Featured Threads Archive

Synology’s 1-bay desktop DS119j is designed for home users looking for their first NAS for centralized file storage, backup or home entertainment.

The NAS is powered by a Marvell A3720 dual-core 800MHz CPU with 256 MB DDR3L RAM. Like other Synology NASes it runs Synology’s DiskStation Manager OS, which extends the NAS’ functionality by adding surveillance camera, file backup, and security support. Power consumption is only 10 W, dropping to 5 W in automatic hibernation mode.

DS119j ports include a single GbE port and two USB 2.0 ports, while the single drive bay supports 3.5” or 2.5” SATA formats (drives are not included). ext4 format is used on the internal drive and ext4, ext3, FAT, NTFS, HFS+ and exFAT3 file systems are supported on USB external drive.

The Synology DS119j NAS is available now through Amazon and CDW.

Aruba just announced their line-up of 802.11ax access points. They say that they are confident they will be software upgradable to pass the AX-certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance later in 2019. Down- and uplink OFDMA, downlink MU-MIMO, TxBF, TWT, 20MHz-only STA and 160MHz are supported, but uplink MU-MIMO, spatial reuse and 80+80 MHz unfortunately not. At first there will be 3 models, the AP 515, AP 535 and AP 555.

Other links

• Overview: https://www.arubanetworks.com/products/networking/802-11ax/
• Reference guide: https://www.arubanetworks.com/assets/so/ReferenceGuide_80211ax.pdf...

160 MHz channel bandwidth is an essential feature of 802.11ax. We take a look at whether it means trouble for your 11ac network.

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Linksys Cloud Manager is a cloud-based Wi-Fi management solution that offloads the usual tasks, hardware and software management done by in-house IT by providing simplified administration and targeting lower operational costs.

The product includes a 5 year, no cost, unlimited node license. A license purchase option will be available then, with cost to be determined.

Marketed to both SMB customers and managed service providers, Linksys Cloud Manager provides a centralized wireless networking management solution that, through a single sign-in dashboard, monitors, administrates and troubleshoots both simple and complex remote networks.

Features include a browser-based management tool with a global map UI that provides visibility to managed owner/admin/viewer accounts, sites, and network hardware.

Other features include proactive email and text alerting, real-time statistics like uptime, signal strength and connection duration,...

ASUSTOR's AS4004T is a good value in a four-bay Gigabit port NAS with a bonus 10GbE port.

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Quantenna and Plume on Monday announced they are integrating Plume’s Adaptive WiFi "AI driven" mesh solution with Quantenna's Wi-Fi chipset portfolio.

The announcement focused on Quantenna's QSR5GU-AX PLUS chipset, which was announced Sept 12. This is the first draft 802.11ax device to support five streams in its 5 GHz radio. Quantenna claims the extra stream "allows up to 50% more speed, compared to a 4x4 MIMO design".

The move makes sense for Quantenna, which needs to beef up its mesh Wi-Fi solution to try to grab marketshare from Qualcomm, which currently dominates the consumer mesh Wi-Fi space.

Plume has had its own successes with carriers, with deals previously announced with Comcast and...

Linksys has announced the 130W eight POE+ port LGS308MP and 384W twenty-six POE+ port LGS326MP, which includes two gigabit SFP/RJ45 combo ports.

Designed for growing businesses, the two new switches operate according to the 802.3at IEEE standard, delivering up to 30 watts per port sending out power to networked business devices including IP cameras, VoIP phones, APs, and networked audio.

Key features for the new switches include Link Aggregation, IGMP snooping, port authentication, MAC-based security, DHCP snooping, IP-MAC binding, Spanning Tree Protocol and storm control.

Available now, MSRPs for the eight-port Business Smart Gigabit PoE+ Switch - 130W (LGS308MP) and the twenty-six port Business Smart Gigabit PoE+ Switch - 384W (LGS326MP) are $249.99 and $529.99, respectively.

