Networking News - Page 3

Chattanooga's homeade fiber network has paid dividends and then some: unemployment has dropped to 4.1 percent from 7.8 percent in the past three years and wages are up (which mayor Andy Berke says is directly related to internet jobs and the technology sector), to name a few improvements.

"It changed our conceptions of who we are and what is possible," says Berke. "Before we had never thought of ourselves as a technology city."

The downtown area has exploded as well, with residency doubling, thanks in part to landlords offer gigabit speeds included in rent. Tech businesses and events have shown up in the area too. The revitalized core has paved the way for the success of restaurants, bars, music, and more, too, Berke notes.

Google parent company Alphabet is envisioning a not-so-distant future where internet doesn't require cable running through your city, but rather is beamed wirelessly into your home.

Company chairman Eric Schmidt brought the idea up at the annual shareholder meeting, where he stated that thanks to better computer chips and accurate "targeting of wireless signals", the technology is not only viable, but it can match its own Google Fiber speed-wise. Schmidt said he's met with Alphabet CEO Larry Page and CFO Ruth Porat to discuss it.

The technology is said to be in testing now in Kansas City, where Google first launched Fiber. The plan is to demonstrate it there by next year.

The newly available ResetPlug is a smart plug that keeps your internet connection as fluid as possible. When it goes out (and it's bound to from time to time), the plug detects this and resets power automatically, getting you back online quickly (assuming all you need is a reset).

If the reset doesn't work the first time, ResetPlug will keep trying. You might worry this would destroy your router's power supply or power circuit should your connection remain out for an extended period, but it resets every five minutes by default and this value is adjustable up or down during setup. As such, there shouldn't be issues.

The peripheral is said to work with any Wi-Fi router, Wi-Fi access point, broadband modem, or devices that combine any of the three, and you can use a power strip to monitor all three with one plug.

We all know how powerful Netflix is, but what kind of impression is it leaving against the traditional TV market? Well, Netflix is really cutting into traditional TV ratings, and that's both a good, and bad thing.

In 2015 alone, Netflix accounted for around 50% of the 3% decline in TV viewing in the US, according to a new study by Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson. Nathanson calculated that based on an estimate of Netflix's domestic subscribers, who streamed a huge 29 billion hours of video in 2015 - and worldwide, Netflix members streamed a huge 42.5 billion hours of content. With 29 billion hours of video streamed, it represents 6% of total American live-plus-7 TV viewing reported by Nielsen (up from 4.4% in 2014).

Nathanson continued in his report, adding that he predicts Netflix's total streaming hours as a percentage of TV viewing will increase - where in 2020 it should be hitting around 14%, he noted: "Currently, Netflix is a source of industry pain, but not necessarily a cause of industry death".

CES 2016 - Synology has typically been solely in the NAS market, with some very nice home office, personal and even enterprise solutions for storing all manner of data. Now they're bringing their networking expertise to the table with their first router. A router that one an award at CES this year.

The RT1900ac was on hand at their booth at CES and they connected a variety of devices to in order to show off how easy administration was when using their Synology Router Manager OS, which provides a clean user interface that's surprisingly easy to use, as it builds appropriately off of their other NAS interfaces that have been received well by the community.

Being easy to use can sometimes mean sacrificing quality, features or even security. Or at the very least it could mean hiding away the advanced features in such a way that is the exact opposite of intuitive design. But that's not the case here. This is a powerful and intuitive OS that could give other vendors a real run for their money.

If you're planning to get into the 'festive spirit' this holiday season, British telecommunications company Ofcom says that you should also be aware of possible home networking issues surrounding this trend.

Ofcom claims that electrical interference created by 'fairy lights', or other powered Christmas decorations, are an often-reported issue over the holiday season, with users unaware of how these products may have effect on their signals and speeds.

While this issue can occur year-round, it has been noted that the holiday season sees a massive spike in consumer related complaints, often pointed towards Christmas decorations. So when you're hanging lights this year, try to dangle them away from the antennae.

Said to provide "the combination of the internet of things and a powerful router," ASRock has shown off its new Gaming G10 router in a recently issued press release.

Able to learn the infrared signals of a TV remote and assign them to your smartphone through its soon-to-be added Google Play and Apple app store ASRock Router Application, this product will enable you to control your television through your smartphone via Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G to the router which provides an infrared connection to your TV.

Not limited only to TV's, any device which relies on an infrared remote can be controlled, allowing for many different applications through a single device.

Do you remember when routers were simple units, providing maybe a single Wi-Fi antenna and 100 Mbps Ethernet? Those days are gone - long gone. Offering a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port, network management through the NETGEAR genie app and more, the NETGEAR AC1750 Smart Wi-Fi router (R6400) is designed for home use applications where Wi-Fi devices are in abundance.

With 802.11n technology and claimed stutter-free streaming of multiple HD videos supported through this single connection, 202.11 a/b/g devices are also able to connect and enjoy the speeds. The hardware includes three antennas couipet with Breamforming+ in order to improve the reach.

1750 Mpbs total speed is on offer here through dual band Wi-Fi technology (450 + 1300 Mbps), utilizing banded 2.5GHz for range and 5 GHz for performance. There are also QoS options available for when your internet can't keep up.

Said to be targeting motherboards to be placed in online gaming PC builds, Realtek is looking to win back some lost market share in the DIY motherboard scene - taken by Intel and Killer over the past few years. The new Realtek Dragon is said to offer lower latencies for those wanting to play games online.

This chip features the new Realtek RTL8118AS, showcasing gigabit Ethernet speeds. Said to offer better performance for small packet traffic and lower power consumption than competitors, Realtek has released a fancy new logo for this model as seen above - asking motherboard manufacturers to print it onto the PCB.

Set for debut in LGA1151 motherboards through the help of ECS, there has been no other mentioned manufacturers taking this new Realtek design on board just yet.

Computex 2015 - Adding to the plethora of models on offer in Taipei, ASUS has showcased two new Wi-Fi home products, the RT-AC3200 tri-band gigabit router and the RP-AC68U 3-in-1 access point, rage extender and media bridge.

This new router offers consumers tri-band Smart Connect technology which sets out to assign each connected device the ideal Wi-Fi band pending its needs, AiProtection to help keep your home safe from breaches of personal data and a traffic analyzer so you can find out exactly which housemate or child has been downloading torrents throughout the night.

As for specifications, this router operates on a frequency of concurrent 2.4GHz (600 Mbps), 5GHz-1 (1300 Mbps) and 5GHz-2 (1300 Mbps) and offers a single gigabit WAN port, four gigabit LAN ports, one USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0 connection.