While a lot of the stuff you do with your phone will involve wifi, the essential functions of a phone - the calling and the texting - still rely on a connection to a mobile phone tower. If that link breaks, you can miss important messages or be out of reach to family and friends. Here’s what you can do if you struggle to get a solid mobile network connection at home.

You’re probably used to bookmarking your favourite sites for easy access, but the web goes much deeper than the top domains you’re familiar with—from your social networks to your email box, having the right URL to hand can enable you to jump right into the page, feature, setting, or search you need. Here are 10 of the most useful ones.

If you own a phone or a computer (and we're assuming you do) there are bugs and annoyances that you just have to learn to live with. On the flip side, there are also problems that hint at something much more serious going on with your device-issues you shouldn't learn to live with, but should address at the earliest opportunity.

The Chromecast - that's a dongle for getting movies and shows and maybe a bit of music up on your big screen, right? Well, yes, but there's much more you can do with your Chromecast.

Congratulations! You've got yourself a shiny new smartphone, you've worked your way through the initial setup and login process, and you're ready to start using it in earnest.

Before you start Snapchatting and WhatsApping though, check out some of the default settings Android and iOS apply for you - because they might not be exactly what you want.

After months of build up and beta testing, the finished version of iOS 11 is out September 19, ahead of the launch of the iPhone X. So what exactly can you do with it that's new? Here are the big new features you should get to know.

Fire up your Start menu or Dock and think carefully for a moment: Out of all your ageing desktop apps, how many do you really rely on these days -- or even better, how many of them don't already have very capable web app alternatives you could use instead? Unless you're a film editor or a graphic designer, it's probably time to let those old-fashioned, clunky desktop apps go.

Just when you thought you could chitchat with authority about USB standards at your next dinner party, a new one comes along to shake everything up again. The latest USB 3.2 standard is going to be confirmed in September, and here's what that means for your laptop, your phone, and those new USB-C cables you just went out and bought.

The command line (or Terminal for you Mac fans) is a throwback to a simpler age of computing, before mouse pointers and application windows and desktop wallpaper. Back when it was just you and a window full of text. Operating systems have long since evolved beyond the humble command line interface, but there's still no better tool for quickly disseminating complex information in your operating system -- and you can actually do some other pretty cool stuff with them, too.

Computer specs can be a baffling mix of acronyms and numbers at the best of times, but it's worth learning something about them: It will help you choose a new computer, troubleshoot your old computer, and generally understand more about the relationship between the specs on the page and the experience you're getting.

The deep web and its inner recess, the dark web -- those less well-trodden parts of the internet beyond the reach of Google and Bing -- are not for the faint-hearted or untrained. With the right tools, however, there's little to fear and plenty to discover. Here's how you can start exploring the deep web without having to worry about your digital well-being.

The new consoles have finally been announced, the dust is beginning to settle, and now there are a lot of choices for anyone wanting to make their way back into gaming or starting from scratch. Maybe you don't know one PS4 SKU from another or have any idea who Nathan Drake is -- and that's ok. Not everyone has the time or the motivation to be a gaming enthusiast, and so this guide is for the rest of you: explaining the consoles, the games, and the technologies you need to know about to hold up a reasonably detailed conversation about video gaming in 2017.

It's a crucial component in any laptop or desktop computer, but very few computer owners actually know what a motherboard is or what it does. There's a motherboard (often called a logic board in smaller more mobile devices) sitting in every computer system: the processor, RAM, hard drives, graphics card, and other bits and pieces all plug straight into it.

As if there aren't enough tech security threats to worry about, you also need to be on your guard against so-called 'stalkerware' -- those invasive types of programs installed by suspicious spouses, jealous exes or controlling parents without your knowledge. Here are the warning signs (on your computer) to look out for, and what you can do about them.