It’s the $1,000 question: Should you buy your own router or rent one from your internet service provider? Most ISPs charge between $10 and $15 monthly for equipment -- you should be able to see the fee on your ISP's broadband nutrition label -- while you can generally get a modem and router for less than $200. Buying your own internet equipment usually pays for itself in the first year, but it often comes with some additional headaches. I’ve been writing about the internet for six years, and for all six of them, I’ve carried around a shameful secret: I’ve a rented a router from Xfinity for most of that time. Even though I've always advised readers to buy their own equipment, my rented modem and router worked fine, even if I’d known in the back of my mind that it was a waste of money. Locating local internet providers Then I took a look through my old bills and added up a number that prompted me to reconsider: $873. That's how much I've spent on Xfinity's equipment fees over those six years. With the money I've spent renting Xfinity equipment, I could've bought the most advanced router CNET's ever tested and then bought another as a backup. I could've doubled the internet speed I was getting. I could've booked a flight to Oslo. I was finally ready to enter the world of modem-and-router ownership. Locating local internet providers As satisfied as I was with my Xfinity gear, owning your own equipment is almost always the better option. You'll often get better performance -- my upload speeds increased by more than 2,000% -- and as I say, it'll usually pay for itself within the first year or two. The average internet bill in the US comes in at $63 per month -- and that's before you add the extra taxes and fees. Some of these are unavoidable, but equipment rental fees don't fall into that category. You might be perfectly content to pay a bit extra for the convenience of not having to buy and set up your own equipment. But if you're looking to save money in the long run, and are comfortable purchasing and managing your own gear, it's a far better deal to shell out for your own router and modem. (You may also be able to take advantage of any low-income discounts available in your state .) Here's what I've learned about making the switch from rented equipment to my own, and here's how you can make a similar change as painless as possible. How to choose the right modem and router The best internet is the internet you never notice, and I can't remember the last time my connection went out or I saw a buffering wheel in my home. And this is all with a device from 2017 that Xfinity describes as an "old Wireless Gateway with limited speeds and functionality." This goes to show how much the type of internet user you are has to do with what kind of equipment you need. I live in a 750-square-foot apartment, and my internet needs are mostly limited to video calls and TV streaming. If you live in a larger home with multiple floors, the same router likely won't cut it. Similarly, activities like online gaming hinge on split-second reactions. If this instantaneous responsiveness is important to you, it's probably worth investing in a gaming router that minimizes lag. Wi-Fi routers run the gamut from entry-level models like the TP-Link AC1200 for $31 to ultra-advanced mesh systems like the Netgear Orbi 970 Series for $1,445 . To test each Wi-Fi router , CNET runs three speed tests in five different rooms in our testing facility, logging results for download speed, upload speed and latency. That process is repeated six times, accounting for variations in network performance at different times of the day. After consulting our picks for the best wireless router s, I decided to go with our budget pick: the TP-Link Archer AX21 , of which my colleague and router connoisseur Ry Crist wrote, "It's nothing fancy, but it offered near flawless performance for small- to medium-size homes in our tests, and it's a cinch to setup." I get only 200Mbps through my Xfinity plan, so the 700Mbps the TP-Link hits at close range is more than enough juice and only costs $85. A cable modem like the Hitron CODA connects your home to your internet provider through a coaxial cable. Depending on what type of internet you have, you may need to purchase a cable modem in addition to your router. Some ISPs, like Spectrum , include the modem for free but charge extra for a router. The main thing to look for in a modem is compatibility. Your internet provider will have a page on their website that lists all the models that it works with, and you shouldn't stray from this. You may also have a