Networking

Cable giant Comcast topped fourth quarter estimates and showed strong growth across several lines of business. 
In the fourth quarter, Comcast reported net income of $3.4 billion, or 73 cents a share, on revenue of $27.7 billion, up 2.4% from a year ago. Excluding items, Comcast reported earnings of 56 cents a share in the fourth quarter.
Wall Street was expecting Comcast to report fourth quarter earnings of 48 cents a share on revenue of $26.7 billion.
Comcast consists of several properties, but Comcast Business is among its fastest-growing segments. Comcast Business delivered revenue of $2.1 billion, up 4.8% from a year ago. Comcast’s high-speed Internet revenue was up 12.7% to $5.4 billion while video and voice sales fell. The company’s wireless business grew 35.8% to $505 million, and advertising revenue climbed 33.8%. 
Here’s a look at how the company’s customer base shakes out:

Overall, the strength in Comcast’s business comes from the cable unit. For 2020, Comcast added 1.6 million cable customer relationships and 2 million high-speed internet net additions — the highest annual gains in these categories, ever.

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Working from home likely means you’re working on some form of laptop or tablet, and if it was made in the last couple of years, one thing’s for sure: It doesn’t have near enough ports to connect all of the accessories we’ve all come to rely on to get our jobs done. 

In the last year, we’ve all been a bit deprived of different things, but we don’t have to be port constrained on our laptops. While I wish we didn’t have to use docks and hubs to address these deficiencies, I am not sure I would want to go back to the good old days when these laptops weighed five pounds, and you would break your back carrying them.
However, because there are so many USB versions, many end-users can be confused about the underlying technology and what they need to improve their connectivity with their laptops and tablets. Let’s see if we can clear some of this up.
The evolution of Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Universal Serial Bus 1.0 was introduced by the USB Implementer’s Forum in January 1996 — that’s exactly 25 years ago. With that introduction, we got the USB-A connector, as well. It’s the rectangular-shaped receptacle, a one-way keyed connector that we all know. It’s also the connector that we use for thumb drives and device connectivity on legacy PCs and all kinds of peripherals and consumer electronics over two decades. It’s in our cars. It’s everywhere.
USB 1.0
Jan. 15, 1996
Full Speed (12Mbit/s),
Low Speed (1.5Mbit/s)

Initial release
USB 1.1
August 1998
Full Speed (12Mbit/s),
Low Speed (1.5Mbit/s)

USB 2.0
April 2000
High Speed (480Mbit/s)
Significant speed improvements
USB 3.0
November 2008
Superspeed USB (5Gbit/s)
Also referred to as USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 3.2 Gen 1 × 1
USB 3.1
July 2013
Superspeed+ USB (10Gbit/s)
Includes new USB 3.1 Gen 2, also named USB 3.2 Gen 2 × 1 in later specifications
USB 3.2
August 2017
Superspeed+ USB dual-lane (20Gbit/s)
Includes new USB 3.2 Gen 1 × 2 and Gen 2 × 2 multi-link modes
USB4
August 2019
40Gbit/s (2-lane)
Includes new USB 4 Gen 2 × 2 (64b/66b encoding) and Gen 3 × 2 (128b/132b encoding) modes and introduces USB 4 routing for tunnelling of USB3.x, DisplayPort 1.4a and PCI Express traffic and host-to-host transfers, based on the Thunderbolt 3 protocol

The USB-C connector used with USB 3.x, 4.x, and Thunderbolt devices (left), versus the legacy USB-A connector (right), used for USB 1.x and USB 2.x devices.
(Image: Jason Perlow/ZDNet)
When that standard was introduced, USB 1.x had a maximum transfer rate of 12Mbps. Over the years, that increased to 480Mbps with USB 2.0 and 5Gbps on USB 3.x and, recently, 40Gbps on USB 4. The massive increase in bandwidth has allowed for things like computer monitors, ethernet cards, Wi-Fi adapters, and all sorts of other things to be connected to a PC without having to open it up and use up slots. Remember those?
When USB 3.1 was introduced in 2013/2014, we also saw a new connector, the USB-C connector. That’s the small, reversible oval connector that we all now know and love. It is used primarily on Android smartphones, some iPad models, and PC and Mac laptops. But it’s making its way onto all kinds of consumer electronics.
The port deficiency problem on modern laptops
Currently, many laptops only have a USB-C connector on them. The biggest offender here is Apple’s MacBooks since the company has been very aggressive about ripping out ports over the years. Still, they are not the only ones. Companies like Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Microsoft have all been making their products thinner and streamlined. We are getting fewer ports from them due to a desire to make everything light and wirelessly connected.

