Networking

With PCs, laptops, smartphones, TVs, consoles, tablets, and a whole slew of smart home devices connecting to a home network, the quality or speed of the connection is often determined by how far you or the device is from the router. Most modern routers can handle small or medium-sized homes. However, it's not uncommon for apartments and houses to have that one area where the Wi-Fi is a little spotty.

This is where a Mesh System enters the picture. With two routers connected over a backhaul channel, you've got the power of two routers, creating a single seamless high-speed network. Having no Wi-Fi dead zones is fantastic for homes with multiple stories and rooms or backyards with smart speakers connected to a music streaming service like Spotify for that perfect summer barbeque.

An excellent mesh system is the key to unlocking a home network's full potential.

Intel has just deployed a new Wi-Fi driver for Windows 11 users (and those on Windows 10) which alleviates a few issues, including a problem whereby the wireless module can cause Blue Screen of Death crashes.

The new driver is version 23.40.0 and it provides the cure for Wi-Fi-related BSoDs with a "low occurrence" - although any blue-screening isn't welcome, of course. So, if you have been experiencing crashes with the wireless adapters that this driver is for, it's going to be well worth installing the update.

This covers a range of adapters include Intel's Wi-Fi 7 BE202 and BE 200, as well as the following Wi-Fi 6 products:

A NAS or Network Attached Storage device is a portable and robust solution that lets you keep all of your files in a single location (with redundancy and security), with the option to access your collection from anywhere in the world.

The exciting new UGREEN NASync Series offers a variety of solutions for personal and home use, businesses, and content creators. It focuses on easy access, sharing, streaming, and storage, backed by powerful hardware underneath the hood. With up to 12th Gen Intel Core i5 processing, 8GB of expandable DDR5 memory, dual M.2 NVMe slots for fast caching, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, and 2-Bay, 4-Bay, 6-Bay, 8-Bay, and All-Flash models - the NASync Series boasts some seriously impressive specs for all users.

The Kickstarter campaign for the UGREEN NASync Series will commence on March 26. Early adopters will get access to Super Early Bird Prices - up to 40% off for those who put down a $5 deposit.

As we're all getting used to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E popping up in motherboards and high-end routers, later this year, we can expect to start seeing the next generation of wireless - Wi-Fi 7.

So what exactly will this new standard bring to the table? Well, it will build off Wi-Fi 6E, supporting the usual 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands but focusing on increasing transfer speeds. By an impressive amount, too, with the technology able to handle 8K video streaming.

This comes from a max data rate of 46 Gbps versus Wi-Fi 6E's 9.6 Gbps. As with all new Wi-Fi standards, backward compatibility will ensure a smooth transition and some future proofing for those that choose to be early adopters. On that note, to benefit from the best that Wi-Fi 7 has to offer, you'll need to connect with a Wi-Fi 7-based client. That means a network card or motherboard with Wi-Fi 7 capabilities in the PC space.

ASUS has launched what it is calling the "world's first quad-band Wi-Fi 6E gaming router" with the introduction of their new flagship ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router.

ASUS is aiming its new ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 at gamers, with the quad-band router inside handling 4 wireless bands. We have the high-end 6GHz band, 2 x 5GHz bands, and a single 2.4GHz band. Between the 6GHz and 2 x 5GHz bands, the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 router is capable of blasting 4804Mbps, dropping down into 1148Mbps on the 2.4GHz band -- but up to an insane 16Gbps aggregate throughput -- but don't expect that speed at home, but you'll get close-ish.

If you're serious about your Wi-Fi networking at home and want to set up the new ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 with your ASUS AiMesh router, then you can do that -- and have an entire house filled with mesh networking. If not, the legacy 5GHz and 6GHz bands can be used as a backhaul if used with a compatible ASUS AiMesh router... a great feature right there.

Netgear has unveiled its next-gen Nighthawk RAXE300 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6E router, ready to blast the 6GHz band to Wi-Fi 6E devices.

The new Nighthawk RAXE300 will offer up 8 x Wi-Fi streams and support Gigabit+ Wi-Fi speeds with a blistering 7.8Gbps blasted through homes that are up to 2500 square feet. Netgear is doing this with 6 antennas inside of the Nighthawk RAXE300 that improve signal strength and coverage, while wired connectivity includes enthusiast-grade 2.5GbE and 5 x 1GbE ports.

You'll need the latest smartphones and devices to be compatible with Wi-Fi 6E, but if it does then you will enjoy some super-speed wireless networking with the Nighthawk RAXE300. Netgear is going with a unique style, which looks like wicked -- and hides all of those antennas in something that doesn't look like a router.

NVIDIA has just announced its next-gen InfiniBand networking platform, NVIDIA Quantum-2, which offers next-generation performance, security, accessibility, and more for cloud computing companies and supercomputing centers.

The new NVIDIA Quantum-2 features a huge 400Gbps InfiniBand networking system that packs the new NVIDIA Quantum-2 switch, ConnectX-7 network adapter, BlueField-3 data processing unit (DPU) and all of the software required for the new architecture -- in total, the NVIDIA Quantum-2 has a huge 57 billion transistors.

NVIDIA is leaping ahead in the networking and supercomputing markets, with the new Quantum-2 including key features for "demanding workloads running in either arena. Supercharged by cloud-native technologies, it provides high performance with 400 gigabits per second of throughput and advanced multi-tenancy to accommodate many users".

If you've been finding it hard to buy a new AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics card of one of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards, or one of the next-gen consoles then you're not going to be happy about this news.

We're now hearing that the global chip shortage is having an affect on the router market, with Bloomberg reporting that their sources have said that carriers are being told there is a 60-week wait on new router orders. That's over an entire year, double the normal waiting time of around 30 weeks (just over 6 months).

Taiwan-based router maker Zyxel Communications has chimed in, with head of European regional business Karsten Gewecke saying that they haven't run out of routers just yet but "it could still happen".

ASUS has just unveiled the world's first Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) wireless router, with the introduction of its new ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 Wi-Fi Gaming Router.

The new ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 Wi-Fi Gaming Router packs the very latest Wi-Fi 6E standard, seeing its combined Wi-Fi speeds hitting an insane 11,000Mbps. This is between the 2.4GHz with 1148Mbps, the 5GHz and 6GHz bands each pumping away at 4804MHz each.

Not only that, but you can use WAN aggregation between 2 x 1Gbps ports for 2Gbps internet connections, while ASUS provides its iconic spider-like 8 antennas and a slew of IO on the rear. Inside, we have 1GB of DDR3 RAM and 256MB of NAND flash memory.

D-Link just released the top model of a trio of Wi-Fi 6 routers, which are poised to take on the modern smart-connected home's needs. The top-of-the-line EXO AX5400 Mesh Wi-Fi 6 router (DIR-X5460) should be able to handle the network traffic of even the most device-heavy households.

"The future of Wi-Fi is here. With the current influx of digital demands as households increasingly work and learn online, many require a new premium router to handle the network strain," said Raman Bridwell, vice president, products and services at D-Link Systems. "Our new DIR-X5460 Wi-Fi 6 Router is poised to overcome frustrating lag and buffer, replacing it with high-grade network efficiencies to meet simultaneous bandwidth-heavy activities like 4K/8K streaming or online classwork."

D-Link's new Wi-Fi 6 router is up to 90% faster than the previous generation at 2.4GHz and a whopping 176% faster at the 5GHz band. On top of that, the new protocol can handle 4x higher network capacity, which is critical for households that routinely stream 4K video content while participating in high-stakes e-sports matches.