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Google Announces a Router: OnHub
An anonymous reader writes: Google has announced they're working with TP-LINK to build a new router they call OnHub. They say it's designed for the way we tend to use Wi-Fi in 2015, optimizing for streaming and sharing in a way that older routers don't. The router has a cylindrical design and comes with a simple, user-friendly mobile app. They say, "OnHub searches the airwaves and selects the best channel for the fastest connection. A unique antenna design and smart software keep working in the background, automatically adjusting OnHub to avoid interference and keep your network at peak performance. You can even prioritize a device, so that your most important activity — like streaming your favorite show — gets the fastest speed." The device will cost $200, it supports Bluetooth Smart Ready, Weave, and 802.15.4, and it will automatically apply firmware updates.
I guess nothing would go wrong with "automatically installing firmware updates".
Be seeing you...
Only if they are sexy adds.
The only thing I want to know about it is
can it self restart when it locks up?
Or is that something that no router co is ever going to fix?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
How fucking bold of them. NSA in the browser, NSA in their laptops and now NSA in your router.
Fuck off Google.
I'm amazed anybody would entertain the idea of getting this when there are plenty of decent routers on the market. My 802.11n dual band connection already out-paces my internet connection. For that matter most 802.11g connections far outpace current internet connections.
"optimizing for streaming and sharing" == bufferbloat ?
See that "Preview" button?
It's an interesting concept, but I don't think I want to turn my router over to a company like Google or Facebook that makes their money Hoovering up every last bit of data they can get about me.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Right, like I trust Google to be my router/firewall ... no way in hell I'd let Google be the gatekeeper for the internet in my house.
Because you can bet your ass they're going to get a lot more visibility into everything you do, and use it for their own purpose.
And I'm sure it will be remotely accessibly when law enforcement demands it and introduce several new security holes as it tries to be so easy to use it fails utterly. Mark my words, this will cause a lot of new problems.
I don't trust Google to do that at all. I use their services from a browser, but letting them be directly in charge of my network? No bloody way in hell.
Their "do no evil" pledge means less with every passing year.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I know this is the dumbest complaint about this device, but why circular? Why do these people design devices as if they'll be the only thing on our desks, shelves, whatever? There should be a new standard "desktop rack" that these devices can fit in.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
"You can even prioritize a device, so that your most important activity — like streaming your favorite show — gets the fastest speed."
What if I'm watching my favorite show on a different device and someone else is using the main device? Huh? WHAT THEN??? WHAT HAPPENS THEN???
Funny. QoS has been around for a looooong time.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
I get that technically-oriented people like those on Slashdot are opposed to automatic updates, but this product isn't targeting you. Most people are going to get their wifi router either from their ISP (where the ISP will manage updates) or something they bought at BestBuy and never touched again after they got it working. Most people will never go out of their way to update anything unless it's either done for them automatically or they're prompted to do so.
Wifi routers are absolutely a place where, for most people, security updates should happen automatically, because for most people, the alternative is for wifi routers to spend their entire lifetime running the same version they shipped with, whatever security updates that may entail.
You know, to keep you safe!
Yeah, because you know, before Google invented a consumer router, the NSA had obviously no way of getting in...
Google is getting some heat from search engines like DuckDuckGo, so you can't be shocked that they are changing tactics to allow them to keep the revenue flowing in by continuing to find new and creative ways to use your surfing habits for profit.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Routers have offered traffic priority features for a while now. Unfortunately it's still not perfect and it's difficult to allocate the right amount of resources to each service especially if they aren't known. For those managing large corporation or enterprise bandwidth, they understand the challenges in controlling traffic. Netflix per example is really difficult to block because there are many sources from which it can come and the resolved name isn't consistent either.
Encrypted (HTTPS) services can appear anonymous to the router making it difficult for it to decide if it should have priority or not. What you're left with is the option to give only priority to services you know. That also has it's drawbacks because I don't think the router will ever be familiar enough with all the different services available out there
How are you supposed to configure it from a PC? And only 1 LAN port? Really? On a $200 router?
Is the extra spying that comes with it included in the Cost?
Yes, that is free with all alphabet products.
Linux or another open-source routing software?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Gezus that better be one amazing wi-fi router, My last Wi-N router (which is plenty fast) only cost me $14.
So basically we're talking $180 for 'better firmware'? I think I'll pass.
The router has 12 sectored antennas, 6 per frequency. The 6 antennas are arranged in pairs around a circle. This provides excellent "cell" isolation and better beam forming enhancement.
It is an excellent design concept, even if it does make stacking and hiding less convenient. It is a design previously used only on VERY expensive WiFi gear targeted at VERY dense environments like conference halls and stadiums.
So you can't configure your router if you don't have a mobile device?
Will it play nice with BLE (and other users of the unlicensed ISM bands?)
The Internet of Things (IoT) is deploying now.
A big enabler is the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, as specfied in the 4.0, 4.2, (and presumably beyond) Bluetooth spec. This provides for three connection establishment "advertising" channels "in the cracks" between the common 2.4G WiFI channels, plus occasional actual traffic hopping around on 37 other "data" channels, of which all but nine are within the common 2.4g WiFi channels or their skirts (and of those nine, seven, plus one of the advert channels, overlap ZigBee).
IoT devices are dirt cheap: They can typically run for years on a button battery, have substantial brainpower, and the rest of the device often costs less than the wholesale price of the battery. (As of the 4.2 spec they also have a 6LowPAN variant encoding and can be directly on the IPv6 internet.) So you can expect them to be deployed by the billions and become pervasive. Which means that, even if each one of them is only on the radio very occasionally, all together they'll be on it a LOT.