You’ll only get two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports on a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro.
Jason Cipriani/ZDNet

Apple’s current generation of x86 MacBooks has four USB-C connectors, and its latest M1 MacBooks only have two. Each of these connectors can function as a USB 3.0/4.0 port with a transfer rate of 20Gbps and as a Thunderbolt 3 port. 
Thunderbolt, a standard created by Intel, is even faster. It can transfer data at up to 40Gbps. That means you could conceivably connect things like external graphics processors to a laptop with one of these ports if the operating system supports it. Or a high-speed 10Gbps network adapter, for example, if you were one of those people who need to transfer huge data files, like someone working in special effects or a video-editing studio.
But there’s also DisplayPort
DisplayPort is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers, and it was standardized by VESA, the Video Electronics Standard Association, in 2006. So, this was before the USB-C connector. It’s a special 20-pin connector. You’ve probably seen it: It resembles a big rectangle with a notch cut out of it. Virtually all of the desktop monitors you can buy now have DisplayPort connectors on them, in addition to the HDMI or the DVI connectors you normally find on older monitors. 

USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable.
(Image: Jason Perlow/ZDNet)
To output to a DisplayPort-equipped external monitor, you either need an HDMI-to-DisplayPort cable, a DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable, or a USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable. But you are probably thinking what I am thinking: If you want to connect two monitors to a MacBook or a PC laptop, you will have to eat up a bunch of USB-C ports on that laptop. That’s not already counting the USB-C cable used for USB PD to power the laptop. So, before you know it, you’re lucky to have one spare port left. That doesn’t leave room for a mouse, a keyboard, or anything else; you’d better hope you have Bluetooth stuff to connect to it.
On a PC laptop with a DisplayPort or USB 4 interface, you can do what is referred to as DisplayPort daisy-chaining. That allows you to use a single USB-C port to connect to multiple external monitors, provided your monitors have both DisplayPort input and output ports. There is an upper limit of five monitors with DisplayPort using a daisy chain — but at a lower resolution. You can connect one 4K/5K monitor per chain.

However, on a MacBook, the OS doesn’t support a daisy chain, so you will need a USB-C port dedicated to each monitor, which gets us to docking stations and hubs.
Laptop and tablet hubs of all kinds
The good news is that on Mac and PC laptops that support USB-C, USB 4, Thunderbolt 3, and Thunderbolt 4, one cable coming out of the laptop can be split into a lot of ports using a hub or docking station. 
Docking stations are becoming not only popular for use with laptops but also on tablets like the iPad. They allow you to connect different types of devices, not just USB-C or USB-A devices — many hubs include gigabit Ethernet, SD card, headphone, and audio jacks, and dedicated DisplayPort connectors. They also can power your laptop with as much as 94 watts, delivered by USB PD, so they have their own power bricks as well.
Jason Cipriani’s Picks
Jason Cipriani, my Jason Squared co-host, is partial to the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro. He uses it with his M1 MacBook Pro and his 2018 iPad Pro. It’s pricey, at $250, but that’s par for the course for Thunderbolt docks. It has 85W upstream charging, allowing you to charge your laptop through the dock Ports: (2) Thunderbolt 3, (1) USB-A 3.1, (1) USB-C 3.1, (4) USB-A 3.0, (1) DisplayPort, (1) SD card, (1) 3.5mm Audio in/out, and (1) Gigabit Ethernet. 

