4 ms·

So what does this device primarily do that I need right now? Just throttling internet for certain devices and prioritizing others? I'm not even entirely sure wh

So what does this device primarily do that I need right now? Just throttling internet for certain devices and prioritizing others? I'm not even entirely sure what 'uses smart software to find the best WiFi connection' means. What's the value prop here given the device costs $200? It's not like it can better your internet somehow.

keehun 11y ago
It does have prioritizing: https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6246483 https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6246483
- fs111 11y ago
  any plastic router has some sort of QoS build in. This seems to have a nicer UI though.
  - outworlder 11y ago
    "any plastic router has some sort of QoS build in"... that doesn't work. If you don't have an expensive product, do some tests with and without the router's QoS. You'd be better of with a raspberry Pi doing QoS in most cases.
    - keehun 11y ago
      Agreed. Found that none of the routers I've ever bought came with QoS that actually worked, or at least made a noticeable difference.
    - wtallis 11y ago
      Even if you do have an expensive product, the QoS in the stock firmware is guaranteed to have major problems.
blakeyrat 11y ago
The only way I can interpret that quote is, "it can automatically switch wifi radio channels when the one its using gets congested". I don't know, maybe there's more to it than that. Because $40 routers can do that.
- jlgaddis 11y ago
  With six 2.4 and 5 GHz antennas each, that's two antennas times three (non-overlapping) channels simultaneously in each band. Assuming it can somehow get device A to communicate on channel A and device B to communicate on channel C, etc., you could avoid some congestion while still allowing all those devices to maximize the available bandwidth. No $40 routers that I know of do anything like that.
  - Hello71 11y ago
    meaning that if everyone in the neighborhood owns one, there will be six times as much congestion and everyone's internet access will be even slower than before!
    - packetslave 11y ago
      you might consider learning how wifi actually works
      - mikeash 11y ago
        It would be much better if you could educate us on what they got wrong, rather than just being mean.
trjordan 11y ago
I'm not 100% this is true, but with multiple antennas, you can do beam-forming. The basic idea is that you can use interference to point the wifi signal at devices that are using it heavily at the moment, boosting their signal and thus their speed.
aianus 11y ago
When I upgraded from a generic $50 linksys router to a $200 Apple Extreme it vastly increased the range and speed of the wireless. Before it my TV's netflix connection would drop all the time or switch to low-res mode. So it's conceivable that it would better your Internet.
- impish19 11y ago
  That's interesting. The largest apt I've lived in was a 850 sq ft 2br so I've never had any issue with the range or lag from my router. Thanks for sharing.
  - cbhl 11y ago
    I live in a 200 sq ft studio and I've had issues with interference with 2.4 GHz Ubiquity equipment and various other routers (probably due to having too many neighbors within range) -- switching to a $200 Apple Airport Extreme with "more antennas" made most of my problems go away. However, seeing better performance 5 GHz 802.11 n/ac requires you to have both a good router and a good laptop -- my experience is that unless your users/family blindly uses Macbooks, they won't see any improvement from a $200 router because their 2-3 year old $500 Windows laptop only has a 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz-only 1x1.
- stephengillie 11y ago
  Most of this is because of the terrible Linksys software. I've had routers that acted terribly, and seen them perform much better with DDWRT installed.
ejdyksen 11y ago
It has a 3rd radio that monitors the channels you aren't currently using to see if any of them are better. The first two radios in the device can't switch without dropping connections, so they can't go hunting for new channels once the AP is turned on. My Airport Extreme chooses channels automatically at boot time, then never again. This is fine for my house though, because my neighbors are reasonably far away. At work, our Meraki AP has this kind of 3rd radio, and we get very good performance in a terrible RF environment, where lots of other equipment (from Apple and Ubiquiti) has failed.
- nathan_f77 11y ago
  Sounds like an awesome feature. I'm a huge fan of Ubiquiti, and was planning to get some APs for my house. But this Google thing looks way better now.
- kuschku 11y ago
  Which is a standard feature in a lot of other routers, too, like the Fritz!Box 7490. http://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7490/ http://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7490/ Google is doing nothing special here.
  - ejdyksen 11y ago
    I don't see anything on the spec sheets for the Fritz!Box 7490 that show it has more than 2 radios, like most dual band APs out there today. Google's spec sheet [1] specifically has 3 radios: http://i.imgur.com/x7CMktb.png http://i.imgur.com/x7CMktb.png The first two radios do MIMO 3x3, and the third radio just has 1 antenna (since it isn't serving client traffic). While this isn't completely new, it's definitely not common, especially for a consumer-grade AP/router. [1]: https://on.google.com/hub/#specs https://on.google.com/hub/#specs
    - kuschku 11y ago
      The Fritz!Box 7490 has 3 radios, for exactly this purpose. That’s how it supports automated channel search without disconnecting users, and how it is able to provide 1.3Gbps via WiFi.

