Experience, data, checks, and analysis are extraordinarily essential to with the ability to use computer systems and all IT at house as easily and effectively as attainable. But developments don’t stand nonetheless: We have reviewed 14 items of frequent tech data to see if they’re legitimate.

Further studying: The 6 biggest hardware myths exposed

1. Do gadgets intrude with one another on energy strips?

It is usually stated that you shouldn’t plug this or that machine into an influence strip along with others. Otherwise they’d “interfere” with one another. This is sort of at all times nonsense; the electromagnetic interactions are normally negligible. If a fuse is accountable for a number of rooms, a number of home equipment are related to 1 circuit anyway.

However, the whole energy of all gadgets on an influence strip should be taken under consideration. Currently, this should not exceed 3,000 watts, however that is solely a sensible danger for heating home equipment. Coffee machine, kettle, toaster, fan heater, washer, and dishwasher needs to be plugged instantly right into a wall socket, and parallel operation on a a number of distributor needs to be averted. PCs, screens, televisions, and IT equipment, however, should not susceptible to overload. A a number of energy strip with built-in surge safety is even beneficial right here.

2. Should your Wi-Fi SSID be hidden?

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This is a fable, as a result of hackers can shortly discover out the title of a Wi-Fi radio community with the suitable instruments even when the SSID is about as “hidden” within the router. It is far more essential to guard your Wi-Fi community with a safe, sufficiently lengthy password and to make use of WPA3 as encryption.

Regardless of this, hidden SSIDs have the next penalties: Logging on for the primary time is extra cumbersome as a result of it’s a must to kind within the title of the community manually. In addition, there are a selection of small gadgets that won’t connect with an invisible Wi-Fi.

3. Is it okay to cost batteries on a regular basis?

Martyn Casserly

No, the lack of capability attributable to untimely charging affected the nickel-cadmium batteries that had been frequent prior to now. With fashionable lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries, the reminiscence impact now not happens. Although batteries have usually turn into much less delicate, fixed full discharging does harm them. A cost degree of between 20 and 80 p.c is taken into account to be light. So if attainable, cost your gadgets earlier than the battery runs out utterly.

4. USB-C supposedly transmits every thing

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Not in any respect, as a result of lots is optionally available with USB-C. So a selected Type-C port is under no circumstances similar to others. Which capabilities a tool and even particular person sockets assist can solely be discovered by wanting within the handbook or an prolonged product description. Because even the totally different and in precept standardized symbols are under no circumstances used constantly by the producers.

It can be complicated that USB-C has the identical plug and socket form because the Thunderbolt interface, however each work utterly in a different way.

The present USB logos emphasize the core capabilities of the Type-C interface. This ought to make it attainable to acknowledge the velocity instantly on the packaging in addition to on the connector.

5. Do it’s a must to change your password typically?

No. Although there may be nothing incorrect with altering passwords recurrently, it’s tempting to make use of passwords which can be straightforward to guess. If you solely change one quantity at a time, the entry code is under no circumstances safer. Much safer are sufficiently lengthy passwords with particular characters and numbers that you just handle with a password supervisor.

It’s additionally essential by no means to make use of the identical entry code for a number of on-line accounts. If one account is hacked, others are threatened on the similar time as a result of hackers use it to systematically check different accounts.

Further studying: Best password managers 2023

6. Does hibernation devour electrical energy?

No, however it’s a must to watch out with the phrases: Often “hibernation” and the Windows choice “save energy” are confused.

So let’s begin originally: “Shut down” switches off the PC utterly. The mode referred to as “hibernation” by Microsoft saves the present session by writing the contents of the primary reminiscence to the arduous disk after which additionally switches off the facility to the pc. When it’s switched on once more, Windows doesn’t utterly reboot, however reads the RAM file from the info medium. This is quicker than restarting; furthermore, you proceed working precisely the place you left off earlier than.

This additionally applies to the energy-saving mode, however this retains the final Windows session within the RAM. This always consumes some vitality: On a pocket book in battery mode, the battery is thus drained in the long term. Caution: Unsaved information is subsequently misplaced when the battery is empty.

Although hibernation mode and energy-saving mode begin up the pc quicker than after an actual switch-off, you must reinitialize your PC or pocket book each few days through “Restart.” The restart additionally solves many different issues as if by magic, on the pc in addition to on the smartphone.

7. The “private mode” within the browser is nameless

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Unfortunately, that is incorrect. In the so-called personal mode, the browser shops much less information, however you might be under no circumstances incognito on the web. Many on-line companies acknowledge your browser and thus additionally you through particular person fingerprints, i.e. through the distinctive mixture (“fingerprint”) of varied properties of your pc. Even the usage of VPN or adblockers doesn’t forestall this.