Jason Cipriani likes the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro.
(Image: Jason Perlow/ZDNet)
Another hub he uses is the HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C hub. Even though it’s designed for the iPad Pro and iPad Air, he’s been able to use it with his MacBook Pro and the Surface Pro X to connect to an external monitor and use the SD card features. It’s $90. 
Lastly, he uses Apple’s USB-C Digital AV adapter that adds a USB-C port, USB-A port, and an HDMI connection. It’s minimal and easy to move between desks or setups but lacks all the extra ports that other hubs have, like the HyperDrive. It’s $70. 
My Picks
Until recently, I have been a heavy user of the CalDigit TS3 plus, a Thunderbolt 3 dock designed for MacBooks. It was considered the premier one on the market about two years ago, and it goes for about $300. It has a dedicated DisplayPort and seven USB ports, as well as Ethernet and audio ports. Caldigit has also recently introduced some newer USB-C models and dual dedicated DisplayPort or dual HDMI interfaces.
Currently, I have been using the Kensington SD5700T, which I recently reviewed. This one has four Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports. It is designed for the latest M1 MacBooks and PCs and delivers up to 90W of power to the laptop. I only have one Thunderbolt cable coming out of the Mac, which is powering the computer and is driving two DisplayPort monitors, Ethernet, and a whole mess of USB peripherals. It also costs about $300. Kensington has a bunch of other models, depending on what price point you’re targeting.

The Hubble for iPad Air/Pro by Fledging.
I also recently got this Hubble dock for iPad, made by Fledging, which I am using on my 12.9-inch iPad Pro. This thing is a real beauty and was just introduced at CES 2021. It has an HDMI connector for doing screen mirroring with a monitor or a TV set, in case you wanted to use this for watching movies in your living room or use Apple Fitness Plus, an SD card slot. It also has a dedicated USB-C port and USB-A port for connecting external peripherals, that missing audio jack, plus a USB-C charge passthrough. It’s made out of metal, which matches your iPad’s color, and it acts as both a case and a stand. So, really, you could turn your iPad into a desktop computer with this thing if you wanted. It costs $99/$110 and works on the 12.9-inch and 10.9-inch iPad Pro and the latest 11-inch iPad Air models.
There are countless other options available. Ed Bott, my ZDNet colleague, has a thorough roundup of USB-C/Thunderbolt docks you can check out.

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AT&T has reported Q4 2020 earnings shored up by an expanding subscriber base, but COVID-19 is still disrupting the company’s operations and leaving an indelible mark on the books. 

On Wednesday, the Dallas, Texas-based telecoms giant published its fourth-quarter financial results (statement) (.PDF).
AT&T reported consolidated revenues of $45.7 billion and a net loss attributable to common stock of $13.9 billion or -$1.95 per share. Adjusted EPS earnings are $0.75 per share including “asset impairments, an actuarial loss on benefit plans, merger-amortization costs and other items.”
“The company did not adjust for COVID-19 impacts of ($0.08): $0.01 incremental cost reductions and ($0.09) of estimated revenues,” AT&T added.
AT&T’s third-quarter earnings were $0.39 per share (adjusted EPS $0.76) on revenues of $42.3 billion. 
However, the firm continues to enjoy subscriber growth. Over Q4 2020, 800,000 postpaid phone net adds, 1.2 million postpaid net adds, close to six million total domestic wireless net adds, and 273,000 AT&T Fiber net adds were reported. AT&T said that it experienced a 617,000 net loss over the quarter when it comes to premium TV services.
Total domestic and international HBO and HBO Max subscribers have now reached 41 million and close to 61 million, respectively. HBO Max activations alone accounted for 17.2 million subscribers as of the end of the quarter.