choice between DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 ; the newer standard provides faster speeds, but DOCSIS 3.1 modems are typically more expensive. Other things to consider are the modem's speed limits -- make sure they're equal to or above your internet plan -- and the number of Ethernet ports. Xfinity doesn't provide a free modem, so I had to buy one in addition to a Wi-Fi router. I opted for the Hitron CODA Modem -- a DOCSIS 3.1 model that's one of the cheapest Xfinity-compatible models I could find for $100. It supports download speeds up to only 867Mbps, but that's still far more than my Xfinity plan. How to set up your new modem and router Ordering the equipment is the easy part; the ordeal of setting up third-party equipment is what keeps many customers on the hook for years. The process is largely the same whether you're starting service fresh with a new provider or swapping out old equipment. Here's everything you'll need to do. The modem is the piece of equipment that brings the internet to your home through a coaxial cable connected to your internet provider's network. Before it can work, ISPs need to tie your specific modem to your account. If you're replacing old equipment, they will also turn this off as they activate the new modem. ISPs do this by logging your MAC (media access control) number, which can be found on the bottom of the modem. You can typically do this through your internet provider's app, in a live chat or by calling a customer service number. After your new modem's MAC address is registered with your ISP, you'll be prompted to connect your modem to the cable outlet in your wall and plug it into a power outlet. You may have to wait up to 5 minutes, and your modem's lights will tell you when it's receiving the internet signal. Once the indicator lights are on, you're ready to set up your wireless router. This TP-Link router offers wireless access to your modem's connection with the web (hence the antennas). Each Wi-Fi router has its own setup process, so you'll want to follow the instructions provided. In the case of the TP-Link Archer AX21, that meant unplugging the power to the modem, connecting the modem to the router's WAN port via an Ethernet cable , powering on the modem and then plugging the router into a power outlet. From there, I set up my new network through the TP-Link app. That's the short version. There's a lot more to consider when setting up a wireless router, including choosing the optimal location , setting up parental controls and protecting your privacy . For my purposes, though, I was ready to start testing out my new internet connection. Speed comparison: Which setup is fastest? I wanted to see how my new modem and router would compare with my old equipment, so I ran speed tests before and after I was connected: one from my desk next to the router and one from the furthest corner of my apartment (regrettably, the bathroom). My old modem and router returned 164/5Mbps speeds from my desk and 143/5Mbps from the bathroom -- not bad for an internet plan that advertises 200/10Mbps speeds. But the speeds with my new equipment were eye-popping: 237/118Mbps at both my desk and my bathroom. I didn't just save money by purchasing my own equipment -- I'm actually getting a significant speed boost too. I have no idea why my new equipment picked up 10 times the upload speeds of my old one. I subscribe to Xfinity's Connect More plan, which is supposed to get only 10Mbps upload speeds. In 2022, Xfinity announced that it was increasing upload speeds on my plan to 100Mbps -- but only for customers who pay for its $25-per-month xFi Complete equipment. Apparently, I'm reaping those same benefits with my new modem and router. My best guess is that the upgrade from a DOCSIS 3.0 to a 3.1 modem is the main reason for the jump in upload speeds. How to save yourself some headaches I eventually got my modem and router set up properly, but I made plenty of mistakes along the way. Here's what I would do differently: The bottom line It's no fun to set up a new modem and router, but is it worth it? Absolutely. Not only are my internet speeds dramatically improved, but I'm paying significantly less for them. I'm saving $15 per month on equipment, and somewhere along the line, an Xfinity agent bumped my plan price down for the next year. My monthly bill is going from $78.54 to $50. That's far more than I expected to save, and my new equipment will pay itself off within the first six months. My only regret is that I didn't make the leap sooner.The internet is rife with fake reviews. Will AI make it worse?
