router in a corner somewhere where it's ventilation holes might get blocked by cables or dust can cause it to overheat so be sure to check that if your router is crammed behind a piece of furniture it can actually breathe but there are other problems that aren't necessarily caused by a router malfunction if you're on a Wi-Fi connection sometimes the airwaves just get very crowded especially if you're on the common 2.4 gigahertz band where noise from common household devices like microwave ovens and baby monitors and even signals from other nearby routers on the same frequency can overlap and make it difficult for your receiving device to hear what your router is trying to say if this is the case which you can actually find out by downloading a mobile app to look at nearby networks try going into your router settings and changing the channel or switching to the 5 gigahertz band if your router and your device is supported it not only delivers data more quickly but it also offers many more channels and is less crowded overall and if changing channels making sure your router has cooled off and the time-honored tactic of turning it off and on again doesn't help will see if your routers manufacturer has a firmware update available sometimes intermittent connectivity problems are a result of buggy software that can be solved with an easy download and a quick round of everybody's favorite game RTFM fun time and finally while remembering this handful of tips we'll use ensure your routers never out of commission for too long if it does happen we've got a great tip to help you feel better keep a stress ball nearby so you can route your frustrations into that as a freelancer or small business owner would you rather spend your time doing the work that you get paid for or making sure that you get paid for the work you did and if your answer is anything but the first one you're not really a freelancer small business owner are you so freshbooks is the cloud-based accounting software that's designed for the way that you work it's simpler and easier to be more productive be more organized and most importantly get paid quickly because running a small business is often all about maintaining solid cash flow to make sure that your guys or your gals are getting paid on time making sure that clients are getting paid on time with fresh books you can not only take payment on your terms whether that includes taking a deposit or not but you can also get paid faster because you can set up online payments with just a couple of clicks and you can even see when your client has seen your invoice to put an end to those guessing games so FreshBooks is offering a 30-day unrestricted free trial to our viewers to claim it just go to freshbooks tom slash tech quickie link below and enter tech quickie and the how did you hear about us section so thanks for watching guys like dislike check out our other channels and comment with video suggestions oh yeah and don't forget to subscribe it'll be worth it more puns endless puns