Seagate’s newly announced 14 TB drives cover NAS, desktop, surveillance and hyper-scale applications. But they ain't cheap!

Starting with NAS, Seagate’s Iron Wolf and Iron Wolf Pro HDDs are designed for always-on applications that require reliable performance from network attached storage systems. Both Iron Wolf drives use Seagate’s Agile Array firmware, providing performance and power management enhancements, as well as dual-plane balance, rotational vibration sensors, and error recovery control.

Both Iron Wolf drives also include Seagate’s embedded Iron Wolf Health Management, adding embedded analysis functionality, status updates and drive health information.

For desktop and DAS applications, Seagate is offering their latest BarraCuda Pro as a 14 TB drive. Running at 7200 RPM and with 256 MB of cache, Seagate touts the new BarraCuda’s 250 mb/s transfer rate, performance that results from Seagate’s Multi-Tier Caching...

Jim Salter took ASUS' AiMesh for a drive and found your mileage may vary...a lot!

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The first draft 11ax routers are almost here. Take a little time to know what you might be buying into.

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Directed at the SMB market, the new Cisco Meraki Go 802.11ac APs are available in two models; a GR10 indoor access point and GR60 outdoor access point.

Both Meraki Go APs are dual-band 2x2:2 MIMO devices using internal omni-directional antennas, supporting SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO, MRC, beamforming, and packet aggregation.

Meraki Go APs can be powered by either 12 V DC or 37-57 V PoE. Per Cisco, management and installation for the new APs is easy and streamlined. Using the Meraki Go app for iOS and Android, network admins can remote manage their wireless networks employing features such as web blocking, guest networking, usage limits and alerts. AP management is by app only.

Available now, US customers can buy both Cisco...

Powered by QNAP’s QTS operating system and AnnapurnaLabs Alpine AL-324 quad-core 1.7 GHz Cortex-A57 processor, the 3-bay TS-332X tower NAS is available in two models configured with either 2GB or 4GB DDR4 RAM (expandable to 16 GB). Along with two GbE ports, the TS-332X comes with a 10 GbE SFP+ network port, targeting faster application throughput.

Storage-wise, TS-332X supports up to three hot-swappable 2.5/3.5-inch SATA 6 Gbps HDDs/SSDs, but also adds three M.2 SSD slots, making TS-332X a likely candidate for RAID 5 storage auto-tiering when used with QNAP’s Qtier application. VJBOD is also supported, allowing the TS-332X to iSCSI mount to other QNAP NAS products to create a larger storage pool.

Other TS-332X interfaces include three USB 3.0 ports, and one 3.5 line-out audio jack.

The QNAP TS-332X is available now. Here's the pricing according to QNAP.

TS-332X-4G-US - $419...

NETGEAR announced the Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR700 WiFi Router at IFA yesterday.

The XR700 takes a path similar to the NETGEAR's XR500, by reskinning an existing router and powering it with DumaOS. This time, it's the AD7200 class R9000 that gets gamified, bringing along a 60 GHz 802.11ad radio that will provide little value for most gamers.

Otherwise, the specs are the same as the R9000, which includes four-stream MU-MIMO enabled 802.11ac WiFi (maximum link rates of 1733 Mbps @ 5 GHz and 800 Mbps in 2.4 GHz), single-stream 60 GHz 802.11ad radio, Gigabit Ethernet WAN (1) and LAN (7) ports (two aggregateable), one 10 Gbps SFP+ port and two USB 3.0 ports for storage sharing. DFS is supported to provide additional 5 GHz channels to get away from pesky neighboring networks.

Software features include Plex media and OpenVPN servers and ReadySHARE storage support.

DumoOs's key features include a gaming dashboard, geo filter, QoS and...

NETGEAR just announced a smart-speaker version of its popular Orbi Wi-Fi system at IFA.

