A wi-Fi router is one of the most important pieces of tech that’s in any household. It is also one of the most neglected pieces of tech in India, considering the poor quality of modems that Internet Service Providers give in India. The situation is abysmal. Even if you manage to get your Wi-Fi modem installed in a rather central position, multiple elements come into play. Chances are you will suffer from the dreaded “dead zones,” which are essentially internet-less voids, or at least, you will face speed bumps.

For example, the Nextra fiber line in India comes with a rather abysmal Binatone router. The modem has inferior coverage, inferior to even the old Airtel Beetle modems. So how do you fix something like this? Most ISPs will nudge consumers towards extenders. But then the extenders kill the burst speed. So, we tell you a few better ways to fix the Wi-Fi woes if you have them at your home.

1- The best way to fix the Wi-Fi issues is to get a new router. Preferably, it would help if you opted for a new dual-band router that supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz and works on 802.11ac or 802.11n standards.

2- The Wi-Fi channel that your router is using must be appropriate. On Windows PCs, you can use a free tool called inSSIDer to know what channel your router is on. On OS X, you can press and hold the “option” key and click on the Wi-Fi preferences menu to figure out which channel your router is operating on. To change, the settings you’ll need to go through the router model as this depends on the make and model of the router.

3- As we mentioned before, the modem or router is perhaps the most neglected tech piece in the household. You may not know it, but even your router keeps getting software updates, but these updates happen manually in most cases. To update your router, you’ll need to enter its settings interface, which isn’t done often, and there will invariably be a firmware update in the waiting for you Web Posting Mart.

4- Just like the router, there could be a problem with the PC or Mac, or they may not be running the latest drivers. There are a few Wi-Fi issues on OS X El-Capitan that slow down the speed and reduce the range. To fix them, you need to delete four files from:

The five files in question are:

— com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
— com.apple.network.identification.plist
— com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist
— NetworkInterfaces.plist
— preferences.plist.

Before you delete these files, you should make a backup (in case something goes wrong). After they are gone, you will notice a marked improvement in Wi-Fi performance.]

5- One of the things you can do with your Wi-Fi router is to move it around in a more central location in your house. If you have bitten the bullet and bought a separate router, maybe, you can purchase a long Ethernet cat-5 cable too so that you can centrally place the router for improved coverage across your house.

6- Routers can be upgraded. At least their antennas can be. Routers with external antennas can up updated with high-gain antennas, and you can position them in the desired direction. High-Gain antennas can cost anywhere between Rs 3,500- 7,000. One can find them at places like Nehru place or online marketplaces like Amazon. or even AliExpress, which will ship from China.

7- Your Wi-Fi signal may be suffering from a lot of interference. Cordless phones, microwaves, Bluetooth, and other appliances can cause interference. You can either eliminate all the interfering elements or invest in a dual-band router like an Apple Airport Extreme or a NetGear N600, operating in a 5GHz band. This brand doesn’t get affected much by interference.

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8- You can extend the router’s range by using a trick called the WindSurfer tinfoil trick. You can use an old used Coke can and peel it open using a can-opener. (Be careful. Don’t cut your hands). You’ll need to punch a hole in the base of the can so that the antenna of the router can pass through, and the rest of the body can act as a rudder for the signal. The results wouldn’t be fantastic, but there will be a minor boost.

9- If you are on a different floor than your router, then it is best to stick to the 2.4GHz band, which is better at punching through walls. The 5GHz channels, as already mentioned, don’t suffer from interference, but they struggle with walls.

10- If you’re open to being adventurous, you may want to try out an open-source software tool called DD-WRT. It is known to unlock the router’s full potential, which will obviously positively impact the performance of the router.

Sree Sreenivasan, the new Chief Digital Officer of New York City, is now in India for a lecture tour speaking on social media. Mr. Sreenivasan announced his plans for a speaking tour and family vacation through Facebook when he was fired by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in June.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that Sree Sreenivasan will be the city’s new Chief, not long after this announcement.

As part of the scheduled tour, Mr. Sreenivasan, who is in Chennai, shared his experiences and concepts with J Sam Daniel Stalin of NDTV. “I found it very difficult; I had no choice. The last people I told were my children and my parents. I was using Facebook to get some help, but so many people around the world told me the benefits of seeing it,” NDTV quoted Sree Sreenivasan. Mr. Sreenivasan thinks that reducing the digital divide in India a major challenge.

