Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2015 October 17

= October 17 =

Control F "find" not working in Google Chrome
Windows 7, Google Chrome. When I bring the previous search back up by typing CONTROL F, it appears with the previous search term, but the search up and down arrows are grayed out. If I retype the same search term, it works correctly. Any idea why this happens ? StuRat (talk) 02:09, 17 October 2015 (UTC)


 * When you bring the previously search term back up, the computer doesn't automatically know to search it again, especially Chrome. That has happened to me a lot but if you just press enter when the previous searched word pops up, you will see the arrows again. When you exit out of the search bar by using Control F, Chrome takes that as you are exiting and done with that search. Kmmi227 (talk) 18:51, 20 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I'll try that next time. StuRat (talk) 18:53, 20 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Tried it. Enter alone didn't work, but clicking on the search term and then hitting enter did.  Still, I'd like to avoid these extra clicks each time, if possible. StuRat (talk) 19:17, 20 October 2015 (UTC)


 * I now have the same problem after chrome updated when I did a weekly re-boot on one of my devises (PC). Thought I let you know. Cheers, --TMCk (talk) 14:55, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

wi-fi accelerator
Can you point me to a hardware or software wi-fi accelerator that would work with the computer I just bought and have found out is really slow?

This is the computer.

The router is a Netgear NETGEAR24. Thanks,Halcatalyst (talk) 02:11, 17 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Does it make any difference if you bring the computer close to the router? Have you tried making a wired connection and comparing the speed?  You need to determine where the delay is occurring.  Do you have other devices transmitting on the same frequency and causing dropped packets?  If you are a long way from the router, then a Wireless repeater might be a solution.    D b f i r s   08:40, 17 October 2015 (UTC)


 * I recently bought a similar (if rather inferior) Lenovo laptop . Hardware wise the laptop, including its wifi, is perfectly good, and I have no problems doing all kinds of things like streaming HD video over ssh or smb over the wifi, or playing Terraria. But good lord, it came with an astonishingly large amount of adware, trialware and other preinstalled junk. Had I intended to continue running Windows on it, I'd have had to do some major crapware removal. Do that. -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 09:59, 17 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Yes, if the computer is slow in general, then Finlay's solution is the one to go for. I'd assumed that it was only wi-fi that was slow.  Windows might be making your internet appear slow because it is busy downloading updates for all the bloatware.    D b f i r s   12:52, 17 October 2015 (UTC)


 * Slow Wi-Fi connections are overwhelmingly caused by radio interference. Wi-Fi uses unlicensed radio frequency bands, which means anything is allowed to spew out emissions in those frequency ranges. The first thing you want to try is changing Wi-Fi channels. If you don't know how, look at the documentation for your router and computer, or just plug "wi-fi change channel" along with the device name into a search engine. You also might want to look at "channel auto select" if your devices support it. If that doesn't do anything, try the other suggestions given above. Rule 1 of troubleshooting is to isolate the problem. Basically it's unlikely buying some gizmo will do anything. The only major exception is if the two devices are very far apart, in which case a wireless repeater would probably help. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 22:30, 17 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I don't know if I would entirely agree with the last two statements. It's true you should first try other things, in particular determining precisely what sort of problem you actually having (e.g. what sort of speed are you getting to the router and what sort of latency, having a wired device connected to the router, if that's possible is a great help here) is and trying to work out what's causing it. As part of that, you probably should try things like changing channel and moving the router away from possible sources of interference (like most other wireless devices and also USB3 devices) or just moving it in general. You should get an idea of how many other wifi signals there are and what channel they're using in your locale to help you. But after having done all that, you may find your router is just not very good. From my experience and from a lot of what I've read, with some cheap routers, particularly those ISPs give away, their wifi signal is not very good. The reach can be quite poor, so that even in relatively close locations you may get a fairly poor connection even without much interference. They can also have weird software issues which may need regular restarts to fix. If you have such a router, looking for a better one is definitely an option which could significantly improve performance, and there are sites like SmallNetBuilder with decent reviews of routers. Buying a repeater in such a case may not help so much. (I'm presuming Wireless repeater is meant here, rather than another AP with a wired connection to the router.) Netgear products aren't given away so much AFAIK, and some of them aren't bad, however they make enough that you could still have one which is a poor AP. I would also note, as part of the earlier analysis, you should look at whether your AP is even well matched to your situation. Netgear24 doesn't seem to be the model name for any Netgear product, so I'm not sure what it is. But if you're still stuck with a g device, moving to n would often be worth it. (ac probably less so IMO at the moment, even if your device is ac.) Since distances weren't mentioned, it's also worth considering whether 5ghz is likely to be a good option. If you're in the same room as the router, it probably is (although if you're in the same room, either you have unrealistic expectations when you call it "really slow" or there's probably some other problem) so if you have single band of selectable dual band, it's probably worth looking at a simultaneous dual band device if you want those sort of speeds (most likely for a LAN, since for most people their internet connection won't be fast enough). In a few cases like with a small apartment and with all devices supporting, perhaps 5ghz only is all you need, so either change the router to 5ghz if it's selectable, or consider a new one if it 2.4ghz only. Nil Einne (talk) 10:14, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Just checking in. That you all for your comments. Current status: the restore was only partially successful. The cookies aren't there and none of the the web sites recognize me any more, so I'm re-restoring. It took 30 hours the first time. Coincidentally, my email service is acting strange: sometimes it lets me me in and sometimes not. They said they will call within 48 hours. That means I have email off and on. Halcatalyst (talk) 17:10, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Skype And Line Breaks
How do I get line breaks within the same message on Skype, if I want to send a poem, for example? If I use Enter, it just sends the line I have just written. Is there some other way? 82.35.216.24 (talk) 08:25, 17 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I don't use Skype messaging, so I don't know, but would suggest trying Shift-Enter. This often has the desired effect.--Phil Holmes (talk) 15:57, 17 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that works.