Is this job offer or recruitment message a scam?
The upfront-fee version, the task-and-commission version, the money mule version, and the checks that identify all three before you have lost anything.
beginner10 min3 min read
Technology
Phones, laptops, home networks and accounts — with a bias towards fixing what you have rather than replacing it, and towards security advice that is actually worth the effort.
590 guides
My phone says IP68 — is it actually waterproof?
IP68 means water-resistant under controlled laboratory conditions, not waterproof in use. The rating degrades with age, does not cover salt water or pressure, and is not covered by warranty.
beginner12 min4 min readShould I let my browser save my passwords?
What the browser's built-in manager does well, the three specific things it does not, and when moving to a dedicated manager is worth the afternoon.
beginner15 min3 min readShould I use a VPN?
What a VPN does and does not do, when it genuinely helps, and why most of the marketing is overstated.
beginner20 min2 min readWhat are the warning signs that a hard drive is about to fail?
The signs arrive in a rough order, and the window for getting data off narrows as you go. Which symptoms mean act now, and which mean act today.
beginner30 min4 min readWhat do I do about a swollen battery in a phone or laptop?
How to recognise a swelling battery before it becomes obvious, why it must never be punctured, and the safe sequence for isolating and disposing of the device.
beginner15 min5 min readWhat do I do if my laptop keyboard has stopped working?
The checks that separate a stuck setting from a dead ribbon cable, in the order that finds the free fixes first — including the one that fools almost everyone.
beginner20 min5 min readWhat is optimised or adaptive charging, and should I leave it on?
It holds the charge partway overnight and finishes just before you wake, because hours pinned at full is what ages a lithium cell. Leave it on; override it on the nights you need a full battery early.
beginner12 min4 min readWhat should I do if my data was in a breach?
Assessing what was exposed, changing what matters, and the ongoing vigilance that follows a serious breach.
beginner45 min2 min readWhat should I do when my computer freezes?
Getting control back without losing work, and finding out why it froze so it stops happening.
beginner20 min2 min readWhy does my browser say the security certificate is not valid?
What the warning actually checks, why the commonest cause is your own clock, and how to tell a harmless local problem from the one case where the warning is doing its job.
beginner20 min6 min readWhy does my phone say storage full when it is not?
Where the invisible space goes, the categories that never show up in the obvious place, and clearing it properly.
beginner30 min3 min readWhy does my streaming keep buffering?
Working out whether the bottleneck is your wifi, your broadband or the service, and fixing the ones you control.
beginner25 min2 min readWhy does one leaked password put my other accounts at risk?
Credential stuffing explained properly: what actually happens to a leaked password, why the site it leaked from barely matters, and why email is the account that decides everything.
beginner8 min3 min readWhy does streaming keep buffering when everything else works fine?
Buffering on one app while the rest of the internet is fast is rarely about broadband speed. The five real causes, and the order to test them in.
beginner20 min4 min readWhy has my USB port or USB device stopped working?
Nothing happens, or Windows says the device is not recognised. The cross-test that tells you in a minute whether the fault is the port, the cable, the device or the driver — and why so many cables cannot carry data at all.
beginner25 min6 min readWhy is my camera or microphone not working on a call?
Permissions, device selection and the other application holding the camera — the three causes of almost every case.
beginner15 min2 min readWhy is my internet slower than what I pay for?
The difference between advertised, line and wifi speeds, how to measure each, and what you can actually change.
beginner30 min2 min readWhy is my phone camera blurry all of a sudden?
The five causes in order of likelihood, why it is almost never the sensor, and the test that identifies it in seconds.
beginner20 min3 min readWindows will not start properly — which recovery option should I choose?
Startup Repair, System Restore, Uninstall Updates, safe mode, Reset this PC, clean install — six options on the same menu, ordered here by what they cost you rather than by where Microsoft puts them.
intermediate25 min6 min readHow do I clear a paper jam without damaging the printer?
Which direction to pull, why torn fragments cause every subsequent jam, and the four causes of a printer that jams again the moment you have cleared it.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do I help someone who is being scammed and will not believe me?
Why the person defends the scammer, what to do instead of arguing, the bank and safeguarding routes that exist, and how to keep the relationship intact for afterwards.
intermediate30 min4 min readHow do I move an eSIM to a new phone?
Newer phones offer a direct transfer during setup. Otherwise the network reissues the profile, usually free and within minutes — but never delete the old profile first.
intermediate30 min5 min readHow do I organise my digital files?
A file structure that stays usable as it grows, plus naming conventions that make search actually work.
beginner3 hr2 min read
Going deeper: DecisionHQ
Product and option comparisons with explicit criteria, rather than a single recommendation.
DecisionHQ is in development — GuideHQ covers the practical answers in the meantime.