Tagged #beginners

Ask most people what the box with the blinking lights does and they'll say "it's the internet." Fair. But that box is usually doing three or four separate jobs, and once you know which is which, a lot of home network problems (and shopping decisions) start making sense. The modem talks to your ISP Your internet provider delivers service over some kind of line: coaxial cable, a phone line for DSL, fiber, or a cellular signal. The modem's job is to translate whatever comes in on that line into regular Ethernet that a computer understands. That's all it does. It doesn't hand out addresses to…

USB-C was supposed to be the one cable to end all cables. And as a plug, it kind of is. It's reversible, it's small, it fits laptops and phones and headphones and monitors. The trouble is that "USB-C" only describes the shape of the connector. It says nothing about what's going on inside the cable, and that's where all the confusion comes from. Two USB-C cables that look identical can be wildly different. One might charge your laptop at full speed, move files fast, and run a 4K monitor. The other might barely charge a phone and transfer data at speeds that were normal a long time ago. Same…