Operating loss was reported as $10.7 billion in comparison to $5.3 billion last quarter. AT&T says “non-cash asset impairments in the quarter and the impact of lower revenues” have contributed to this figure.
When adjusted for non-cash asset impairments, operating income was $7.8 billion in comparison to $9.2 billion in Q4 2019. AT&T’s latest reported operating income margin was 17.1%.
Free cash flow is now pegged at $7.7 billion. Net debt declined by $1.6 billion.
For the full 2020 financial year, AT&T revenue totaled $171.8 billion, a drop from $181.2 billion in 2019. 
“The COVID-19 pandemic impacted revenues across all businesses, particularly WarnerMedia and domestic wireless service revenues, which were pressured from lower international roaming,” the company says. “Declines at WarnerMedia included lower content and advertising revenues, in part due to COVID-19.”
Revenues in domestic TV services and legacy wireline solutions decline, but sales in domestic wireless equipment and both strategic and managed services “partly offset” these losses, according to AT&T. 
Operating expenses over the year were $165.4 billion (2019: $153.2 billion), operating income in 2020 was $6.4 billion, down 77.1% year-over-year — but with adjustments, operating income for FY 2020 is recorded as $34.1 billion versus $38.6 billion in FY 2019.
Net loss over 2020 attributable to common stock is $5.4 billion, or $0.75 per share. 
In 2021, AT&T expects a free cash flow of at least $26 billion, as well as a full-year dividend payout ratio in the 50%’s. Consolidated revenue growth is expected to be in the range of one percent and gross capital investment is pegged at roughly $21 billion, with $18 billion in capital expenditure. 
“We ended the year with strong momentum in our market focus areas of broadband connectivity and software-based entertainment,” said John Stankey, AT&T CEO. “By investing in our high-quality wireless customer base, we had our best full-year of postpaid phone net adds in a decade and our second lowest postpaid phone churn ever. Our fiber broadband net adds passed the one million mark for the year. And the release of Wonder Woman 1984 helped drive our domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers to more than 41 million, a full two years faster than our initial forecast.”

Previous and related coverage
Have a tip? Get in touch securely via WhatsApp | Signal at +447713 025 499, or over at Keybase: charlie0 More

Japanese telco giant NTT Docomo has developed a new proof of concept that it touts can “efficiently guide” 28GHz 5G radio signals received from outdoors to specific locations indoors.
Developed alongside AGC, a Japanese glass manufacturer, the new technology is a film-like metasurface lens that can be attached to window surfaces. Once attached to window surfaces, 28GHz radio signals are then able to pass through windows and become available for use indoors.
Generally, 28GHz signals have low diffraction, which means these types of signals are unable to penetrate windows and need to be within the line of sight of base stations, the company explained.
But the metasurface lens is able to circumvent this, Docomo said, as it arranges a large number of sub-wavelength unit cells into certain shapes, which allows direct radio signals to pass through to specific points indoors.
In addition, the metasurface lens material is a transparent film that can cover virtually the entire inside surface of a window and was designed to be “aesthetically acceptable”.
It also has no effect on LTE and sub-6 band radio waves, so it can be used to improve indoor reception of 28GHz radio signals without affecting the performance of legacy wireless frequencies, Docomo added.
Meanwhile, Ericsson has launched a 5G network slicing product for radio access networks (RAN) that allows for communications service providers to deliver customised 5G services.

The new 5G RAN slicing product allocates radio resources at 1-millisecond scheduling and supports multi-dimensional service differentiation handling across slices. 
According to Ericsson, the 1-millisecond scheduling strengthens end-to-end slicing capabilities for resource management to make it easier for communications service providers to support customers across various use cases.
“What makes our solution distinct is that it boosts end-to-end management and orchestration support for fast and efficient service delivery. This gives service providers the differentiation and guaranteed performance needed to monetise 5G investments with diverse use cases. With 5G as innovation platform, we continue to drive value for our customers,” Ericsson Product Area Networks head Per Narvinger said.
Related Coverage
Docomo switches on sub-6GHz 5G carrier aggregation
Qualcomm says devices will need a Snapdragon 865 to make use of the feature.
NTT Docomo to launch 5G on March 25
Initial footprint to be 150 locations across Japan, followed by 500 cities in a year’s time.
Ericsson accuses Samsung of swerving FRAND commitments for 2G-5G patents
The delay in contractual negotiations could set Ericsson back SEK 1.5 billion per quarter from 2021 onwards.
5G rollouts gather pace, despite obstacles and arguments over coverage
O2, BT and rivals are in a race to deploy 5G to as many locations as possible, despite various obstacles to the technology’s rollout. More

No, it’s not just you. Beginning this morning, users from Massachusetts to Northern Virginia started having trouble connecting with their favorite internet sites. The service problem this time isn’t with any of the major cloud providers but with the internet itself.