“It’s all over the world. Economic, race, aptitude, attitude, and age contribute to this. It’s important to make these services available in platforms poor people are using; I’m excited looking at Twitter Sewa addressing railway complaints in India and Google’s WiFi at railway platforms. My job is to tell people why they should use these services,” the former Columbia Professor said.

As a social media expert, he believes that Indian professionals are not adequately making use of LinkedIn.
“It’s the most underappreciated of all in the social network. The only Indian who has understood is Satya Nadella, who bought it for 26 billion dollars,” he says.

He also suggested a method avoid addiction to devices. “At home, no phones at the dining table, so we are forced to talk to each other. Another game I learned on Wall Street is while going for dinner; all put down their phones. We order expensive food and whoever touches the phone first pays for all.”

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Sreenivasan, a former teacher of journalism and Dean at Columbia University and one of the most renowned social media experts globally, is the first Chief Digital Officer of Columbia University. He has also been a mayoral appointee on the Commission on Public Information and Communication since 2015.

Born in Japan as the son of former ambassador TP Sreenivasan, Sree Sreenivasan holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi and a Master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University.

New Delhi: Bharat is getting online faster than India. By 2020, about 315 million Indians living in rural areas will be connected to the Internet, compared to around 120 million at present. That’s about 36% of the country’s total online population. By 2020, this share of rural India will jump to 48%, creating a huge opportunity for brands and marketers in places were establishing a physical presence is still a challenge, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) titled ‘The Rising Connected Consumer in Rural India

.’At present, the study noted, rural Indians use the Internet mainly for social network websites (around 70% of the Internet users living in rural areas) such as Facebook and for emailing. About 15% of rural consumers use the Internet to research products, purchase a product, or register satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a product after the purchase is made, compared with 30% of urban consumers. “The amount of actual online commerce in rural India is still small, but it is picking up. From 2015 to 2016, the penetration of online purchasing in these areas doubled from 4% to 8%,” noted the study. The key reasons are “convenience and discounts,” it added.

Rural consumers hesitate to buy online because of delivery and return issues and a widespread perception that e-commerce is neither safe nor reliable, the BCG study said. “Almost 40% of rural consumers feel that their personal information is at risk, while 30% believe that products sold online are of poor quality and 25% find e-commerce sites and apps hard to use,” it added.

Marketers, BCG suggested, should have a different digital strategy for rural markets. These include a simpler or a different app designed for smaller screens and low bandwidth telecom networks; and local languages availability. Besides, marketers should make advertisements more relevant to this new set of target customers.

“Companies looking to tap the rural market should first evaluate which touchpoints in their targeted customers’ purchase journeys are most affected by digital and to what extent… The economics of the Internet allows marketers to re-evaluate the business case for reaching rural markets,” added the BCG study.

Marketers agree.

“The benefit of the Internet is that people are more aware of what is happening in the world. With the digital revolution taking place in the country, it becomes easier for brands to reach consumers. We are hopeful that with rural penetration of the Internet, people will be more aware of brands, products and it is going to help the retailers a lot,” said Sandeep Jain, executive director of Monte Carlo Fashions Ltd.

According to Kumar Rajagopalan, chief executive of The Retailers Association of India (RAI), bandwidth is the biggest challenge. “I don’t think until we get the bandwidth sorted, true inclusive growth can happen,” he said.

Vivek Gaur, CEO of online seller Yepme.com, agreed. “The infrastructure needs to come up as quickly as Internet penetration is coming up. For a brand like ours, a mass casual wear brand, it makes a lot of sense to have something driving traffic from the bottom of the pyramid. I think the government is investing a lot, and I sense that India will be more like China than the US in a couple of years where people have much more access to the Internet,” he added.

In its study, BCG gave the example of China’s largest online seller, Alibaba’s model, tailored for rural areas in China. “In October 2014, Alibaba announced it was investing $1.6 billion to set up 100,000 rural service centers all over China’s countryside. It has a presence in almost 16,000 villages so far. These e-commerce outposts are equipped with computers and free Internet service,” noted the study.

Alibaba-backed Paytm, an Indian online payment service provider, and online marketplace declined to comment on how the company is looking at expanding its reach in the rural markets.