Fingerprinting is, nevertheless, undermined by anonymization and randomization strategies that manipulate the fingerprint in a focused, non-specific approach or always change it. This is completed for the Chrome, Edge, or Opera browsers by the add-on Canvas Blocker, and for Firefox by the just about similar extension CanvasBlocker. Manufacturers of safety software program particularly additionally provide particular instruments in opposition to fingerprints; for instance, Avast’s Secure Browser is free.

8. Is cable web nonetheless gradual within the night?

Internet entry through TV cable is a “shared medium,” much like the usage of a radio cell in cell telephony: The extra individuals or households share an entry level, the decrease the person bandwidth turns into. In the previous, the throughput within the cable community subsequently dropped, particularly within the night hours when many individuals had been watching movies at house or utilizing their computer systems.

In the meantime, nevertheless, the cable suppliers frequently improve their networks. A single node on a community can function many as 500 households. With speeds of 500Mbps to 1Gbps extensively obtainable, the elevated use within the night is hardly noticeable.

9. Is it secure to easily pull out USB sticks?

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USB sticks on the PC might merely be unplugged, so that you don’t have to click on on “Safely remove hardware and eject medium” beforehand. Neither the stick nor the pc or system configuration might be broken. This can be ensured by the Windows normal setting for information media “Quick Remove.”

One restriction, nevertheless, is that every one recordsdata on the stick should be closed and no information switch should be in progress when eradicating the stick — in any other case information could also be misplaced or broken. When copying giant quantities of knowledge or with gradual USB sticks, be sure that the Windows switch window is closed earlier than eradicating the stick.

10. Does third-party ink invalidate your printer’s guarantee?

The reply to this query is a transparent no — each with regard to the (voluntary) guarantee of the machine producer and with regard to the authorized guarantee of the seller. To accomplish that, the producer or seller must show a causal connection between the printer defect and the third-party ink or cartridge. If this actually exists, the ink or toner producer is answerable for the harm to the printer.

11. Chromebooks want a everlasting web connection

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It is true that Chromebooks, i.e. notebooks with Google’s Chrome OS working system, primarily use cloud companies. However, many duties may also be carried out with out an web connection. The working system then caches all modifications regionally and routinely synchronizes them later through the web with out you having to fret about it.

With companies which can be already built-in, similar to Google Drive or Office, customers don’t discover something about this; with different apps, it is dependent upon the settings and capabilities. It’s like on the smartphone, in any case, the identical apps from the Play Store could be put in on the Chromebook. Just because the cell phone performs Spotify or Netflix content material offline, for instance, the Chromebook does the identical.

12. Mobile cellphone calls are inferior to a landline at house

It was that the expertise of cell phone calls at house had been typically worse than these over the fastened cellphone traces. This can nonetheless be true in each rural areas with poor cell phone protection and in densely built-up areas the place the radio connection could be interrupted by buildings or one’s personal 4 partitions. But wherever WLAN is on the market, the issue could be solved.

All newer smartphones now assist Wi-Fi calling. The know-how switches calls seamlessly forwards and backwards between cell radio and WLAN. If the cell phone isn’t solely related to the web through LTE, as common, but in addition through Wi-Fi, the connection routinely switches to the native Wi-Fi community.

Check within the telephony or SIM card settings of your smartphone whether or not the perform is switched on.

13. Standby: Is it nonetheless price switching off utterly?

Switching off through an influence strip is certainly worthwhile, however much less so than prior to now. At a mean of 0.75 watts per equipment in standby mode, the vitality per day provides as much as 18Wh. In steady operation, that is 6.5kWh per yr. With 15 home equipment — fairly a sensible measurement in lots of households — the standby consumption provides as much as virtually 100kWh per yr.

For comparability: Without electrical water heating, a four-person family consumes between 3,000- and 4,500kWh per yr. The standby operation of 15 home equipment thus accounts for two or 3 p.c.

Note: “Computers” of every kind, together with community arduous disks, should be shut down first earlier than you turn them off arduous through an influence strip. Caution can be suggested with OLED TVs: The TV units could be broken with out energy. Many inkjet printers, however, flush the nozzles each time they’re switched again on, consuming ink within the course of.

14. Are gold-plated cables higher?

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You can simply spend a number of hundred {dollars} on audio cables with gold-plated contacts. HDMI cables with gold plugs additionally value many occasions greater than comparable ones with out. But do the costly ones actually provide higher sound and sign high quality? The reply is: No, however…

All cables use copper wires, the metallic conducts electrical energy significantly better than gold. Power and alerts are subsequently transmitted equally properly with each sorts of cable. However, and right here gold-plated contacts even have a bonus, the dear metallic doesn’t oxidize. The gold floor of the contacts subsequently retains the conductivity excessive for years, whereas different metals turn into coated with an oxide layer over time, particularly in humid environments. However, to totally exploit this benefit, each side of the contact should be coated with gold, i.e. plugs and sockets.

This article initially appeared on pcwelt.de and was translated from German to English.