Orbi Voice is the first "smart speaker" to also include a fully functioning Wi-Fi system node. Its Alexa-powered features come via a four mic, two speaker audio subsystem with 35W of peak power from Harman Kardon.
Due to the extra space taken up by the speaker, the RBK40S satellite has a two-stream backhaul, even though NETGEAR describes the RBK50V kit version as an AC3000 class system. There are also only two gigabit Ethernet ports vs. the four usually found in Orbi.

Like all other Orbis, Voice is built on a Qualcomm platform. It supports everything other Alexa-powered speakers can do, including streaming music from Pandora, Spotify and, yes, Amazon Music. And, of course, it will let you order more stuff from Amazon.

The Orbi Mesh WiFi System (RBK50V) consisting of the Orbi Tri-Band WiFi...

TP-Link today announced it will be shipping a four-stream router based on Intel technology later this year.

The Archer C2700 is a four-stream AC2600 class router supporting maximum link rates of 1733 Mbps in 5 GHz and 800 Mbps in 2.4 GHz. It follows Phicomm's K3C and ASUS' Blue Cave to market as the third Wi-Fi router based on an Intel platform.

The router has gigabit Ethernet WAN and LAN ports and USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports for storage sharing. It supports TP-Link's TrendMicro-powered HomeCare suite that includes parental controls, andiVirus and QoS features. Wi-Fi features include MU-MIMO, Airtime fairness and band steering. Other features include IFTTT and Amazon...

Devolo will announce its Magic Wi-Fi system at IFA 2018.

The system pairs dual-band Wi-Fi access points with second-Generation G.hn powerline to produce a Wi-Fi mesh system that uses powerline for backhaul instead of Wi-Fi.

The company said the product provides mesh Wi-Fi with fast roaming, band steering and Airtime Fairness features. The adapters are self configuring and will automatically find and link to each other within two minutes of being plugged in.

Although not in the Devolo press release, WiFiNow reports that the system uses the new Wi-Fi EasyMesh. However, a check of the Wi-Fi Certification database still shows no products as EasyMesh Certified.

Devolo plans to ship two versions of the product in the fourth quarter of this year in both single adapter and multi-unit kit form. Magic 2 will have...

In our latest exploration of Wi-Fi Roaming, we take a look at the roaming behavior of five Wi-Fi systems.

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The dual-bay QNAP TS-215B NAS, designed for home and small office use, is powered by Intel’s 14nm Celeron J3355 dual-core 2.0GHz processor, 2 GB or 4 GB dual-channel DDR3L SODIMM RAM (upgradable to 8GB) and supports 3.5”/2.5” SATA HDDs or SSDs.

TS-215B gives QNAP customers a single PCIe slot that can be used to add an expansion card, opening up options to add M.2 SSD caching, 10 GbE, wireless networking, or more USB 3.1 ports. Additional features include 4K HDMI output, AES-NI hardware-accelerated encryption and snapshot support.

Other listed TS-215B interfaces comprise of a single GbE LAN port, HDMI v1.4b, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, three USB 2.0 Type-A ports, speakers jack, two 3.5mm microphone jacks, a 3.5 mm line out and an IR sensor (remote not included).

Available now, the QNAP TS-251B comes in two models, TS-251B-2G (1 x 2GB RAM) and TS-251B-4G (1 x 4GB). We’ll reach out to...

ARRIS last week announced what it says is the first product to receive Wi-Fi EasyMesh™ certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance.

The VAP4641 is a dual-band two radio extender with four-stream 802.11ac 5 GHz and two-stream 802.11n 2.4 GHz radios. The 5 GHz radio supports MU-MIMO and 160 MHz bandwidth.

Other features include automatic discovery and setup, automatic Wi-Fi configuration distribution, band steering and 802.11k, v and r roaming assistance.

Although positioned as a "mesh" solution, the heart of EasyMesh is the draft Multi-AP spec, which is neither mesh-specific nor particularly focused on mesh.

Arris' announcement included neither price nor availability.

Cloud managed networks aren't just for Enterprises anymore.

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