The study offers insights into the user base expected to drive the next wave of Internet consumption in India. That is perhaps why search engine Google and popular social networking site Facebook invest top dollars in local content in India. At present, Google is working with the government to roll out its ambitious Internet balloon program, called Project Loon, which forms a large communication network using balloons in the earth’s stratosphere. This is specifically aimed at providing connectivity in rural areas.

The report is based on surveys conducted by BCG’s Center for Customer Insight (CCI) of approximately 4,000 rural consumers in 27 villages in 14 states in 2015 and 2016. It profiles five different segments of Internet users in rural India – mature, ambitious, late adopters, next wave users, and ‘dark on the Internet.’ More than 60% of rural users have been online for less than two years, which means most rural users are still relatively immature digitally. Their usage patterns can be expected to evolve as they gain experience. It is a mistake to regard rural users as a single set.

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“Ambitious users play games, download media, and are especially active on social networks. The online activities of next-wave users are more limited: interacting on social networks and listening to music. Late adopters are mainly social networkers, while mature users seek out business and job information, read news, and play games,” stated the report.

It is, therefore, important for marketers to understand the differences between rural and urban consumers. Two-thirds of rural users go online using feature phones, and only a quarter have smartphones. As against this, almost two-thirds of urban users own smartphones. Because of differences in devices, network capabilities, and underlying consumer behavior, rural and urban internet users choose different apps and do different activities online.

For example, rural users are more likely to use the UC Web browser (which is popular in other emerging markets) because it employs technologies such as data compression, which helps load web content faster and reduce data consumption during browsing. They tend to use apps such as SongsPK, which downloads songs for free because streaming does not work well on 2G connections. Many rural residents use Whatsapp for messaging, which would probably be of the first apps they tried. Alternatives such as Hi and Line are perceived as heavy data consumption apps; they are used more for video calls and exchanging files. Vernacular media consumption apps such as Daily hunt (formerly NewsHunt) and Dainik Jagran are more popular than English-language media apps.

With the proliferation of smart home devices, online gaming platforms, and streaming video services, maintaining a strong Internet connection at home is more important than ever. If you’re experiencing lag while playing League of Legends, or it takes forever to download music, there’s a good chance that the problem is on your end and not an Internet Service Provider (ISP) issue. Before you schedule a service call with your cable company, check out our tips for troubleshooting your Internet connection.

Can You Ping It?

Try performing a Ping test to see if you can connect to the outside world. There are several free Ping utilities available, but the easiest way to ping a website using Windows is to open a command prompt and type “ping,” followed by the IP address of the site you want to ping. If you don’t know the IP address, you can type the full address. For example, to ping Google, type Ping google.com. This sends small data packets to the target site and measures how fast your connection is in milliseconds. If the test is successful, you’ll see timed results. If it continuously fails, try pinging several sites. Keep in mind that not all websites accept pings. If you still can’t get results, you might have a problem with your modem or router, or the problem might be on your service provider’s end.

Are You Getting Power?

If you can’t connect to the Internet at all, take a look at your router’s LED status indicators. If there are no lights at all, the router is probably unplugged or powered down. Please disconnect the power cord and reconnect it after a minute or two. Make sure that the Power switch is in the On position. If the router still isn’t powering up, you may have a failed power adapter, a faulty power strip, or a fried router. If you have cable or DSL, you should also check that your modem is getting power.

Reconnect

Check Your Status

If you have a modem and a router, make sure they are both functioning properly. Check your modem first to see if its power LED is lit. Also, check your Link or Online LED and any activity LEDs. If there is no power or LED activity, turn the modem and router off and wait several minutes before restarting. Wait until the modem comes back online before restarting the router. If your router’s power LED is lit, check the Internet or WAN indicator. On most routers, this should be green and may be flashing. If your router doesn’t have status indicators, look around back to see if the Ethernet port lights are flashing. If there is no activity, turn the router off. Unplug and reconnect each cable, making sure each cable is seated correctly in the appropriate port. Wait a few minutes before rebooting the router.

Change The Channel

Routers can use one of 14 frequencies, or channels, to send and receive data over the widely used 2.4GHz band. Most of these channels overlap, but channels 1, 6, and 11 do not and are the most frequently used. If your Wi-Fi connection is spotty, you may be experiencing channel interference. Try changing your Wi-Fi channel using the router-management console. If the channel is set to Auto, try setting it to another channel to see if this improves your connection.

