Updating your PC is so straightforward that, depending on your operating system, it'll be taken care of for you automatically (aggressively so). You might even remember to keep your graphics, sound and motherboard drivers up-to-date. But what about your other devices? It's a little trickier to patch your modem / router and NAS, but it is possible.

Hi Lifehacker, I've just finished building a new house which has Cat5e cabling and am looking at my modem and router options. It seems that the best speed I can get is ADSL2+ so the download and upload capabilities of the modem aren't going to be critical; the ability for the router to transfer traffic around the home network at maximum speed is going to matter more. However, most of the hardware offered by ISPs doesn't offer gigabit ports; 100/10 is as good as it gets.

It doesn't have a final name yet, but iiNet is planning to replace its well-regarded BoB modem/router with a new NBN-friendly design later this year. iiNet is also looking into introducing ZigBee-based home automation services.

Dear Lifehacker, My girlfriend is moving into a house with five people, and she's asked me to setup her network and ISP. At her last house there was one person always hogging the bandwidth though everyone paid an equal share; is there any way I can monitor which computers are using the bandwidth each month? Thanks, EquallityInDownloads

Dear Lifehacker, My modem and router keep flashing all night, even when I'm not doing anything on the internet. I know my power light is supposed to be on, but should the send/receive light be blinking even when all my computers are turned off? Am I using up data? Help!

Latest odd change from the world of eBay: from August 22, it will be cutting back on its categories to "make it easier for international buyers to find items". The three big areas where this might potentially impact Lifehacker readers are in mobile phones, modems and games. However, while the changes appear to offer less choices, there's not really any need to panic.

It's catch-up week at Optus, it seems. Following its plunge into terabyte broadband plans, it has now launched into another growing product category: prepaid WiFi modems that let you share a 3G connection with multiple devices.