Author Archives: Ian Paul

Anybody looking for serious graphics power needs to have a graphics card from AMD, NVIDIA, or (someday soon) Intel. Not everyone wants that kind of power, however, especially when it comes at a price tag of $150 to more than $1,000.Read This Article on… Continue reading →

When you think about antivirus, you don’t tend to think about its appearance. Typically, your concern is that the AV works and isn’t too hard to figure to out. With Panda Dome Premium, however, you can’t help but think about its looks.Similar … Continue reading →

NortonLifeLock, formerly Symantec, has changed up its security suite lineup. Norton Security Premium, the suite we’ve reviewed several times, is no more. Now it’s all about the Norton 360 brand that combines Norton’s protection with services f… Continue reading →

Hard drives are like printers: the technology is so old and well-understood, there’s really nothing new happening. Besides, aren’t we all about NVMe and SATA SSDs these days?Read This Article on How-To Geek › Continue reading →

Of all the PC components, few require more care and attention than a hard drive. We’ve all heard the admonishments to defragment drives, and clean up junk files to keep all our 1s and 0s sparkling. No matter how well you care for it, however, at s… Continue reading →

Speedify in brief:

P2P allowed: Yes
Business location: Philadelphia, PA
Number of servers: 1,000+
Number of country locations: 34
Cost: $72
VPN protocol: Speedify protocol (proprietary)
Data encryption: ChaCha20 (mostly for older devices); A… Continue reading →

This is an amazing time to build a PC! Online tutorials are plentiful, and desktop components are so standardized, building a computer is almost foolproof. We say “almost” because, if you haven’t done your homework, you can still mess thi… Continue reading →

What’s in a name? A lot, actually, if we’re talking about Intel processors. Intel uses internal code names designed to hide what the company is working on until it’s ready to go public. So, it’s no wonder these terms aren’t very m… Continue reading →

VPNCity in brief:

P2P allowed: Yes. 
Business location: Hong Kong
Number of servers: 3,000+
Number of country locations: 34
Cost: $48 (billed annually)
VPN protocol: OpenVPN (default)
Data encryption: AES-256-CBC
Data authentication: SHA-512
Hands… Continue reading →

We’ve been reviewing Avira Antivirus Pro for a few years now and wondering why it was worth purchasing when the free version of Avira offered so much. At the time, Avira’s top-level offering, Prime, was just too expensive. Those days are over, h… Continue reading →

In 2018, Nvidia rolled out its RTX graphics cards, which rocked some killer features for gaming, including ray tracing and mesh shaders. However, Microsoft needed a standard that supported these features on more than just NVIDIA hardware—and it&… Continue reading →

Companies all over the world sell VPN services to secure your online activity, but can you really trust a VPN provider? If you want, you can create your own virtual private network with the open-source Algo software, and the cloud-hosting provider of y… Continue reading →

The best antivirus solution is one that’s as simple as possible. After all, if a user can’t navigate the app to take advantage of its features, then much of the program’s usefulness is lost. Trend Micro’s Maximum Security nails this princip… Continue reading →

Choosing the right virtual private network (VPN) service is no simple task. A VPN should keep your internet usage private and secure, but not every service handles your data in the same way. Just look at the critiques of notable computer security ex… Continue reading →

Malwarebytes in brief:

P2P allowed: Yes
Business location: Santa Clara, California
Number of servers: 245+
Number of country locations: 31
Cost: $60 per year
VPN protocol: WireGuard
Data encryption: ChaCha20
Data authentication: Poly1305-AES
Hands… Continue reading →

The internet can be a dangerous place for your debit card. When a phishing site isn’t enticing you to hand over your account info, credit card databases are getting hacked. Privacy.com from Pay With Privacy, Inc. offers a solution to these issues th… Continue reading →

CPU reviews are complicated. Before you even get to the performance benchmarks, you have to navigate a maze of terms, like silicon, die, package, IHS, and sTIM. That’s a lot of jargon with little explanation. We’ll define the key parts of a… Continue reading →

Sophos is a well-known enterprise security company that began serving home users a little over two years ago. Leaning into the company’s strengths, Sophos introduced an “enterprise liteâ€� service for home users. Instead of the usual desktop sui… Continue reading →

The mouse is a great invention, but don’t sell the keyboard short—even for web browsing. Thanks to a very effective browser add-on called Vimium, you can browse the web without ever touching your mouse.Read This Article on How-To Geek ›… Continue reading →

McAfee is a longtime name in the world of PC security, and these days it offers three security products to consumers: McAfee Total Protection, Gamer Security (a suite specific to gamers), and LiveSafe—the latter provides protection for unlimited d… Continue reading →