keehun 11y ago

It does have prioritizing: https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6246483 https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6246483

fs111 11y ago
any plastic router has some sort of QoS build in. This seems to have a nicer UI though.
- outworlder 11y ago
  "any plastic router has some sort of QoS build in"... that doesn't work. If you don't have an expensive product, do some tests with and without the router's QoS. You'd be better of with a raspberry Pi doing QoS in most cases.
  - keehun 11y ago
    Agreed. Found that none of the routers I've ever bought came with QoS that actually worked, or at least made a noticeable difference.
  - wtallis 11y ago
    Even if you do have an expensive product, the QoS in the stock firmware is guaranteed to have major problems.

blakeyrat 11y ago

The only way I can interpret that quote is, "it can automatically switch wifi radio channels when the one its using gets congested". I don't know, maybe there's more to it than that. Because $40 routers can do that.

jlgaddis 11y ago
With six 2.4 and 5 GHz antennas each, that's two antennas times three (non-overlapping) channels simultaneously in each band. Assuming it can somehow get device A to communicate on channel A and device B to communicate on channel C, etc., you could avoid some congestion while still allowing all those devices to maximize the available bandwidth. No $40 routers that I know of do anything like that.
- Hello71 11y ago
  meaning that if everyone in the neighborhood owns one, there will be six times as much congestion and everyone's internet access will be even slower than before!
  - packetslave 11y ago
    you might consider learning how wifi actually works
    - mikeash 11y ago
      It would be much better if you could educate us on what they got wrong, rather than just being mean.

trjordan 11y ago

I'm not 100% this is true, but with multiple antennas, you can do beam-forming. The basic idea is that you can use interference to point the wifi signal at devices that are using it heavily at the moment, boosting their signal and thus their speed.

aianus 11y ago

When I upgraded from a generic $50 linksys router to a $200 Apple Extreme it vastly increased the range and speed of the wireless. Before it my TV's netflix connection would drop all the time or switch to low-res mode. So it's conceivable that it would better your Internet.

impish19 11y ago
That's interesting. The largest apt I've lived in was a 850 sq ft 2br so I've never had any issue with the range or lag from my router. Thanks for sharing.
- cbhl 11y ago
  I live in a 200 sq ft studio and I've had issues with interference with 2.4 GHz Ubiquity equipment and various other routers (probably due to having too many neighbors within range) -- switching to a $200 Apple Airport Extreme with "more antennas" made most of my problems go away. However, seeing better performance 5 GHz 802.11 n/ac requires you to have both a good router and a good laptop -- my experience is that unless your users/family blindly uses Macbooks, they won't see any improvement from a $200 router because their 2-3 year old $500 Windows laptop only has a 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz-only 1x1.
stephengillie 11y ago
Most of this is because of the terrible Linksys software. I've had routers that acted terribly, and seen them perform much better with DDWRT installed.

ejdyksen 11y ago

It has a 3rd radio that monitors the channels you aren't currently using to see if any of them are better. The first two radios in the device can't switch without dropping connections, so they can't go hunting for new channels once the AP is turned on. My Airport Extreme chooses channels automatically at boot time, then never again. This is fine for my house though, because my neighbors are reasonably far away. At work, our Meraki AP has this kind of 3rd radio, and we get very good performance in a terrible RF environment, where lots of other equipment (from Apple and Ubiquiti) has failed.

nathan_f77 11y ago
Sounds like an awesome feature. I'm a huge fan of Ubiquiti, and was planning to get some APs for my house. But this Google thing looks way better now.
kuschku 11y ago
Which is a standard feature in a lot of other routers, too, like the Fritz!Box 7490. http://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7490/ http://en.avm.de/products/fritzbox/fritzbox-7490/ Google is doing nothing special here.
- ejdyksen 11y ago
  I don't see anything on the spec sheets for the Fritz!Box 7490 that show it has more than 2 radios, like most dual band APs out there today. Google's spec sheet [1] specifically has 3 radios: http://i.imgur.com/x7CMktb.png http://i.imgur.com/x7CMktb.png The first two radios do MIMO 3x3, and the third radio just has 1 antenna (since it isn't serving client traffic). While this isn't completely new, it's definitely not common, especially for a consumer-grade AP/router. [1]: https://on.google.com/hub/#specs https://on.google.com/hub/#specs
  - kuschku 11y ago
    The Fritz!Box 7490 has 3 radios, for exactly this purpose. That’s how it supports automated channel search without disconnecting users, and how it is able to provide 1.3Gbps via WiFi.