Networking

In 2025, the cloud has become an essential and invaluable tool for productivity and entertainment, from Apple's iCloud through to Google Drive and streaming platforms like Netflix. Cloud-based storage and services have transformed everything from how we store and edit documents and photos to how we consume 4K media and even play games. However, with rising monthly fees, limited storage, and other concerns, the at-home NAS is now a viable alternative and perfect all-in-one solution.

And with the new UGREEN NASync DH2300, you've got a NAS built for everyone - it's easy to use, affordable, and ships with robust security. And best of all, you can sync it with cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox via simple account linking.

The NAS, or Network Attached Storage device, has been around for several years and, in the age of cloud-based storage and services, has grown in popularity among home users seeking a subscription-free, personalized, and secure solution for storing and accessing their data. Although a personal NAS was once considered a pricey LAN-based or strictly local solution, the new DH2300 is affordable and accessible from any PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone, or even a smart TV with internet access. That means quick, instant access to your data wherever you are and whenever you need it.

Wi-Fi 7 is the latest standard for at-home wireless networking, offering a significant improvement over Wi-Fi 6E while maintaining backward compatibility with all existing Wi-Fi technologies. ASUS's new TUF Gaming BE9400 Tri-Band WiFi 7 Router has been designed to tap into the next-gen wireless speed of Wi-Fi 7, while also providing gaming-friendly features like a dedicated wired 2.5G LAN port that is "optimized for smooth online gaming."

Which is great to see; however, the TUF Gaming BE9400 is the sort of router you'd want to pair with the latest motherboards that support the new wireless standard. With Wi-Fi 7's 320 MHz wide channels, that's triple the bandwidth compared to Wi-Fi 6E's 120 MHz. With 4K-QAM and Multi-Link Operation (MLO) technologies, you also gain increased traffic speed and efficiency, covering a large area.

For the TUF Gaming BE9400 Tri-Band WiFi 7 Router, that's 9400 Mbps of tri-band throughput across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, with a coverage area of 2,500 square feet. The router also includes three 2.5G LAN ports (with one specifically optimized for gaming) and one 2.5G WAN port. As an ASUS wireless router, it also features AiProtection-powered security features alongside pre-installed VPNs.

Intel is currently undergoing a significant transformation as it seeks to improve its financial performance under the guidance of CEO Lip-Bu Tan. With a $2.9 billion quarterly loss and 15,000 jobs set to be cut so the company can focus on core products and AI, we now have confirmation that Intel is planning to spin off its Network and Edge Group (NEX) into a standalone business.

This new information arrives via CRN, which obtained a memo addressed to its partners stating that it's looking for outside investment for its networking group. "We plan to establish key elements of our Networking and Communications business as a stand-alone company, and we have begun the process of identifying strategic investors," Intel said in a follow-up statement confirming the plan.

In addition to the news that Intel's next-gen 14A process node is currently on the chopping block if it can't find major customers, this is the latest move to streamline Intel, signed off by CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

ASUS has announced its latest gaming-focused router, the ROG STRIX GS-BE18000 WiFi 7 Tri-band Gaming Router. It is designed to deliver fast wired and wireless speeds using the latest tri-band WiFi 7 technology. One of the most interesting aspects of the physical design is its clean mini PC-like look with no visible antennas.

Instead, it features eight internal antennas with "cutting-edge copper tubes" that can support a massive 3,300-square-foot area without any dead zones. For those looking for a wireless router that prioritizes gaming traffic, the ROG Strix GS-BE18000 has got you covered, as it includes dual dedicated 2.5G gaming ports that automatically prioritize gaming traffic without any configuration required.

The ROG Strix GS-BE18000 is an impressive unit in terms of overall speed. It has up to 20G of wired capacity (over seven 2.5G LAN ports) and 18G of WiFi 7, including high-speed 320MHz channels, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), and 4K-QAM support.

You've probably seen it before, but if you haven't, ASUS had its ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI router on display at Computex 2025... and my fear of spiders (as an Aussie) was at full alert. Check it out:

The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 AI router has it all: 1 x 10GbE WAN/LAN, 3 x 2.5GbE WAN/LAN, 1 x 1GbE LAN, and 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 x 1 USB 2.0 port. Inside, we've got the 32GB of flash and 4GB DDR4 RAM, with 8 x external antennas (which is why it looks like a spider).