According to reports on the Outages list, which is the central mailing list for ISP and network operators to report and track major internet connection problems, service failures were first spotted on Long Island. Other reports quickly revealed it wasn’t just a New York regional problem. 
Users, throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, start reporting having trouble reaching their favorite work-from-home sites such as Gmail, Office 365, Slack, and Zoom and school-from-home sites such as Blackboard and Schoology. Downdetector, which tracks website outages, showed serious slowdowns with many sites including Google, Zoom, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Outlook late on Tuesday morning.
The root cause appears to be a Verizon fiber cut in Brooklyn, NY. Verizon reported on Twitter, “There is a fiber cut and it has been reported, our technicians are aware; therefore working to resolve it as soon as possible.” The Verizon ALTER.NET backbone network also went down taking it with Verizon Wireless and DSL internet connections. 
In addition, many Verizon Fios customers on the East Coast are reporting major slowdowns on all their internet services. Other users who aren’t Verizon customers are saying they’re seeing slowdowns as well. That’s probably because of traffic backups caused by the Verizon fiber failure. Just like when a multi-lane highway loses a lane of traffic all the traffic starts slowing down.
At 1 PM Eastern, it appears that internet speeds are beginning to pick up. With luck and work, this morning’s internet failure may be over later this afternoon. 
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While Google Chrome is easily the most popular PC web browser, it’s open-source big brother, Chromium, doesn’t have that many users, but it’s always had some fans on desktop Linux. Now, though, that love affair is in trouble.

Open Source

Google claims it recently found un-named third-party Chromium-based browsers integrating Google cloud-based features, such as Chrome sync and Click to Call, that were intended only for Google Chrome users. In other words, “This meant that a small fraction of users could sign into their Google Account and store their personal Chrome sync data, such as bookmarks, not just with Google Chrome, but also with some third-party Chromium-based browsers.”
Also: Best Linux Foundation classes
Google was not amused. 
Starting on March 15th, Google said it will limit access to many Chrome application programming interfaces (API) inside Chromium starting March 15, 2021. This means users using the Chromium web browser or any other web browser based on its open-source codebase won’t be able to use most Google-specific API-enabled services. This includes the ability to sync Chrome bookmarks, check your spelling, find your contacts, translate text, and on and on.  
Many users aren’t happy either now. Thom Holwerda, managing editor of OSNews, spoke for many when he wrote, Google’s “not closing a security hole, they’re just requiring that everyone use Chrome. Or to put it bluntly, they do not want you to access their Google API functionality without using proprietary software (Google Chrome).”
Developers can, once they jump through the necessary hoops to get API keys and an OAuth 2.0 client ID, get keys to these APIs. But, Google underlines, “that the keys you have now acquired are not for distribution purposes and must not be shared with other users.”

In theory, a developer could pull the API keys out of mainline Chrome and maintain their Chromium’s build Google functionality. However, that’s just asking for a lawsuit. 
Besides, Jochen Eisinger, Google’s Director of Engineering for Chrome Trust & Safety remarked on the Google Chromium developer group, “We won’t remove the API from your key, but we’ll limit the quota to the quota for development. … this will make the keys unsuitable for production use.” These “APIs were not designed to be used by third-party software, so short of a complete rewrite, there is unfortunately no [other] option.”
So, where does that leave Linux distributors who’ve been bundling Chromium? Between a rock and a hard place. 
Porting Chromium to Linux is not trivial. Alan Pope, Canonical’s community manager for Ubuntu Linux engineering service, explained why Canonical started shipping Chromium in an Ubuntu Snap container rather than in a DEB package:

