MakeUseOf - Networking

Your phone's hotspot is more reliable than you think and better than most public networks

Oluwademilade Afolabi — Fri, 01 May 2026 17:01:17 GMT

I do a fair amount of writing from places other than my desk, including cafés, lounges, hotel lobbies, and co-working spaces for which I've paid a day rate, mostly because of the Wi-Fi. Finding a reliable connection was practically part of my workflow. I'd walk into a room, scan for networks, and decide where to sit based on signal strength. Simple enough, and it worked until I started questioning what I was actually getting versus what I just assumed I was getting.

I replaced my cloud storage subscription with a NAS and the setup took one afternoon

Robin John — Fri, 01 May 2026 15:00:18 GMT

I’ve had enough of watching my money disappear into cloud storage subscriptions — that was exactly what I thought one Sunday afternoon while going through my monthly budget app. Don’t get me wrong, I still need storage. But paying that much every single month just doesn’t sit right with me anymore.

I uninstalled these apps and just use them in the browser — my PC has never been snappier

Shaheer Khan — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 19:00:17 GMT

Modern OSs are pretty bloated — just the stock version is enough to chip away at your system's performance, which is why I recommend de-bloating ASAP. That said, I was unknowingly making things worse for my already slow system by downloading unnecessary desktop programs, whereas I could’ve used those apps in the browser with no downsides.

I fixed my Wi-Fi problem by ignoring the advice everyone gives and checking one hidden setting instead

Gavin Phillips — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:30:17 GMT

I recently updated my router firmware after a long-period without checking. That's not something you should do — forget to check your router firmware — because you could be leaving security updates and fixes on the table, accidentally making your network less secure.

These 3 hidden router settings fixed my dead zones instantly

Kanika Gogia — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 15:00:18 GMT

I had accepted that Wi-Fi signal issues are a part of living in a house with multiple rooms. The Wi-Fi worked perfectly fine in my living room, but when I stepped into my bedroom, the speed would drop noticeably. And, I don’t even want to get started with the garden. One step and the signals disappear entirely. Like most folks, I assumed the problem was with my router or ISP, or maybe it’s my house layout.

The DHL link you just received could steal your password if it looks like this

Sara Heritage — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 20:44:14 GMT

A startling new report from Forcepoint X-Labs has shed light on a sophisticated DHL phishing campaign targeting users worldwide. By using familiar-brand impersonation and a fake OTP verification step, scammers are harvesting passwords, IP addresses, geolocation data, and device details from everyday users.

Malwarebytes' Claude connector can spot scams before they catch you

Dave Schafer — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:01:16 GMT

Back in February, Malwarebytes launched Malwarebytes in ChatGPT, a tool that enables you to quickly check links, text, phone numbers, domains, and more for potential scams. On April 29, Malwarebytes announced another addition to its AI scam-checking arsenal with Malwarebytes in Claude, a free connector for Claude.

One-third of new websites are now AI-generated — here's how to spot them

Dave Schafer — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:10:58 GMT

It looks like proponents of the Dead Internet Theory may have been onto something — a new study has found that, since 2022, a third of new websites are AI-generated. The study was performed by a team of researchers from the Imperial College of London, the Internet Archive, and Stanford University.

I didn’t expect Microsoft Edge to replace 3 apps I use daily

Abhijith N Arjunan — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 19:00:17 GMT

After using Arc as my default browser on my Mac for over three years, I recently shifted to Microsoft Edge. I chose Edge because it seemed to offer a clean browsing experience on Mac and support for Chrome extensions. I have already been using Edge on Android, and the experience was pretty great! So, I thought it would be nice to have the same browser on my Mac as well.

I stopped treating every DNS server the same after comparing these 4 popular options

Afam Onyimadu — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 18:31:17 GMT

Most of the time, when I've seen people swap DNS servers, they are looking for a speed boost. I also wanted to go for speed. However, after benchmarking my options — Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8), Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), OpenDNS (208.67.222.222), and Quad9 (9.9.9.9) — speed became less significant and less interesting in my findings.