Q: How do my computer and smartphone know when or how to adjust the clock for different time zones or daylight saving time?
A: When it comes to knowing what time it is, your device uses some remarkable technology to keep track.
Mobile phones and computers use their data connections to communicate with Internet time servers using a protocol called NTP to request and receive the current date and time.
Internet time servers track the time from various sources, usually from GPS satellites and record Coordinated Universal Time, commonly known as UTC, and transmit this information to devices connected to the Internet.
Your device then uses the location data to convert UTC to your specific time zone, giving you the correct time for your location.
Location data comes from your device, depending on where the device is connected to the Internet. For example, your home IP address provides information about your location, just like the cell towers your phone uses when using a data plan.
Because your time zone and physical location also take into account daylight saving-related changes, your phone and computer can seamlessly adjust as needed.
Q: I recently changed my Wi-Fi router’s password and now my computer won’t connect. It just fails and won’t let me enter a new password. How can I fix this?
A: Your computer saves your Wi-Fi connection settings to make it easier to reconnect when you need to connect to your home network. When you change your router password, your computer keeps trying to connect using the password it has saved in settings.
To fix this, you must tell your computer to forget about your network in order to save the new connection configuration.
On a Windows PC, just click Start, then the Settings icon and turn on Network and Internet.
Click on Wi-Fi and select Manage Known Networks and find the Wi-Fi Router and select it and click Forget.
You will now be prompted for a new password when you can find your home Wi-Fi and connect to it.
It’s basically the same if you’re on a Mac. Open System Preferences and click Network. Select Wi-Fi in the left column and click Advanced.
Here, you’ll see a list of all Wi-Fi networks your Mac is tracking. Just select the one you want to delete and click the delete button. It’s a button that looks like a minus sign.
Click OK and you should be able to reconnect and provide the new router password.