Explained guides
Analog vs Digital, Explained
Analog keeps a smooth copy of something. Digital measures it again and again, and keeps only the numbers.
Bluetooth, Explained
Bluetooth is a short-range radio. It links your phone to earbuds, speakers, watches and your car. When the sound cuts out, one of three things is usually to blame.
Cameras, Doorbells and Baby Monitors, Explained
Most gadgets in your home pull things in. A camera pushes video out, often all day.
Captive Portals, Explained
That Wi-Fi sign-in page has a name: a captive portal. It sits between the Wi-Fi and the internet. Until you finish it, almost nothing else loads.
How Your Devices Access the Internet, Explained
Your Wi-Fi and your internet are two different things. They meet at one box in your home. So they get blamed as one thing.
Find My, Explained
You, your phone, an AirTag in your purse, the AirTag tied to your keys. Find My keeps track of all of them. It's one app that finds three kinds of things, and it works on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.
Home Internet, Explained
Internet reaches your house in one of six ways. Five end at a box from your provider. A phone hotspot is its own box. Your Wi-Fi starts at the router, right after that box.
How GPS Works, Explained
Your phone finds itself by listening. Satellites high above the Earth send out the time. Your phone hears several of them and works out where it is. It never sends anything back.
Mesh, Extenders and Wired Access Points, Explained
Every box you add to fix a dead zone needs its own link back to your main box. That link decides how fast the far room will be.
Mobile Hotspots, Explained
A mobile hotspot takes the cell signal your phone uses and turns it into Wi-Fi. Your laptop and tablet join that Wi-Fi, just like at home. The hotspot can be a small box of its own, or your phone.
Phone Data Abroad, Explained
Your phone needs a plan that works where you're going. There are three ways to get one. And your phone number doesn't have to ride on the same plan as your data.
Is Your Router Too Old?
A router is too old when it stops getting security fixes. It may still work fine. That isn't the test.
Satellite Texting, Explained
Many newer phones can send a text through a satellite. It works when there's no cell signal and no Wi-Fi. It works outdoors, it's slow, and it's for short messages.
Scales and Ratios, Explained
Wi-Fi runs on numbers that are too small or too big to picture. This guide turns a few of them into things you already know: a foot of wire, a stack of money, a ruler.
Smart Home Radios, Explained
Smart home boxes use four names: Wi-Fi, Thread, Zigbee and Matter. Three of them are radios. Matter is not a radio. It's a shared language that devices speak over the radios.
Starlink, Explained
Starlink is internet from satellites that fly low, about 480 km (300 miles) up. A flat dish on your roof or RV talks to whichever satellite is overhead.
Tap, Touch and Near, Explained
Your phone has two radios for things up close. One works when you tap to pay. The other helps you find your keys.
Travel Routers, Explained
A travel router is a small box you pack in your bag. It joins the hotel Wi-Fi for you. Then it makes your own Wi-Fi in the room. Your phone, laptop and tablet join that, just like at home.
Weak Cell Signal at Home, Explained
Most weak signal indoors isn't your phone. It isn't the tower either. It's the building. A signal that's fine at the curb can lose most of its strength getting through a wall or a window.
How Your Phone Knows Where It Is, Explained
Your phone has more than one way to find itself. It listens for several kinds of clues and blends them into one best guess. Outdoors, satellites do much of the work. Indoors, Wi-Fi usually does.
Wi-Fi and Your Health, Explained
A Wi-Fi router sends about a tenth of a watt. That's tiny. The signal also fades fast as it spreads out. In real homes and schools, it measures far below the safety limits.
Wi-Fi Calling, Explained
Wi-Fi Calling lets your phone make a normal call over Wi-Fi when the cell signal is weak. Same phone app. Same phone number. Your phone company still carries the call.
Wi-Fi on Planes, Explained
Airplane mode turns off your phone's radios. Cellular is the one that matters in the air, so keep it off. If the airline allows it, you can turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth back on.