Cable Connection Okay?

Before you start thinking about resetting or replacing your router, inspect the connection coming into your home. This is usually located on the side of your house and may or may not be housed in an enclosure. Ensure that the main cable hasn’t been chewed up by a squirrel or knocked loose by debris from a storm. If a cable splitter is being used, make sure each connection is tight and the connectors are properly crimped. If the splitter looks suspect (i.e., rusty or dirty), try replacing it.

Reset Button

Start Fresh

If rebooting your router doesn’t do the trick, try resetting it to its factory defaults and performing a fresh install. For most routers, this is done by pressing a tiny reset button on the rear panel and holding it down for several seconds until the LED lights begin flashing. Once reset, use the accompanying disk or Web-based setup utility to reinstall the router.

Firmware

Make Sure Your Firmware Is Current

Firmware is embedded software installed at the factory on a read-only memory (ROM) chip, which allows the router hardware to implement network and security protocols. Most vendors provide downloadable firmware updates that resolve performance issues, add new features, and increase throughput performance. Look for the firmware update tool in the System section of your router’s management console and follow the instructions carefully to ensure that you install the correct firmware version. Do not download the firmware from a third-party site.

Adjust Antenna

Do You Need an Extender?

If you can wirelessly connect to the Internet in one room but not another, check your router’s Wi-Fi signal strength. Look at the network connection icon on your PC or mobile device to see how many bars are showing. If you only see one or two bars, your Wi-Fi signal may be too weak to maintain a strong Internet connection. Try connecting to another band if you have a dual-band router. Readjusting the router’s antennas or changing your router’s location (if possible) can help improve range as well. If relocating the router is out of the question, a range extender may be required to boost the router’s Wi-Fi signal. We like the Tenda P1002P 2-Port Powerline Adapter Kit and the Amped Wireless Titan-EX High Power AC1900 Wi-Fi Range Extender (RE1900A).

Is Your PC/Phone/Tablet Configured Correctly?

If you can browse the Web with your laptop but can’t connect with your smartphone or another PC, check the problem device’s network settings. For smartphones, go to your Wi-Fi settings and make sure Wi-Fi is enabled and that you are connected to the proper SSID using the correct security password. Make sure Airplane Mode is disabled and that your time and date are correct. For Windows clients, make sure the Wi-Fi switch is turned on and that the device is not in Airplane Mode. Right-click on the network icon in your system tray and select Troubleshoot Problems to run the Windows Network Diagnostic routine. Very often, this will correct common issues by resetting the adapter. Also, check your network adapter settings to ensure that the adapter functions properly and uses the latest driver.

Make Sure Your PC Is Healthy

Check for spyware, viruses, and malware. These programs are easily downloaded and installed, without your knowledge, while you’re surfing the Web. They can run undetected and have a significant impact on your Web surfing speed and overall system performance. There are plenty of free and subscription-based utilities available that will detect and eradicate these programs and prevent them from being downloaded and installed in the first place.
Time to Upgrade Your Router?

If you’re using an older 802.11b or 802.11g model, you may want to consider upgrading to a newer, more powerful router, especially if you have multiple client devices vying for bandwidth. A dual-band router gives you two radio bands to choose from and allows you to dedicate a band to clients that require lots of bandwidths, like streaming video devices and gaming consoles. Moreover, newer routers employ the latest technologies to deliver speedy throughput, with enhanced Wi-Fi range. Check out our list of the best wireless routers when you’re ready to take the plunge.

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Last Resort: Dial Up Your ISP

If you’ve tried everything and are still experiencing Internet connection woes, it’s time to call your service provider. It could be that the problem is on its end and may require a new connection at the pole coming into your house and/or new equipment such as a cable modem or amplifier. If you’re experiencing slowdowns at certain times of the day (think after-school hours), your ISP may be simply unable to handle the increased user load, in which case you may want to find a new service provider. Lucky for you, we’ve tested to find the fastest ISPs in the country.

For more tips to help speed up your surfing, check out Router Features You Should Be Using, Tricks to Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal, and How to Set Up and Configure Your Router.

Whether searching for cool indoor activities, watching TV shows, streaming cricket matches, or catching up with friends and playing games, there’s plenty to keep you busy online. So there’s no better time to refresh ourselves with some basic tips to stay safe when exploring the Internet.

