Fantastic new uses for your old laptop

You may struggle to teach old dogs new tricks, but that’s not true of old laptops. Mike Plant explains how to get more out of a laptop you thought you’d never use again

Many of us have an old, long-forgotten laptop squirreled away in a cupboard or the loft gathering dust. It probably became too sluggish for everyday use, prompting you to replace it with a swankier, speedier model. Perhaps you put your laptop through our recent ‘When will your PC die?’ benchmark tests and realised it was on its last legs.

Before you send it off to your nearest landfill site, why not try giving it a new lease of life? Read on as we explain how to convert it into anything from a second PC screen to an amplifier.

Stop online advertisers tracking you

The web is tracking you without you even knowing. Mike Plant explains how to shield yourself from online advertisers that want to sell your browsing habits to the highest bidder

Are you being watched right now? Probably not because you’re reading this! But the next time you go online your activity will be closely monitored. Every website you access employs trackers designed to see how you reached it, which bit of the site you interacted with, how long you stayed put and what site you leapt to afterwards.

Samsung 960 Pro 1TB

Samsung makes some scorching hot hardware, but not in the Galaxy Note 7 way

Dо you recall when the PC transitioned from IDE to SATA? Then most motherboards came with both ports, and I recall looking at IDE and wondering why they still existed.

SATA was so superior that, other than for legacy reasons, IDE became pointless practically overnight. I'm saying this since the new Samsung 960 Pro M.2 makes me view SATA ports in precisely the same way.

Have Router, Will Broadband

What's the best approach to a new ISP if you already have a modem/router?

If you've spent any amount of time browsing around for a new broadband package or leafing through the endless bits of junk mail that contain the most recent broadband deals you'll notice one thing: all broadband suppliers seem to be very keen to throw in a new modem/router with the deal. Sometimes these units are off-the-shelf models you'll see in you local computer store, and others are bespoke models designed specifically for certain vendors.

Secure Your Online Banking (And Personal Data)

Tesco Bank customers were powerless to prevent hackers stealing hundreds of thousands of pounds from accounts, but there are still ways you can secure and protect your money and data

There was a time when people implicitly trusted banks. They certainly seemed to be a far better alternative to stuffing your cash under the mattress, and they had an air of authority about them. How how times have changed, though. Many of the grand old branches of yesteryear have long gone, and we've lived through a period of such great insecurity that many banks have had to be restructured. One - Northern Rock - even collapsed after becoming the first in 150 years to suffer a run.