How-To Geek - We Explain Technology

How to Avoid Getting Locked Out When Using Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication secures your accounts with code in addition to your password. You can’t get in without the code sent to your phone. But what happens if you lose or reset your phone? If you don’t plan your recovery method ahead of time, you could permanently lose access to your accounts.

What to Do if You Lose a Nest Tag

The Nest Secure security system comes with two Nest Tags, which can be used to quickly arm and disarm the system. However, they can easily get lost, so here’s what you can do if that happens.

How to Change Your IP Address From the Command Line in Linux

This trick should work on all Debian-based Linux distros, including Ubuntu. To get started, type ifconfig at the terminal prompt, and then hit Enter. This command lists all network interfaces on the system, so take note of the name of the interface for which you want to change the IP address.

How to Get the Pixel 2’s Portrait Mode on Your Nexus or Pixel Phone

Portrait mode is arguably the hottest thing smoking on modern smartphones—it’s even become the reason to buy one phone over another at this point. But if you’re overall happy with your current generation phone and just want to get your hands on some of that sweet portrait action, now you can.

Pick the Right Fitbit for Your Fitness Goals

How to Quickly Change Audio Devices on the iPhone

There are few things more annoying in life than making a phone call from your iPhone, and then realizing that it’s actually connected to your Bluetooth speaker—which don’t have a microphone. Shouting “Can you hear me now?” at the phone is never a good look.

Hundreds of Smartphone Apps Are Spying on Your TV Watching. Here’s How to Disable Them

If you’re afraid that your smartphone is spying on you…well, you’re right. But that’s kind of a non-optional part of modern living: amassing huge amounts of consumer data is how companies like Google operate. But recently some third-party apps have been found taking a few more liberties than they should, like a HAL 9000 in your pocket.

How to Customize Nest Secure’s Alarm Levels

The Nest Secure has three different alarm settings: Off, Home, and Away. Here’s how to customize some of these settings to fit your needs.

How Will the Meltdown and Spectre Flaws Affect My PC?

Computer processors have a massive design flaw, and everyone is scrambling to fix it. Only one of the two security holes can be patched, and the patches will make PCs (and Macs) with Intel chips slower.

How to Manually Set Your Location in Google Chrome

Phones get all the fun toys. Thanks to built-in GPS, network triangulation, and other goodies, it’s possible for them to use a more-or-less exact location for apps and website tools.

How to Play Multiplayer Party Games on Your Chromecast

So you have a Chromecast. Did you know that you can do more than just stream movies, music, and videos with it? You can also play simple games that were actually designed for use on the Chromecast. We’re not talking about any AAA titles here, but there are definitely some fun little multiplayer games for when you have a group of people together.

Ten Original Movies From 2017 You Might’ve Missed

How to Use the Foreground and Background to Create Stronger Photos

Photography can be very technical, especially in the digital age. But photography is, at it’s core, art. You can take a technically perfect photo that’s utterly boring and a technically imperfect photo that’s a lot more interesting.

What Is Microsoft Azure, Anyway?

If you’ve followed Microsoft news, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Microsoft Azure, formerly known as Windows Azure. This cloud computing service is a big part of Microsoft’s business, and it competes with similar services from Amazon and Google.

How to Disable Motion Detection on the Nest Guard

By default, the Nest Guard (which acts as the main keypad for the Nest Secure security system) doubles as a motion sensor, and will sound the alarm if it detects motion. However, if you would rather just have it act as the keypad and nothing else, here’s how to disable the motion detection.

What Is configd, and Why Is It Running On My Mac?

You’re browsing the processes on your Mac using Activity Monitor when you notice something you don’t recognize: configd. What is this, and should you be worried?

How to Fix a Stuck or Repeating Key on Your Mechanical Keyboard

Mechanical keyboards are great! But they’re also more complex than conventional keyboards. While they’re less likely to fail entirely, all those individual components mean you’re likely to have issues with certain switches—one for each key, somewhere between 60 and 110 of them, depending on the size of your keyboard.

How to Block Inappropriate Websites Using Google Wifi

There are a lot of “bad” websites on the internet—you know, things you wouldn’t really want your kids to look at. The problem is, it’s hard to constantly monitor what kids are doing online. The good news is that you can easily block inappropriate websites using Google Wifi.

9 Products To Help Make Your Dumb Car Smart

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How Will the Meltdown and Spectre Flaws Affect My PC?

Computer processors have a massive design flaw, and everyone is scrambling to fix it. Only one of the two security holes can be patched, and the patches will make PCs (and Macs) with Intel chips slower.

You Should Turn Off Autofill in Your Password Manager

Advertisers have found a new way to track you. According to Freedom to Tinker, a few ad networks are now abusing tracking scripts to capture the email addresses that your password manager auto-fills on websites.

10 Handy Uses for Your Old iPad or Android Tablet

Tablet sales are slumping at the moment, probably as a result of big smartphones and convertible laptops chip away at a tablet’s usefulness. But if you have one or more tablets at home gathering dust while you happily poke away at your giant smartphone, there are probably some good ways to put them to use rather than selling them or recycling them. Here are a few ideas.

So You Just Got a Chromecast. Now What?

So, you just scored a Chromecast. That’s awesome! But you can do a lot more than just watch Netflix or YouTube on that bad boy—there’s actually a load of cool stuff under its tiny hood.

Google, the World’s Biggest Advertising Company, Will Block Ads Soon. Is That Good?

It’s finally happening: on February 15, 2018, Google’s Chrome browser will block some ads out-of-the-box, regardless of whether you have a separate ad blocker installed.

You Can Speed Up Your Slow iPhone by Replacing the Battery

All phones slow down over time. As hardware gets older and software gets newer, it’s inevitable. But there’s another reason your iPhone might be slow: the battery.

Despite Firefox Quantum’s Success, Mozilla Has Lost Its Way

Mozilla was supposed to be different. It brands itself as a non-profit organization dedicated to making the web better, one that cares about user privacy and security. But after this week, I’m starting to wonder if Mozilla really cares about its users the way they claim.

Why Your Kodi Box Isn’t Working, and What to Use Instead

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And Kodi boxes sound way too good to be true, offering unlimited free TV and movies for life after purchasing a single piece of hardware.

Bitcoin Is Not a Currency, It’s an (Unsafe) Investment

If the creators of Bitcoin wanted it to act like a currency, they sure made a lot of weird decisions. Bitcoin doesn’t function well as a currency, for reasons that are inherent to its design. It’s an investment people are speculating on…and even then, it’s more gambling than it is a stable investment.

Why Rebooting Your Router Fixes So Many Problems (and Why You Have to Wait 10 Seconds)

The internet is down, but you know what to do: unplug your router or modem, wait ten seconds, then plug it back in. It’s second nature at this point, but why does it actually work? And is there some magic to the ten second number?