Networking

Netgear expands its Gigabit Wi-Fi 6 offering with a new, lower-priced, Orbi RBK752 mesh system.

Designed to handle the demands being placed on Wi-Fi by video conferencing, streaming 4K/8K UHD content, and the myriad of IoT devices that litter out homes and offices, the Orbi RBK752 joins the Orbi RBK852.
Supporting internet speeds up to internet speeds of up to 1 Gigabit, this mesh pack is perfect for those who want to make the most of their internet pipe without breaking the bank.
Must read: Five iPhone security settings you should check today
For those who have even faster internet connections, the Orbi RBK852 supports speeds up to 2.5 Gigabit.

Orbi RBK752 tech specs
Configuration: 1 Router + 1 Satellite
Wi-Fi speed: WIFI 6 – AX4200 (Up to 4.2 Gbps)
Wi-Fi coverage: Up to 5,000 sq. ft.
Recommended number of devices: Up to 40+
Best for internet speeds: Up to 2.0 Gbps
Backhaul: Tri-band
Wired Gigabit Ethernet ports (Router + Satellites): 6 (4 + 2)
Network Security: Netgear Armor, WPA2, Guest Wi-Fi Secure Access
Technology: Tri-Band, Smart Connect – One Wi-Fi name, Beamforming, MU-MIMO
$450 at Amazon Amazon (3-pack Orbi RBK852)

Orbi Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Systems Comparison Chart

×
unnamed.jpg

“In the current environment where home networks are now constrained by every member of the household working from home, distance learning and streaming video or playing online games, this new Orbi Wi-Fi 6 Mesh system is designed to carry the heavy load of this new reality,” said David Henry, senior vice president of Connected Home Products for Netgear. “Providing a range of options for consumers and small businesses, Netgear boasts the largest portfolio of Wi-Fi 6 routers, range extenders, mesh Wi-Fi systems, and cable gateways in the industry. It is our aim to provide a broad range of advanced Wi-Fi solutions to address the needs of the ever-evolving consumer landscape.”

ZDNet Recommends More

Plugable UD-CA1A USB-C dock

Universal
USB
3.1
Type-C
docking
station
with
Power
Delivery.
4K-capable
HDMI
display
(4K
at
30Hz,
2560×1600
at
60Hz).
Provides
60W
of
power
to
charge
attached
system
… More

Image: Chorus
New Zealand broadband wholesaler Chorus has revealed a network traffic graph that shows waves of upstream traffic cresting every half hour, which the company dubbed the Godzilla effect.
At the same time, the graph shows upstream traffic stopped out at 0.29Tbps during April, when New Zealand was in its hardest level of coronavirus restrictions. As restrictions have eased, upstream traffic has dropped, but still remains 10% above the pre-lockdown baseline seen in early March as people continued to work from home, Chorus said in an ASX filing on its fourth quarter connections numbers.
“Upstream traffic peaked ~60% higher (than January levels) when lockdown began, driven by rapid adoption of video conferencing applications,” the company said.
“Downstream traffic initially peaked ~40% higher (than January levels) when lockdown began. Downstream traffic dipped in the first week of lockdown as streaming providers limited streaming quality.”
During April, Chorus saw an average data consumed per connection top 400GB across its network, with fibre customers downloading 495GB on average, and copper customers averaging 273GB each.

For its fourth quarter, Chorus said it saw average data usage fall by 42GB on fibre to 387GB, while copper connections dropped 27GB on average to 198GB. Chorus added the fourth quarter numbers were artificially lower by 10% due to streaming services lowering the bandwidth used as the pandemic spread across the world.
Due to the pandemic, Chorus said restrictions paused the UFB2 rollout and the company had 15,000 fewer fibre installations than last year.
See also: Physical location of video conferencing servers key to Australian performance: ACCC
Overall, Chorus said it had 4,000 fewer fixed line connections in total at the end of Q4, to now record 1.415 million across New Zealand, while its broadband segment increased by 4,000 to 1.2 million, which reversed the broadband connections lost in the previous quarter.
In its Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) footprint, Chorus said it now has 725,000 connections from 931,000 premises passed and 1.2 million customers able to connect. Within UFB1 areas, uptake is sitting at 63%, while UFB2 recorded 37% uptake.
Chorus added its number of fibre connections now sits at 740,000 with 466,000 copper connections, and 1Gbps plans making up around 20% of its orders, with the total number of 1GBps connections now being 115,000.
Across the ditch at the end of June, deputy secretary of communications at the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications Richard Windeyer said the experience during the coronavirus pandemic has shown Australian broadband can handle working from home.
“The networks in Australia are capable of coping with a very significant increase in overall capacity and in the type of, and shape of, use of the network. And therefore, it has demonstrated that remote work is a possibility,” Windeyer said.
“Now, I think how that plays out across the Australian economy … depends on factors that are unrelated to telecommunications … our view would be we’ve seen, and quite pleased to see, that the networks are capable of supporting people choosing to work remotely, and as COVID has shown, in significant numbers.”
Windeyer said the question waiting to be answered is how many of the habits developed in the past few months would endure.
“There’s no reason to believe that people will go back, will necessarily stop taking telehealth consultations and … there will be an increase in people’s ability to, and interest in being able to, work remotely.”
Related Coverage More

Slack engineers have revealed what went wrong on May 12, when Slack went down for several hours amid mass teleworking during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Slack has now published a detailed technical review of the outage as well as an account of its incident response team, which was caught off guard by the outage.  Both posts […] More

Image: ACCC The relationship between a user’s physical location and that of the servers used for their video conferencing service of choice is, unsurprisingly, the key to low latency and a better experience, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said. Using data collected during May, the SamKnows boxes used for NBN speed monitoring undertook […] More

The 2,700km subsea cable from Japan to Guam that forms the northern section of the Japan-Guam-Australia cable system has been declared ready for service by NEC and RTI. JGA North is a private cable built by NEC, with RTI being its sole investor. It also received funding from Japan ICT Fund and NEC Capital Solutions. […] More

Image: NBN The company responsible for deploying the National Broadband Network (NBN) across Australia has launched a satellite backup service for business services. Much like how residential customers are offered an NBN modem with 4G backup, this service functions in much the same way, except it involves the installation of a satellite dish and associated […] More

Mobile operators in Asia-Pacific are expected to spend more than $400 billion on their networks between 2020 and 2025, with $331 billion on 5G deployments. However, the number of 5G connections will be lower than previously projected due to the global pandemic.  The region is one of the world’s fastest-growing and accounts for more than […] More