Be an upstander, not a bystander. Social media is a great way to communicate, but sometimes individuals take advantage of the Internet’s anonymity to be hurtful towards others. The best rule of thumb to remember here is: if you wouldn’t say it offline, don’t say it online.

If you ever find yourself on the receiving end of a bully’s words, often the best response is no response. Internet trolls and bullies feed off your reaction, and not giving them one usually makes them give up. Most social apps also allow you to report abuse, so if you come across something that makes you uncomfortable, flag it.

And if you happen to witness someone else being targeted, be an upstander, not a bystander. Take action by calling out the offender, reporting them, or just voicing your support to the victim.

Don’t forget: the Internet remembers.

There are many good reasons to watch what you say and share online. Not only could your words affect someone else, but the effect is also compounded as the Internet has a perfect memory. College is a time to have fun and make memories, but don’t care about your words. What you post online today could be around forever.

I grew up in much simpler times: when we did or said something silly, everybody laughed about it for a few days, and then it was forgotten. But consider how easy it is to find information online today. Or think about how you’ve probably shared things on old accounts that you no longer use or have completely forgotten about. These posts can be hard to erase, and many things are probably better left unsaid on the Internet.

So it’s important to be cautious about what you share and do take the time to review your privacy settings now and then. If you have a Google account, visit www.google.com/myaccount to manage what others can see about you and what account information can be found online.

Safe sites

The Internet has made many things simpler today because they’re just a click or a tap away. New sites and services are created every day. While many of them are genuine, not all are entirely risk-free. What should you look out for?

First, if something seems to be too good to be true, then it probably is. If you happen to come across a really great deal, make a price comparison, research the seller and read user reviews. Next, read the fine print before you click ‘buy.’ Make sure you’re familiar with the seller or service provider’s terms and conditions. Finally, be careful when entering personal information onto a website. Is the site asking for more information than required to purchase a product or receive a service? Examples of sensitive information include your bank account information, security question answers, or passwords. Be suspicious of sites that request this type of data from you as they could be attempting to phish valuable information.

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Keeping websafe is a shared responsibility, and we all have an important role to play. As educated and savvy netizens, you can help your family and friends stay safe online by educating and helping them remember these simple tips.

Soon — or rather on September 5, to be precise — everyone in India with a phone that supports 4G technology will be eligible for the Jio Welcome Offer from Reliance. This means you will get a Jio SIM for free, along with the benefits that come with it. What are these benefits? The benefits are “unlimited” data, calls, and messages for almost three months. Although there is a fine print in all this — the unlimited data is actually 4GB per day, which is generous — it is safe to say that the offer is fairly amazing. And tempting. No wonder a lot of people are going to get the free SIM.

The problem is that in many phones that people have right now, the Jio SIM will not work. And in many, where it is supposed to work, it may not work until you troubleshoot it. But before we come to that, don’t get the Jio SIM if:

— You have a feature phone.

— You have a phone that only supports 2G or 3G. Even some high-end phones that are older than 2 years — Xiaomi Mi 4, for example — don’t support 4G.

— You have only one phone, and you are not willing to change your phone number.

— You have a Dual-SIM phone, but 4G is supported on only one SIM, and you are not willing to move your existing SIM card out of it.

Now that we have taken care of these basics let’s look into the problems you may face after putting in the Jio SIM on your phone. The good bit about the Jio SIM is that it is a nano-SIM with the micro and Full-size adapters inbuilt. So, see which size will fit your phone and then accordingly use the adapter. If you have a phone bought this year, chances are that it will use nano or micro size.

The SIM is not recognized

— If this is the problem you face, ensure that you are putting the SIM in a 4G compatible slot. In many dual-SIM phones, only the primary slot — the number 1 slot is the full-speed, fully supported SIM slow. So, put the Jio SIM in that.

— Restart your phone.

— Take out the SIM and put it again.

— Even after all this, the SIM card doesn’t work; the chances are that the Jio SIM won’t probably work with your phone.

SIM recognized but no signal

— Ensure the SIM is in the primary SIM slot (slot 1) if your phone has dual-SIM functionality.

— Ensure that data is turned on for the SIM. On an Android phone, this can be accessed by tapping on the network sign in the notification shade. on the Mobile Data screen, ensure the data is turned on.