OTTAWA — A Liberal MP said he was threatened with unspecified “consequences” if he votes against the government’s proposed $250 cheques, an affordability measure that continues to face an uncertain path through the House of Commons. Hamilton MP Chad Collins said earlier this week that he would vote against the government’s cash rebates because they leave out seniors and people with disabilities. As proposed, the Liberals’ measure would go to anyone who worked in 2023 and made less than $150,000. The government is also putting forward a two-month GST holiday that would remove the tax from all groceries, as well as children’s clothes and toys, beer and wine, and restaurant meals. Collins said it doesn’t make sense to send out cheques but leave out some people who really need the help. “It’s incomprehensible as to how we create an affordability package that leaves out some of our most vulnerable in our society,” he said. Collins said he first notified Liberal leadership he would vote against the measure this past weekend. He was told there would be consequences, but it was unclear what those would be. “Coming from the city of Hamilton, where politics can be a bit of a blood sport, for someone to say that there will be consequences, that really doesn’t make the top 10 or probably even the top 20 worst things I’ve heard over the years,” Collins said. On Wednesday, several of Collins’s Liberal colleagues said they also have concerns the cheques will not go to seniors, but those MPs said they would still vote for the measure as it stands. New Brunswick MP Jenica Atwin said she would support the current measure when it comes to a vote, even though she believes it is too restrictive. “There’s extremely vulnerable groups that are feeling very left out of this, so hopefully we’ll have those discussions and see what happens,” she said ahead of the Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday. Newfoundland MP Ken McDonald said he would like to see the cheques expanded to include seniors who receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement, but would support it as is because he doesn’t want to cut off help for Canadians. Collins said the threat of punishment for speaking out against government legislation runs counter to what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been saying in the House of Commons. Trudeau has accused Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of “muzzling” his MPs, refusing to let them speak to the media, and preventing them from advocating for their constituents. Collins said while the prime minister was attacking Poilievre, he was also silencing his own MPs. “Those comments couldn’t be more opposite or more in contrast to what the prime minister bragged about last week in the House of Commons,” he said. “It says a lot about where our government is at right now and it says a lot about some of the shackles that have been put around MPs.” Not all Liberal caucus members agreed Wednesday that qualifications to receive the government cheques should be expanded. St. Catharines MP Chris Bittle said the benefit should be “targeted,” and said the Liberals have already enacted measures to help seniors, such as Ottawa’s dental coverage program, which prioritized older Canadians. “This is about (seniors’) kids,” he told reporters. Nevertheless, the Liberals continue to face pushback from opposition parties, who succeeded Wednesday in punting the fate of the cheques — which were planned to land in Canadians’ bank accounts next April — down the line. Following growing demands to expand eligibility to more vulnerable groups, the Trudeau government opted to split the proposed GST holiday and the cheques into separate pieces of legislation. The Liberals tabled one bill Wednesday dedicated to the two-month GST cut, creating an opening to temporarily pause a that has put almost all parliamentary business on ice. The Conservatives initiated the stalemate in late September in an effort to force the Liberals to release more documents tied to a scandal-plagued and now-shuttered green technology funding agency. The lower chamber has been preoccupied with the matter for weeks, preventing new legislation from being debated and passed. The New Democrats had refused to help the Liberals pause the filibuster because they wanted to see the $250 cheque extended to others including seniors, people with disabilities and those newly entering the workforce. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters Wednesday that he opposes the rebate as is. He wants the measure opened up to more Canadians and the income limit of $150,000 to receive the benefit lowered. Now that the rebates have been separated from the GST vacation, which the NDP supports, the Liberals and New Democrats are expected to initiate a process to pause the parliamentary standoff Wednesday night. That pause, which would last for a single day before plunging the Commons back into paralysis, would allow for the GST bill to be debated — and potentially passed — on Thursday evening. The Liberals have proposed that the GST break would be in place from mid-December until Feb. 15, 2025. That still leaves the future of the $250 cheques unclear, with the Liberals buying themselves more time to decide which demands — if any — they will consider. Poilievre has thus far remained mum on his vision for the cash rebates, but on Wednesday slammed the GST holiday as a “tiny, two-month tax trick.”
Here's what you should do if you win the $1.15 billion Mega Millions jackpot — and what to avoidStocks to Watch: Quantum Computing, Arqit Quantum, D-Wave Quantum, Defiance QuantumDuke of York ‘ceased all contact’ with spy-accused man after concerns raised
