The lower layers deal with electrical signals, chunks of binary data, and routing of these data across networks. Higher levels cover network requests and responses, representation of data, and network protocols, as seen from a user’s point of view. The OSI model was originally conceived as a standard architecture for building network systems, and many popular network technologies today reflect the layered design of OSI. Physical Layer At Layer 1, the Physical layer of the OSI model is responsible for the ultimate transmission of digital data bits from the Physical layer of the sending (source) device over network communications media to the Physical layer of the receiving (destination) device....

Last month, the Indian financial services app, Paytm, was temporarily removed from the Play Store. The ouster created an uproar in India’s tech community that echoes growing calls around the world for a reexamination of Apple and Google’s practices. “Google’s monopoly is bad in the app space for both the developers and the end-user,” Ashish Rattan, co-founder and CTO of app development agency NeotericAI, said in an email interview. “Google charges 30 percent on in-app purchases....

Install and Use Greasemonkey Greasemonkey is only available for Firefox. To download it, visit the Greasemonkey download page on the Mozilla add-ons website. After Firefox restarts, a new button in the form of a smiling monkey appears in the browser’s address bar. Select the monkey toggle switch to enable and disable the Greasemonkey extension. Select the down arrow accompanying the toggle to modify the Greasemonkey settings and open the Firefox User Scripts management interface....

Pretty much every cheap synthesizer comes with a keyboard attached, and if you walk into your local music gear store, you’ll see a bunch of inexpensive MIDI keyboards that can be hooked up to a computer or iPad to play amazing software instruments. Those keyboards are fine for folks who just need something small and portable or don’t care about much other than being able to enter notes into an app....

I’m used to more exciting sounding technology, but it turns out this little understated box is incredibly helpful. Sure, you’ll never boast about it to your friends in the same way you would a new smartwatch, but you’ll find it a fantastic time saver while you work. It’s a small box that offers USB and Bluetooth connectivity so you don’t have to keep it near your PC, but you probably will anyway....

They have a multicolor cyberpunk style that’s like nothing else on the market. But after using them for a few weeks, I can recommend the T2 for their outstanding sound and build quality, as well. They offer a terrific and reasonably priced alternative to the plasticky earbuds that are so common for less-expensive audio equipment. This was my first time buying wired earphones in years. I own both the Apple AirPods Pro and the AirPods Max....

If you’re planning on working through this unique game from Square-Enix, here are a few suggestions to help you brave enemy attacks and the in-game economy. Download and Play the Demo From the Nintendo 3DS eShop “Bravely Default” has a 3DS demo you can download for free from the Nintendo 3DS eShop. But whereas most demos simply offer you a snippet of the full game, the “Bravely Default” preview is a self-contained adventure....

What Is Rooting? The Android phone runs an operating system designed for commercial and private use. Like most operating systems, several features are disabled. Phone manufacturers lock their devices to prevent you from unintentionally damaging the phone or exposing the phone to security risks. They also lock devices to prevent you from removing apps they installed, or from switching carriers. Rooting removes all limitations and grants full access to the operating system....

Circle—currently in testing—lets you chat with up to 150 hand-picked people, followers or not. This adds a certain kind of trust and privacy, and could introduce crucial context into a medium that chronically lacks it. “By allowing Twitter users to select who they talk with and who they invite into their ‘circle,’ it makes it much more like a private party than a town hall,” privacy advocate and founder of Restore Privacy Bill Mann told Lifewire via email....

How to Check Who Unfollowed You: The Manual Way The most basic way to check to see who unfollowed you on Instagram is to do it manually by staying on top of your exact follower count and specific users. If you notice your follower count goes down, you can then investigate the “Following” lists of those specific users to verify whether or not they’re still following you. This is obviously very time-consuming and impractical work — especially when you have a lot of followers who fluctuate regularly....