— Ensure that the network settings are all good and that you have opted for SIM 1 as your primary SIM for data.

— Ensure that the phone is set to work with LTE Network. You can do so by going to Settings > Mobile Networks > Preferred network type.
— If required, set the APN to Loop Internet. This is accessible only if Jio SIM is getting recognized on your phone. To check this, go to Settings > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names.

— Try choosing Jio as network operator manually by going to Settings > Mobile Networks > Network Operators.

— If the Jio SIM still doesn’t work, chances are that it has some software or hardware incompatibility on your phone.

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SIM working but no calls

– Install the Jio Join app from Google Play Store. This will most likely fix the issue. Although, the app currently doesn’t seem to work on Android Nougat, in case you have that software on your phone.

Options in case Jio SIM doesn’t work on your phone: What are your options if the Jio SIM doesn’t work on your phone, and you want to use the Jio network. Two options: get a new phone or get the JioFi, a Wi-Fi hotspot router. The JioFi is the cheapest option, although if your phone is too old, something like 3 to 4 years, and if you are thinking of replacing it, maybe you can go with a phone that supports 4G and will work with the Jio SIM.

Since December last year, Google has been unleashing India’s initiatives to capture the next billion users from the developing world. From high-speed wifi at railway stations to content in local languages, the global tech giant has unveiled several plans to get Indians from all walks of life on its platform. “Over the next three years, we plan to help more than 300,000 villages across India go online,” Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, had said in December.

On Sept. 28, at an auditorium packed with journalists and developers in New Delhi, Google walked the talk further.
The company, a unit of Alphabet Inc, launched five new initiatives that it hopes will help bring more users online in a country that is notorious for slow internet speed and unaffordable data.

One such service involves rolling out wifi hotspots at places such as malls, cafes, and universities, which are frequented by a large number of people. Currently, Google provides wifi at 50 railway stations across India.
“We want to expand to new venues, like cafes and malls, to help more people get online, and we’re looking for strategic and forward-thinking partners to work with on this effort,” Caesar Sengupta, vice-president, next billion users at Google, said in a statement.

It also launched a new YouTube mobile app “designed to be offline first and work even when there’s low or no connectivity,” the company’s statement said. Other products launched include a Hindi Google assistant inside the messaging app Allo and offline features for the Chrome web browser. Most of these focus on finding a way around India’s super slow internet—the worst among leading Asian countries.

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Despite its slow and expensive internet, India is a key market for companies like Google and Facebook.
Though internet usage is plateauing in the developed world, it grew 40% in 2015. India already has the world’s second-highest number of internet users, with massive scope for growth as penetration is still just around 15%.

New Delhi: It is that time of the year when the three big e-marketplaces Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal, offer discounts across the different categories of products. This is the best time to purchase a new phone for yourself or upgrade your home interiors, wardrobe, or kitchen.

You may manage to get some flat discount on a product, but are you aware of the tips that will get you a maximum discount during the big online sale? Here you go:

1. Shopping on app results in maximum benefit, as possibilities of money return, cashback, or extra discount are more while shopping on an app. So, keep the app of the big shopping sites downloaded or updated on your phone.

2. If you shop for more than Rs 15,00 on Amazon’s app and use the HDFC Banks debit or credit card, you would be eligible for a 15 percent discount on a product. The discount offered will only be 10 percent if you shop on the website.

3. Using an Amazon wallet will also give a benefit of Rs 150.

4. Shopping on the Snapdeal app through HDFC Bank’s card will also give a discount of 15 percent; shopping through ICICI Bank’s card will offer a discount of 10 percent and a discount of 5 percent if payment is made through net banking.

Those using net banking or SBI card will get the maximum benefit on Flipkart.

5. Some sites like Flipkart announce the day-wise sale. For example, Fashion, Home, TV and-and appliances sale was offered on Day one. Mobile and accessories sale on Day two, and electronic sale on Day 3. Snapdeal or Amazon does not have a day-wise sale.

6. Keep a note of the date of sale. The 5-day sale began on Amazon on October 1, but the 5-day sale on Snapdeal and Flipkart began October 2.

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7. The discounts on the sales keep changing throughout the day. The maximum discounts can be available at night, while the lowest discounts are offered in the peak hour or the daytime.

8. Some companies show an inflated retail price for comparison. It is best to compare the discount being offered on different shopping sites. Also, verify the MRP from the parent site of the product.