US lawmakers concluded a two-year investigation Monday into the Covid-19 outbreak that killed 1.1 million Americans -- backing the theory that the virus likely leaked from a Chinese laboratory. A 520-page report from the Republican-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic looked at the federal and state-level response, as well as the pandemic's origins and vaccination efforts. "This work will help the United States, and the world, predict the next pandemic, prepare for the next pandemic, protect ourselves from the next pandemic, and hopefully prevent the next pandemic," panel chairman Brad Wenstrup said in a letter to Congress. US federal agencies, the World Health Organization and scientists across the planet have arrived at different conclusions about the most likely origin of Covid-19, and no consensus has emerged. Most believe it to have spread from animals in China, but a US intelligence analysis said last year that the virus may have been genetically engineered and escaped from a virology lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where human cases first emerged. The congressional panel was persuaded by the lab leak theory after meeting 25 times, conducting more than 30 transcribed interviews and reviewing more than one million pages of documents. The investigation included two days of interviews behind closed doors with Anthony Fauci, the government scientist who became the nation's most trusted expert in the chaotic early days of the 2020 outbreak. Fauci's clashes with former and incoming president Donald Trump over the response sparked fury on the right, and he now lives with security protection following death threats against his family. Republicans accuse the 83-year-old immunologist of helping to set off the worst pandemic in a century by approving funding passed on to Chinese scientists they accuse of manufacturing the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Among its headline conclusions, the report said the National Institutes of Health had indeed funded contentious "gain-of-function" research -- which seeks to enhance viruses as a way of finding ways to combat them -- at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Fauci angrily denied covering up the origins of Covid-19 before the panel in June, arguing that it would be "molecularly impossible" for the bat viruses studied at the lab to be turned into the virus that caused the pandemic. But the panel's report said SARS-CoV-2 "likely emerged because of a laboratory or research related accident." The probe found that lockdowns "did more harm than good" and that mask mandates were "ineffective at controlling the spread of Covid-19," contradicting other research showing that masking in public does reduce transmission rates. Social distancing guidelines also came under criticism, although travel restrictions were deemed to have saved lives. Investigators found that Trump's Operation Warp Speed -- the publicly-funded project to develop Covid vaccines -- was a "tremendous success" but that school closures would have an "enduring impact" on US children. ft/jgcHow long will Trump’s honeymoon with the stock market last?Drive Healthcare Innovation: Strategic KOL Profiling for Targeted Engagement and Market Leadership | DelveInsight
PHILADELPHIA and NEW YORK , Dec. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- FS KKR Capital Corp. (NYSE: FSK) today announced that it has completed its previously announced offering of an additional $100 million in aggregate principal amount of its 6.125% notes due 2030 (the "Notes"). The Notes will be a further issuance of, and form a single series with, the $600 million aggregate principal amount of 6.125% Notes due 2030 that FSK issued on November 20, 2024 , increasing the outstanding aggregate principal amount of the series to $700 million . BofA Securities, Inc., BMO Capital Markets Corp., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, KKR Capital Markets LLC, SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., and Truist Securities, Inc. are acting as joint book-running managers for this offering. FSK intends to use the net proceeds of this offering for general corporate purposes, including potentially repaying outstanding indebtedness under credit facilities and certain notes. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the Notes, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About FS KKR Capital Corp. FSK is a leading publicly traded business development company (BDC) focused on providing customized credit solutions to private middle market U.S. companies. FSK seeks to invest primarily in the senior secured debt and, to a lesser extent, the subordinated debt of private middle market companies. FSK is advised by FS/KKR Advisor, LLC. About FS/KKR Advisor, LLC FS/KKR Advisor, LLC (FS/KKR) is a partnership between FS Investments and KKR Credit that serves as the investment adviser to FSK and other business development companies. FS Investments is a global alternative asset manager dedicated to delivering superior performance and innovative investment and capital solutions. The firm manages over $83 billion in assets for a wide range of clients, including institutional investors, financial professionals and individual investors. FS Investments provides access to a broad suite of alternative asset classes and strategies through its best-in-class investment teams and partners. With its diversified platform and flexible capital solutions, the firm is a valued partner to general partners, asset owners and portfolio companies. FS Investments is grounded in its high-performance culture and guided by its commitment to building value for its clients, investing in its colleagues and giving back to its communities. The firm has more than 500 employees across offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia and is headquartered in Philadelphia . KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. Forward-Looking Statements and Important Disclosure Notice This announcement may contain certain forward-looking statements, including statements with regard to future events or future performance or operations of FSK. Words such as "believes," "expects," "projects," and "future" or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to the inherent uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Certain factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include changes in the economy, risks associated with possible disruption in FSK's operations or the economy generally due to terrorism, geo-political risks, natural disasters or pandemics such as COVID-19, future changes in laws or regulations and conditions in FSK's operating area and the price at which shares of FSK's common stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Some of these factors are enumerated in the filings FSK makes with the SEC. FSK undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contact Information: Investor Relations Contact Anna Kleinhenn Anna.Kleinhenn@fsinvestments.com FS Investments Media Team Melanie Hemmert Melanie.Hemmert@fsinvestments.com View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fsk-completes-public-offering-of-100-million-6-125-unsecured-notes-due-2030--302339667.html SOURCE FS Investments
Democrats win California House seat from Republican incumbent – US politics live - The Guardian US
Drama surrounds final three F1 races of season