So when Google designed this new WiFi air-time management software, did they do it in a way that won't jam the oncoming flood of BLE devices and/or be jammed by them? Did they even take them into account? Or did they just optimize for a WiFi-filled chunk of bandwidth?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Not in my town. We're still using kilobit wood fibre.
I think most of the wireless problems come from other routers, channel interferences, other wireless devices, etc.
I guess nothing would go wrong with "automatically installing firmware updates".
Will the code be open (or its algorithms unpatented)? Will any other aspect of this be proprietary?
If not, and it does work better and "play well with others", it can be ported into open router projects such as OpenWRT. With those you can have control of the updates (if any), rather than accepting Google's choices.
You can also avoid any "Phone Home" and other malware inclusions - at least in the official releases. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Of course Google needs to make sure its video ads have spectrum priority. Thanks, Google, for the uninterrupted ad viewing experience.
# make clean sig
Cheapo TP link (35 Euro) here with DD WRT cfw.
Runs and runs and, cough. runs.
The only thing I restart once in several month is, ironically, a Cisco cable modem.
How long until Google upgrades these routers to share your unused bandwidth with third party project fi users?
Given that a lot of their revenue is generated via data collection and advertisements, can we really trust Google to build a router that won't mine your data at the source?
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
> The instructions for performing maintainence of my heat pump assume foundational HVAC knowledge, too. ...
> But for some reason, computer/network gear, despite being many times more complex pieces of machinery, carry this expectation that a retard like your mom who can't even understand/remember/figure out clicking File and then Open should be able to fully understand them.
The expectation is that mom can adjust the thermostat, without needing to know the differences between various types of refrigerants. Similarly, the goal is that she should be able to look at pictures of the grandkids without configuring ipv6.
Because consumer routers are directly connected to the internet, with no firewall between the router and the net, regular updates are required these days. Mom should be able to use YouTube, and do so safely she needs regular updates on the router.
Nerds like you and I can turn off those updates, install open-wrt, or whatever we want. Just like you CAN install a hotrod intake manifold, but doing so shouldn't be required in order to drive.
Quality is not necessarily "good" quality. Or even passable.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
>Speaking of QoS; how does that work across the internet again?
They have the internet on computers now.
3.2 million Google OnHub routers have ceased to function due to a buggy firmware update that was automatically installed. The 116.7 million OnHub routers that are part of the BlastField Botnet were not affected.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
Towards the bottom of the link you shared:
While OnHub doesn't track the websites you visit, your DNS provider can associate your web traffic with your public IP address. OnHub sets your default DNS provider to Google Public DNS. (This can be changed in the Advanced Networking settings of the Google On app.)
What could possibly go wrong?
Compare contrast with Comcast's DNS - Comcast owns NBC now so they have a vested interest in hunting down sharing of pirated content. I'd bet every single /.er is a legitimate target for them.
So do you trust Google or Comcast more here? Unless we're all running OpenDNS, and even then are you sure they're not selling your info too?
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I wonder how much of this move is designed to position Google more firmly in your house. Maybe they saw that Amazon Echo was getting traction and is moving to compete in this space as well?
Does it have a microphone...?
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
I would definitely purchase a Google branded router that used local storage to maintain an encrypted synced cache of my Google Drive,Mail,Movies,Music & maybe third party data.
So does it cut your b/w in half when it starts piping all your internet activity back to google hq?
OnHub Tech Specs I would still like the aforementioned functionality
I live in a subdivision like many other people. There are 20+ wifi networks all around me. They are building more houses nearby.
5Ghz works well but 2.4Ghz is flooded with other networks.
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
Great. A router from the company that logged wifi access point MACs and SSIDs while innocently photographing the neighboorhood. How much PII will they collect, crunch and sell?
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Google has a strong interest in having a large number of Google derived WiFi out in the market.
Project Fi handsoff between different carriers and WiFi. With WiFi they don't have carrier charges.
I wouldn't be too surprised if Google somehow ties Project Fi into the "OnHub" effort. I'd also expect google making lots of loss-leader agreements with companies to offer lots of Google managed WiFi that will make the backhaul for Project Fi free.
You have got to wonder what they have up their sleeve to add support for 802.15.4. This is the stuff that Zigbee runs, meaning all of a sudden, there is a gateway between (relatively) expensive (relatively) high-speed wifi devices and a whole lot of (relatively) inexpensive (relatively) low-speed internet-of-things devices, like SCADA of light switches, HVAC controls, home entertainment, etc.
Very interesting, indeed. What is behind door #2?
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
My PS3 is wired to my router. Why? Because I play CoD and need the lowest possible latency. I've written several wireless drivers, their specs assume you will lose a significant number of packets and seamlessly work around the missing packets. I'm guessing I gain at least 10% by using wired ethernet instead of my wifi link.
My NAS is also on the wire. Never instrumented it, but seems to me that if I'm transferring data to/from my NAS then it's better for half the traffic to be over the air, the other half over the wire.
(Geek speaking) Automatic updates are fine, so long as the bootloader or whatever its embedded equivalent can be unlocked to allow the flashing of unofficial ROMs. Here's hoping this is like most of the Google-branded hardware products (eg Chromebook, Nexus)
Is it smart to name your layer 3 network component after a layer 1 component?
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
with multiple internet connections spread over a community.
and it cost about $25 on newegg, I use it for the kid's wifi, it shuts off at 10pm during the week. Last time I looked, it said uptime was about 254 days, I have much more expensive routers that cant go nearly that long without needing reboots. I have zero interest on these $200+ routers everyone is dumping on the market now, even with google branding.