A user can keep the product in the shopping cart for 15 minutes; if a product is an n short supply and in your cart, make a quick decision whether you would like to buy it.

Big sales are around the corner – Flipkart’s Big Billion Days Sale 2016, Amazon Great Indian Sale, and Snapdeal’s Unbox Diwali Sale are all about to shower discounts on us, and if you need to get any new gadgets, then it’s a great time. Even if you don’t need new gadgets, it’s a great time to get the ones you want. The problem, of course, is finding something in the plethora of deals that all the big sites are going to throw in your general direction.

Half the sales are going to be for items you’re not interested in. While there are definitely going to be people out there who were waiting eagerly for a discount on combs, it’s safe to say that most people were instead looking for deals on new TVs, phones, and other high-value items. The sales cover a wide range of products, though, making finding the things you want difficult.

Add to this the fact that none of the e-commerce sites are above artificially inflating discounts, and you have a bunch of “deals” that are best avoided, further cluttering the offerings and forcing you to research everything even as there’s a ticking timer making it harder to find the best deals. And since all the sales are happening simultaneously, you’ve got to check everywhere before you put down your money or risk a bad case of buyer’s remorse.

Of course, you should visit Gadgets 360 because if there are some great deals that we think our readers will benefit from, we will be letting you know about them. But apart from that, what else can you do?

As we told you in an earlier article, there are a few simple things that can help. Make sure your apps are updated, that your payment details are saved, and if you’re on the desktop, sign in to the sites so you have the fast checkout. Most of all, if there’s any product that you really want, add it to your wishlist so that you can find it easily during the sales.

Since you’re reading Gadgets 360, you probably want to buy electronics, and so we’d also recommend following @DealsForGeeks on Twitter – the handle picks out online deals and tweets them so you can find plenty of great offers that way. You can also sign up for alerts from them by visiting deal alerts. You need to enter your name, email ID, or Twitter handles to receive updates when products go on sale. We liked this because the team has stated that the IDs it collects are only for alerts, and these will be deleted after the festive season sale. You can list all the different products you’re interested in and get an alert if/ when they go on sale.

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Apart from that, it’s also a good idea to install a browser extension to allow you to check the prices of a product on all the major sites. This means that if you see what looks like a good deal on one site, then you don’t have to waste time checking the others to find out if it really is a deal.

And finally, remember that deals aren’t the end of the world. If you bought something at a higher price than someone you know, it doesn’t mean you made a mistake, and it’s not something you should stress over. Deals are a lot of fun but don’t take things too seriously.

Reliance Jio has been surrounded by problems ever since it started testing its telecommunication services in India. Still, it had successfully delivered the fastest internet speeds on mobiles to impress its users. Of late, the tables seem to have turned as users started complaining about Jio’s 4G speeds, which is alarming for the new telco trying to place itself among Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea.

We tested Jio’s network and found it trailing behind Airtel’s 4G. Jio’s commercial launch is slated for January, and the current status of the services is expected to be improved by then.

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As the current Jio users take advantage of the Welcome Offer, which gives them free internet till December 31, access to Jio apps, and unlimited HD calls, the drop in speed is rather disappointing. Jio hasn’t acknowledged the ongoing speed issues, but there have been some technical workarounds.

We already addressed the major problems Jio users were facing with their connections and the basic settings to correct them. If Jio’s speed issues hit you, follow these simple steps to improve browsing.

Internet speeds are directly proportional to the phone’s speed. It is essential that your phone is performing at its best, so the internet works smoothly. If your phone keeps hanging most of the time, your phone’s internet will likely suffer too.

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To boost your phone’s internet speed, clear cache on your phone. There are tools on Google Play Store that will help you with that, but users can manually go through individual app folders and clear the cache.

Next up is to keep the phone from running unnecessarily in the background. Go through your phone’s apps carefully and delete the ones that are not useful. This will consume less power and data due to a default setting in some phones, which permits background data usage. If an app is important to have, go to the settings and find the app to limit background data consumption.

If you are experiencing slow browsing problems despite having Jio 4G, you can disable the browser’s images, Gizbot reports. This will not load images on a website and show the text, which will definitely increase your speed. But this cannot be a universal step as many users would want to see the images on the websites, so proceed based on your individual requirement.