ASUS has its iconic ROG eye front and center, lit up with RGB lighting (and even with the lights blaring in the halls of Nangang, it still looked gorgeous in the flesh). If you're after a monster router to handle multiple gaming PCs, gaming laptops, consoles, smartphones, and everything in between... the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI router has your back (and it looks incredible to boot).

ASUS is infusing its premium ROG Rapture gaming router line-up with AI, with the new ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI Tri-band Gaming Router announced and showcased at Computex 2025. One of the advanced AI features includes the new ROG AI Game Booster for real-time optimization to reduce ping times, jitter, and packet loss.

This also extends to being able to prioritize traffic for gaming, streaming video, downloading, or file sharing, which means you can still play competitive games while also downloading new titles or updates to other games without skipping a beat. The AI features here are broad and impressive, covering everything from improving WiFi stability through noise detection to intelligent ad and tracker blockers.

At Computex 2025, we even saw the ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI's AI capabilities used in a Smart Home environment, where security cameras can identify people and automatically turn on lights when they approach a door or move from room to room. Spec-wise and physically, the ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI is an absolute beast with WiFi 7, throughput up to 19 Gbps, and a coverage area of up to 3,500 square feet.

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.

In September of 2019, we were one of the first sites to get our hands-on the Killer AX1650. The AX1650, as most of you know, is powered by the Intel AX200 Wi-Fi chipset with additional low-level hardware controls that enable software hooks for Killer Control Center.

The initial release of the AX1650 was a 2230 m.2 solution only, meant for OEM installation into partner notebooks like the Alienware lineup from Dell. Rivet launched a module-only solution as well onto Amazon for users that wanted to move from their 1435, 1535, or 1550 Wi-Fi 5 cards to the latest. At the time of release, I questioned Rivet about the possibility of client devices for desktops. While they did hint at the possibility, nothing was shipping in the immediate future.

Rivet was recently acquired by Intel and recently dropped its first product with the Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 Desktop PCIe Wireless Adapter. This is the long-awaited add-on card for system builders and PC enthusiasts that want the very best Wi-Fi now and for the future. Pictured above, this is a boxed product just like the AX58BT from ASUS with all of the special sauce that comes with Killer Control Center.

It feels like Gigabit Ethernet has been around for decades, because the uptake on 10GbE connectivity hasn't been as fast as the switch between 100Mbps and 1GbE. There are motherboards with 10GbE connectivity, but they're few and far between... and now QNAP has a solution for that.

QNAP has just unveiled their new QNA series Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE adapter which lets people with Thunderbolt 3 Type-C connectivity to easily step up to 10GbE. Dan Lin, Product Manager of QNAP explains: "With the handy QNA series adapter, a 10GbE network can be created between your Thunderbolt 3 computer and another 10GbE-capable device without needing a complicate setup. 10GbE networks can facilitate high-speed data transfer and greatly benefit applications that are bandwidth or file-size intensive".

QNAP has your back when it comes to networking standards with the Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE adapter, of which there are two models. The first is the QNA-T310G1T which rocks a Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE Multi-Gigabit (10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M) port while the QNA-T310G1S has one 10GbE SFP+ port. The adapters will work on both Windows and Mac PCs, as long as you have the appropriate drivers installed.

Razer has just entered the gaming router market with the surprise announcement of Sila, a new gaming router that the company designed to keep lag away when gaming or streaming media.

Inside, the Razer FasTrack QoS system will prioritize traffic for when you're gaming or streaming video from the likes of Netflix or YouTube. It'll also automatically detect consoles, or work out which game you're playing on your PC and keep bandwidth secured away for you exclusively.

Razer has deployed a multi-channel zero-wait DFS system that will ensure network congestion stays at a minimum. Sila will make sure you get connected with the strongest signal possible, as there are more and more gamers using Wi-Fi to game all day or night long, especially with the rise of Fortnite on mobile.

Netgear took the wraps off of some new Nighthawk gaming routers recently, but the new flagship Nighthawk XR700 Gaming Router features some impressive technical specs including 10GbE connectivity.

The new Nighthawk XR700 is nearly identical to the current flock of high-end Nighthawk Pro Gaming routers but it has been specifically tuned for various networking hurdles that gamers and enthusiasts get put through. Netgear is optimizing network connections by stablizing pings and ironing out spikes in lag whether you're using the gigabit and now 10GbE wired connectivity, as well as gamers over Wi-Fi, if you are restricted from using ethernet cabling.

Netgear uses the DUMAOS on the Nighthawk XR700 gaming router which is a gaming router OS that was built specifically for power gamers, with the following features: