Depending on where you live, there are tons of places that offer free Wi-Fi connections so you can work or study remotely, or avoid cutting into your data limits on your smartphone. However, some public networks are pretty annoying about the connection process, with all sorts of interstitial login pages getting between you and that sweet wireless networking.

Security researchers have identified a number of vulnerabilities in Ruckus-branded access points and routers. As tends to be the case, they all affect the router’s UI—allowing an attacker to log in as an administrator regardless of your password and, in doing so, control your router from afar.

If you own one of four TP-Link routers, including the TP-Link Archer C5 (v4), you’re going to want to find and install its latest firmware update right now. The patch fixes a critical vulnerability that would otherwise allow an attacker to take full control of your router—admin access and all—and lock you out of it.

If you’ve ever boarded a flight only to find your phone connection suddenly drop just while you’re trying to send a pre-flight text, you’re not alone. It’s a problem that plagues most passengers right before their departure or soon after landing, just when they most need a lifeline to the outside world. “Everyone seems to look at their phone immediately after landing and I can’t figure out if they’re happily online or they keep trying to refresh like me,” one traveller wrote on Twitter of his flying experience.

If an attacker manages to access your D-Link router’s login screen, and your router is old enough, it’s possible that they can take control of the router, inject it with code, and use it to attack other connected systems and devices. And the best part? D-Link is fully aware of these issues, but it isn’t planning to fix the affected routers because they are too old.

Microsoft is preventing certain PCs running older versions of AVG and Avast antivirus software and outdated Qualcomm Wi-Fi drivers from installing Windows 10 versions 1809, 1903, and 1909. Here’s why: Microsoft no longer allows Windows 10 to automatically update on any and all systems due to potential bugs and incompatibility issues.

We all knew Google would announce its Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL during today’s Made by Google 2019 event, but the company showed off a handful of other devices, too: a new Pixelbook Go laptop, an update to the Pixel Buds wireless earphones, and a new Nest smarthome speaker (and mesh Wi-Fi system).

A dodgy home internet connection is just expected if you're living in Australia. When it works, it works reasonably well but when it doesn't, you'll spend minutes and sometimes hours trying to figure out if the problem is you, your ISP or the NBN. Aussie Broadband has come up with a solution to give customers a chance to fix the service themselves before resorting to more drastic measures.

Riddle me this: You’re out somewhere and you need to hop on a wifi network with a new device. You realise you have the wifi password saved on your laptop, but not on whatever device you’re looking to connect. And you’re either too lazy to ask for the password again, or you have no way to acquire it in your present condition.

What do you do? Easy. Pull out your laptop and look it up. Here’s how.

In this week’s technology-advice column from Lifehacker, we’re going back to our favourite topic: wireless networking. This time around, a reader is having some issues getting an important piece of older gear to work with an important piece of newer gear. If you’ve ever upgraded your router, or are planning to, this situation should be all too familiar.

If you own one of Microsoft’s latest Surface devices — the Surface Book 2 or Surface Pro 6 — you’ll want to pause Windows Updates for a little while, because Microsoft’s latest firmware could absolutely tank your system’s performance. If your laptop is already hosed, however, we have a few ideas for how you can fix it.

You sit down at the airport, ready for (or relaxing during) a big day of travel. You have the perfect spot, closer to a power outlet than to annoying people. And right when you open your laptop, you realise... you have no idea how to get on the nearest wifi, or even what its password is.

Broadband modems supplied by Australian internet retailers are incapable of delivering 100Mbps download speeds over the average fibre-to-the-node connection, according to the consumer watchdog's own performance testing. At the same time, poor Wi-Fi performance from supplied modem/routers is another key bottleneck stopping Australians enjoying their promised NBN speeds.

Internet connectivity is never a stable speed. Between off-peak and high traffic hours it can be impossible to get a good connection. In order to rectify this you generally need to know what your internet speed is at any given time, but why do they differ so much site to site?

Wireless networking is kind of like an emergency kit for your car. You don’t really think much about it when it’s there, but you’re going to notice it’s missing when you need it. Also, you want to make sure it’s set up to give you the best possible experience.

I tend to change gadgets a lot more than most people, which means when I visit friends with a laptop or tablet in-tow it’s more than likely not the same laptop or tablet I had the last time I was there.

I might as well rename the Ask Lifehacker column “The Wifi Wizard,” given how many of you have written in with wireless networking questions over the past several months. That’s fine, though. Wireless networking is near and dear to my heart, as I have wonderful memories of the three years I spent testing routers for Wirecutter—lots and lots of routers, and enough throughput tests to last a lifetime.

Hiding your neighbours’ wifi networks, not to be confused with blocking, is entirely possible. After all, your device automatically connects to your wireless network if you’ve saved the credentials. And in Windows’ “wifi connection box”, for lack of a better name, your OS automatically sorts all the wifi networks it sees from the strongest signal strength to the weakest (minus any hidden networks).

Unless your neighbour has an access point inside your house, you should be seeing your wifi networks at the top — or close to it.

Like Michael Myers from those Halloween movies, some things in life are (seemingly) inescapable. Taxes. Politics. Your neighbour’s wifi networks that are strong enough to give you an unusable signal in your home or apartment, no matter where you are.