Changing Data With the CEILING Function Like other rounding functions, the CEILING function alters the data in your worksheet and, therefore, affects the results of any calculations that use the rounded values. As an alternative, Excel has formatting options that allow you to change the number of decimal places displayed by your data without changing the numbers themselves. Making formatting changes to data does not affect calculations. Excel CEILING Function A function’s syntax refers to the function’s layout and includes its name, brackets, and arguments....

Cloud Computing - Remote File Servers To remotely access files from anywhere without having to set up any hardware, turn to cloud computing services, specifically online backup and file syncing web apps. Dedicated file-syncing services and applications are designed to keep your most important documents accessible wherever you go. Apple iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, and Google Drive provide access, editing, and sharing capabilities wherever you have internet. The basic plans are free and additional storage space is available for a low fee....

This weBoost 4G-X is a workhorse that offers a massive range to accommodate large homes, outdoor boosting, or even an office. If you’re looking for something to support your small business, this could be the product for you. Similar to the smaller range units, it offers up to 32 times stronger cell signal for all major providers, and it apparently works well with all major cellular-connected devices, from phones to tablets to hot spots, or even data-connected notebooks....

Enable POP Access in Outlook.com Outlook.com disables POP access by default for so the first step is to enable it. Outlook.com POP Server Settings The Outlook.com POP server settings for downloading new incoming messages to an email program, cell phone, or mobile device are: Troubleshoot Email Server Settings While mobile devices and email programs have become more user-friendly for accessing your email accounts, you may run into problems during setup. Check the POP, IMAP, and SMTP settings carefully....

What Are DMs? DMs means direct messages. On some social media platforms, like Twitter, you have a tab that allows you to privately message any other user who follows you (or those you don’t follow you who have their DM settings open to everyone). Most people refer to it as a DM for short. What It Means When Someone Says ‘Slide Into Your DMs Like…’ Since you can have an open conversation with anyone on social media by replying to a message or putting @username in front of your the message, DMs are often used for conversations that you and the other user would rather keep just between the two of you....

A broadband router uses the Ethernet standard for wired connections. Traditional broadband routers required Ethernet cables that ran between the router, the broadband modem, and each computer on the home network. Newer broadband routers have a wired connection to the internet modem. They connect with the devices in the home wirelessly using the Wi-Fi standards. Many different types of routers are available, and each one meets a specific standard. The routers that use the most current standard are available at a higher cost than those on older standards, but they include better features....

Most home theater components are not in the same room as a home network’s router. That wasn’t much of a problem until home theater setups began to include network media players, media streamers, smart TVs, Blu-ray players and other home theater components that are able to access content from the internet and home PCs and media servers. Now it’s important to find a way to connect to your router in a convenient location and/or in such a way so that you can have easy access to the internet and stream photos, music and movies from media libraries anywhere in your home....

What Is a Prime Lens? With zoom lenses, you can adjust the focal length by moving glass lenses inside the lens body, typically by using a rotating or sliding sleeve on the external barrel of the lens. A prime lens, on the other hand, has a fixed focal length. The name prime comes from the sole focal length, with only one measurement. A prime lens can be wide-angle, normal, or telephoto....

OLED Makes Roll-Up TVs Possible The underlying technology used in a roll-up TV is OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode). OLED uses an organic structure to form pixels that create images, without the need for extra backlighting. This makes OLED TVs different than QLED TVs or LED/LCD TVs. OLED screens can also be made so that they bend, fold, curve, and roll depending on application (such as in foldable smartphones and in-car instrument displays)....

What Is a VHDX File? A file with the VHDX file extension is a Windows hard disk image file. It acts like a real, physical hard drive, but is stored in a single file that’s located on a physical disk like a hard drive. One can be created from scratch in Windows, but some backup software, like Disk2vhd, produce them as their save format. VHDX files can contain an entire operating system for purposes such as testing software or running older or newer software not compatible with the host operating system, or simply to hold files like any other storage container....