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The new QNAP TS-x83XU series of enterprise NAS products is comprised of seven different models, each powered by an Intel Xeon E processor and ECC DDR4 memory (upgradeable to 64 GB).

Ranging from 8-bay to 24-bay models, the TS-x83XU series NAS supports hot-swappable 3.5”/2.5” SATA HDDs/SSDs and includes two 10GbE SFP+ ports using Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx SmartNIC controllers, and two Type-C USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps ports. All TS-x83XU models support VMware, Citrix, and MS Hyper-V and Windows Server 2016.

The first five models listed below also include four GbE LAN ports, four PCIe Gen3 expansion slots (one slot comes with a pre-installed 10GbE NIC) and four Type-A USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps ports.

• TS-883XU-E2124-8G: 2U rackmount with 8 drive bays, Intel Xeon E-2124 quad-core 3.3 GHz processor (burst up to 4.3 GHz), 8 GB ECC RAM (4 GB x2), 350W single PSU
• TS-883XU-RP-E2124-8G: 2U rackmount with 8 drive bays, Intel Xeon E-2124 quad-core...

EnGenius’ AC1300 MESHDot Kit is composed of the EMR3500 wireless mesh router and a small wall-pluggable wireless node called a MESHdot (EMD11). Both devices in the kit are Qualcomm-powered and designed for consumer use.

The EMR3500 router uses a 360° antenna that helps it connect to up eight MESHdot nodes on the wireless network. The MESHdot node itself is a plug-and-play device that plugs directly into a wall outlet and uses EnGenius’ EnMesh technology to provides wireless connectivity to mobile devices around the home.

As a whole, the MESHdot kit includes familiar features including automatic firmware updating, guest networking, and parental controls such as getting real-time data on who’s on the network, creating and maintaining rules to banning connections, enforce scheduled internet access times, or restricting access to social media, search engines and online video content.

MESHdot Kit includes two apps used to install, manage,...

The Archer AX11000 is a tri-band design with a second 5 GHz radio. It competes most directly with ASUS' ROG Rapture GT-AX11000, which is also a three-radio draft 11ax product. Although NETGEAR's Qualcomm-based RAX120 is also billed as...

Our first look at the performance of NETGEAR's RAX80 and ASUS' RT-AX88U shows little benefit functioning as AC routers.

Read on SmallNetBuilder

Qualcomm revealed their new flagship chipset today in Hawaii aimed at the high-end phones of 2019, and it comes with a lot of firsts. The Snapdragon 855 mobile platform features Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) support, 802.11ay support in the 60GHz band and WPA3 security support, all 3 not seen before in any mobile chipset.

Soon be released alongside TP-Link’s new OC200 Cloud Controller, the Omada Business Wireless System will consist of the OC200, two 802.11n/ac access points, centralized controller software, and a mobile app. Designed for businesses, TP-Link mentions Omada would be a good fit for places “such as schools, resorts, retail stores and more.”

The included OC200 cloud controller uses auto-discovery to speed up the setup process and is manageable via mobile app or computer, while Omada’s pair of Wireless AC EAP200 series APs provide dual-band service to the office wireless network.

Other features mentioned include a customizable portal for easier guest sign-in via Facebook or SMS, and a limited lifetime warranty.

The TP-Link Omada Business Wireless System will be available in mid-November, along with the OC200. Pricing for both items hasn’t been...

The first of the two new APs is the EWS357AP, a 2x2 802.11ax access point powered by a Qualcomm chipset. Targeting small and medium businesses, EnGenius believes their new access points will help early adopting SMBs bridge over to the latest AX standard.

The low-profile EWS357AP will support 1x1 and 2x2 clients and is backward compatible with legacy Wi-Fi standards, as well as supporting AX-compatible devices. Features include OFDMA, uplink/downlink of MU-MIMO, BSS Coloring tags and target wake time for power saving, as well as having mass configuration capabilities.

Along with the EWS357AP, EnGenius is also announcing the EWS377AP, a 4x4 access point designed for higher density areas. Not much was mentioned regarding EWS377AP's feature set, so be sure to check out the EnGenius website for more information.

Available in early Q1, the EnGenius EWS357AP’s MSRP is set at $189 MSRP, while the...

Synology's DS119j $100 NAS is the least expensive NAS you can buy.

Read on SmallNetBuilder.

NETGEAR today decided to let some of us write about its draft 11ax routers.

Companies usually introduce new products--especially first-in-category / next-generation / top-of-line routers--with as much fanfare as they can muster. But NETGEAR is taking a different approach with its first two draft 11ax routers.

The company isn't issuing a press release to spread the news. Instead, they briefed me yesterday and provided the briefing deck to write coverage from. They also are taking a similar approach to ASUS with availability, letting product initially trickle out to retailers.

The Nighthawk RAX80 AX8 8-stream AX6000 WiFi Router and Nighthawk RAX120 AX12 12-stream AX6000 WiFi Router are worst-kept secrets anyway, at least to SNB readers. Both were outed from FCC...

Enlarge / A Cisco Aironet access point. (credit: Cisco)


Dan Goodin over at Ars reports "millions" of Wi-Fi access points sold by Cisco, Meraki, and Aruba have two critical vulnerabilities being patched that could allow hackers to run malware inside the sensitive networks that use the gear. While the flaws open corporate networks to some scary attacks, the real-word likelihood of them being exploited is debatable.

Continue reading on Ars Technica...

