Dear Lifehacker,
My router sucks. My connection goes wonky once every few days, and I have to unplug the router and reboot it (I believe this is called a hard reset) to fix the problem. Obviously, this is incredibly annoying. What can I do to just make the darn thing work properly?

Sincerely,
Infernal Internet

Dear Infernal,
This is a very common ailment, but there's no one universal cause (which, sadly, means there's also not one simple solution). It could be that your internet provider changes your IP address often, and your router doesn't catch on. Maybe it's overheating, or maybe it's getting bogged down by too many connections at once (which can happen if you download a lot). There isn't an easy way to figure out what the problem is, but there are a few common solutions that could help you fix the problem and prevent it from happening in the future.

First: Verify That Your Router Is the Source of the Problem

Before you start messing with your router, you should make sure the problem doesn't lie with your modem or your internet service provider. To do this, plug your computer directly into your modem and see if you get any dropped connections or other problems. If not, the problem is more likely related to your router. If your modem is a modem/router combo, you won't be able to perform this step (we recommend having a separate modem and router for just this reason). If your modem is the problem, contact either your internet service provider or the modem manufacturer to get support, since it's probably not something you can fix at home.

Deals, get your red hot smoking Apple deals right here, right now. We've got Macbooks, we've got cases, we've got armbands, we've got a real mixed veggie platter, so get on board. Oh, yeah, and we have what the headline's talking about too. 

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Lots of folks are having trouble accessing Gmail today, and today's outage is just one in a long series of outages in our favorite webmail application. However, you don't have to let that stop you from accessing your email and getting things done. Here's how to get your Gmail even when you can't access Gmail.com.

Access Gmail Through Alternate Modes

Just because the Gmail web interface went down doesn't mean that Gmail is entirely down—often you can continue to access your account using one of the alternate web interfaces, which often are still accessible even when the regular web interface goes down.

Here's a quick look at each alternate method, one at a time, from the simplest to the most complex. (The more complex solutions are often better long-term solutions, while the simpler solutions are probably the easiest if Gmail just went down and you haven't already prepared for it.)

           If you're new to the iPad, got your first one with last month's release, or you're just tired of people asking you for help learning their way around one, this video is full of common tricks and shortcuts that every iPad user should know, from how to take a screenshot to how to quit an application running in the background. We've covered some of these shortcuts before, but some of these were new to us.

The video is the work of Simply Zesty, a Dublin based PR firm. In it is a rundown of iOS shortcuts, options that are generally hidden deep in the settings that you may want to toggle, and other time-saving options that anyone new to an iPad may not immediately know. For example, most people know how to set a passcode to access their locked device, but you can also set your iPad to delete its data after 10 failed passcode attempts, keeping your data safe if your tablet is lost or stolen. Already know your way around the iPad? All of this old news to you? What are your favorite time-saving shortcuts? Let us know in the comments below.