What’s messing up my web connection for Zoom meetings and other operate?

Q: I have a refurbished HP laptop computer with Home windows 10. We use CenturyLink for the DSL link to the modem. We not long ago acquired a new modem from CenturyLink for far better stability.

Now, although, especially when we’re utilizing Zoom, a information pops up that claims our world-wide-web link is unstable, and usually we lose our connection to the modem and the world wide web. There is frequently a challenge acquiring connected when we turn on the computer system. It usually takes restarting the computer system a couple of occasions ahead of it connects. It at times takes place as perfectly on my desktop, which also has a Wi-Fi link.

My query is whether or not the connection issues are thanks to a issue with the modem, the line from CenturyLink or the Wi-Fi card in the laptop. Any thoughts or tips would be drastically appreciated.

— Henry Burton

A: You have singled out the 3 most very likely culprits: the modem, the DSL relationship, or the Wi-Fi client in the laptop or computer. But due to the fact it would seem that the dilemma arose only soon after you put in the new modem, I’d aim on that as the most possible cause of your unstable relationship. Prior to calling CenturyLink for a replacement, nonetheless, make confident the connection involving the modem and the DSL line is awesome and restricted and then reboot the modem.

You may possibly also try out connecting the laptop or computer directly to the modem by means of an Ethernet cable. If the challenge disappears that will at minimum let you, and CenturyLink, know that the challenge is with the Wi-Fi router in the modem. I’ve uncovered that modems that also supply Wi-Fi generally underperform as Wi-Fi routers. That’s why I selected to join a better-conclude Wi-Fi router to my cable modem and I use that for my Wi-Fi connection.

Q: I’m a hectic laptop person but I’m intermediate at greatest technically when it comes to desktops. As this kind of, it looks as nevertheless there is a conspiracy to make it tough for us intermediates to very easily and simply know what regimen maintenance to do on browsers, managing computer methods, boot up, and so on., so that we do not live in constant “speed disappointment.”

To incorporate to it, we intermediates never know what to believe in that is on the web and it seems like no a single we believe in (Microsoft, Google, etcetera.) publishes nearly anything that is “follow the dots” to make it uncomplicated for us to know what regimen routine maintenance to do to hold Every little thing quickly.

Is this a conspiracy to get us to obtain a services deal? Can you start off to publish uncomplicated guidance periodically in your column for each individual crucial subject matter?

— Nick Vlahovich

A: I undoubtedly fully grasp your irritation. In truth, several of the issues I solution in this column handle a single or one more of the leads to of flagging laptop or computer efficiency. And there are so many possible causes of “speed frustration” that they cannot be dealt with comprehensively.

Your pc could be gradual because there’s not sufficient space on your difficult push or there may be some thing interfering with your Wi-Fi. You could have malware installed by some app you downloaded, or a third-social gathering browser insert-on may possibly be conflicting with a software. Or you may well have installed a program that necessitates much more memory than your pc has.

In limited, in a lot of circumstances the greatest I can present is to position to the most possible suspects for a certain difficulty. And typically I have to do a small back again-and-forth with visitors to make a prognosis. And in some situations it is extremely hard to diagnose a issue without palms-on troubleshooting.

My typical tips to stay away from “speed frustration” is this: Hold points simple. Download as little as feasible from the internet. Do not pay a visit to internet sites you are not sure of. Don’t click on on hyperlinks in e-mails except if you know and rely on the sender. Only install programs on your laptop that you are definitely going to use.

Observe-up be aware: In a latest column I outlined that I periodically indicator up for a new electronic mail address so that I can stay away from all the spam that sooner or later afflicts my old e-mail addresses. Quite a few visitors wrote in with the observation that receiving loved ones, pals and other correspondents to switch to the new address can be difficult. Luckily, Larry Rees also wrote in to remind me that most e-mail courses — in point, all that I am knowledgeable of — make it possible for you to established up an autoresponse to incoming mail. You can use that to notify men and women of your new deal with. (Be knowledgeable, nevertheless, that some spammers may harvest your new electronic mail address from that reaction.)