The latest addition to the Linksys Velop family of Wi-Fi system products is Velop Plug-In.

The new Velop is a dual-band wireless Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) 2x2 MU-MIMO mesh node that delivers maximum link rates of 867 Mbps in 5 GHz and 400 Mbps in 2.4 GHz.

The Plug-In has a small profile and is designed to take up only one socket in a standard U.S. duplex outlet, freeing up the other socket for other electrical appliances.

Plug-In supports all Velop features, including self-healing networking, seamless roaming, modular expansion, app-based management, automatic software updates, Amazon Alexa support, device prioritization, parental controls and guest access for up to 50 guests.

Velop Plug-In is sold only in a bundle of two Plug-Ins and one tri-band desktop Velop. It's available now on Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and Linksys.com for an MSRP of $399.99.

Broadcom introduced two news Wi-Fi 6 SoC's aimed mainly at repeaters and Mesh nodes. The BCM6752 contains a triple-core CPU, 2x2 802.11ax radio and dual gigabit ethernet ports in a single package, while the BCM6755 had a quad-core CPU, two 2x2 802.11ax radio's and a single gigabit ethernet port. Both can be combined with an additional BCM43684 4x4 802.11ax radio. Broadcom is working with Early Access Partners on extenders designs based on BCM675X.

Press release

Today Broadcom introduced the BCM63178, a SoC that combines a VDSL Profile 35b, also known as VPlus, modem, and a 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax radio. It contains a 1.5 GHz multi-core CPU (8.5k DMIPS) and can be combined with Broadcom's BCM43684 802.11ax WLAN chipset. The chipset family is sampling today.

Press release:

QNAP's TS-332X is a 10GbE NAS that trades higher flexibility for lower price.

Read on SmallNetBuilder

Synology’s tri-band MR2200ac is the company’s first foray into mesh networking.

Powered by Qualcomm’s IPQ4019 quad-core system-on-chip the MR2200ac has a tri-radio two-stream design, with an extra 5 GHz radio for added backhaul flexibility. The router has one WAN and only one LAN gigabit Ethernet ports and a USB 3.0 port that supports storage sharing.

Other features include "seamless" roaming, band steering and app-based setup and management. Owners of Synology’s RT2600ac router can also use the MR2200ac to extend their existing network without having to invest in an all new wireless setup.

MR2200ac runs the Synology Router Manager (SRM) OS, adding a variety of profile-based security features, including web filters and SafeSearch, scheduling access hours, whitelisting, mpnitoring of what sites are accessed and which devices are used, as well as DNS and IP threat intelligence, and Google Safe Browsing that protects against malware,...

SmallNetBuilder has said goodbye to social media networks.

Read on SmallNetBuilder

Enlarge (credit: Helm)

Dan Goodin over on ArsTechnica reports that a Seattle-based startup called Helm is launching a service designed to make it easy for people to securely take control of their email and other personal data. The company provides a small custom-built server that connects to a user's home or small-office network and sends, receives, and manages email, contacts, and calendars. Helm plans to offer photo storage and other services later.

Continue reading on Ars...

Qatar-based ISP Ooredoo today spilled the beans on an unannounced NETGEAR AX router.

This Gulf Times story described Ooredoo's intention to "roll out first-in-class fibre home devices to "Qatar's Future City" Lusail to ensure Qatar’s first smart city is fully-connected". The first device is NETGEAR's Orbi, which forms the heart of the company mesh Wi-Fi system family.

But the second product mentioned was a NETGEAR Nighthawk AX12 draft AX (aka "Wi-Fi 6") router. The announcement was short on details mentioning only "up to 6Gbps Wi-Fi speeds", WPA3 support and "ultra-fast 2.2GHz quad-core processor".

Although NETGEAR has not yet announced any draft 11ax routers, two have appeared in the FCC ID database since August and have been discussed in SNBForums. However, this announcement doesn't...

Targeting the small office/home office crowd, QNAP’s 3-bay TS-351 is powered by an Intel Celeron J1800 dual-core 2.41 GHz processor (burst up to 2.58 GHz) and available in 2 GB and 4 GB dual-channel DDR3L models (both upgradable to 8 GB).

The TS-351 also comes with two M.2 PCIe slots supporting NVME SSDs that, along with using QNAP’s QTS 4.3.5 OS’ Qtier technology, allows for storage auto-tiering for IOPS-intensive operations. Optionally, the HDD third bay also supports SSD caching and SATA 6GB/s (the first two bays are SATA 3GB/s),but requires an additional 2.5” HDD/SSD tray.

Other than the three hot-swappable drive bays and the two M.2 PCIe slots, additional interfaces include one GbE LAN port, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one 1080p HDMI output, and one 3.5mm line-out jack. The TS-351 also uses H.264 hardware decoding, and supports features including Plex Media Server, snapshots, surveillance, and...

Qualcomm announced today their first 60GHz Wi-Fi chipsets based on the 802.11ay-draft specification.

QCA64x8 series (QCA6438 and QCA6428) for fixed infrastructure and QCA64x1 series (QCA6431 and QCA6421) for mobile devices will provide 802.11ay connectivity. Qualcomm is working together with Facebook to use the chips in their Terragraph network.

They don't talk about the technical specifications. 802.11ay adds MIMO and OFDMA to 60GHz for example, it pretty comparable to 802.11ax but with channels of 2 GHz wide on 60 GHz. Real world speeds of 20 Gb/s should be reachable, which enables lossless wireless display transfers for example.