Maintaining a single release of Chromium is a significant time investment for the Ubuntu Desktop Team working with the Ubuntu Security team to deliver updates to each stable release. As the teams support numerous stable releases of Ubuntu, the amount of work is compounded. Comparing this workload to other Linux distributions that have a single supported rolling release misses the nuance of supporting multiple Long Term Support (LTS) and non-LTS releases.
Google releases a new major version of Chromium every six weeks, with typically several minor versions to address security vulnerabilities in between. Every new stable version has to be built for each supported Ubuntu release − 16.04, 18.04, 19.04, and the upcoming 19.10 − and for all supported architectures (amd64, i386, arm, arm64).

While Snap has made this easier, it’s still not easy. According to sources, Canonical has not decided yet whether it will support Chromium without the end-user support for the Google services specific APIs. 
Linux Mint recently started bundling its own Chromium browser. Mint leader Clement “Clem” Lefebvre is sticking with Chromium. “We’re not going to do anything. We’ll continue to package Chromium.”
Red Hat’s community Linux distro Fedora, however, was seriously considering dumping Chromium. Tom Callaway, Chromium’s Fedora maintainer explained that it’s because Google is “cutting off access to the Sync and “other Google Exclusive” APIs from all builds except Google Chrome. This will make the Fedora Chromium build significantly less functional (along with every other distro packaged Chromium).”
However, after consideration, Calloway explained “I never said I was going to remove Chromium from Fedora. I said I was seriously considering it, but after much thought, I decided that there were enough users who still wanted it, even without the functionality provided by the Google API.” So, starting immediately, Fedora’s version of Chromium no longer supports the soon to be depreciated APIs. 
Calloway really wishes Google would reconsider its position. But, he sees little chance of it. “What frustrates me,” Calloway tweeted, “the most is how no one on the Chrome team understands the concept of open source community building. Nothing the Chr maintainers did ever hurt Chrome, they only ever made it stronger.”
Other Linux distributions are edging closer to dumping Chromium. Arch Linux maintainers have thought about it, but, for now, they’ll continue to keep Chromium around even after the March 15th deadline. 
Eric Hameleers, who maintains Chromium for Slackware Linux, is dropping Chromium. “I will not package and distribute a Chromium for Slackware if that package is crippled by the absence of login to Chrome Sync. I will not package a Chromium build with Google’s own ID and secret embedded. Instead, I will do the right thing: advise people not to use Chrome but switch to Firefox.”
With this move, Google has alienated code maintainers and developers at multiple Linux distributions. When Linux Chromium users discover the latest versions won’t work as they have before, they’ll be unhappy too. 
True, this is only a small number. But, it’s leaving many others with a bad taste in their mouth over Google failed the open-source community in this instance. That, in the end, will matter more than this move’s immediate impact on programmers and end-users. 
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Verizon’s growth plans include investment in its B2B unit. 

Special Feature

Verizon added 357,000 wireless postpaid consumer connections in the fourth quarter and another 346,000 for business as the company’s results were better than expected.
The wireless giant reported fourth quarter earnings of $1.11 a share on revenue of $34.7 billion, down 0.2% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were $1.21 a share.
Wall Street was looking for non-GAAP fourth quarter earnings of $1.17 a share on revenue of $34.43 billion.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said 5G is expanding beyond mobile use cases and the company aims to “create new opportunities for growth across multiple industries.” Verizon missed its consumer postpaid phone subscriber total, but 5G connections are going to be about more than just smartphones. In addition, edge computing and IoT deployments will also minimize the importance of phone additions over time.
The company noted that it will continue to invest in Verizon Business. In 2020, Verizon announced the BlueJeans purchase in  and followed up with encryption improvements and features for virtual events. 
Vestberg said:

You can see also that Verizon Business Group has a year of investments to see that we are putting a foundation to be even stronger for the future, had good growth in the wireless and also in some areas like the public sector, very good performance and also adding a lot of new customers on the enterprise side.We have other segments we are addressing as well as the next-generation business-to-business application based on our unique mobile edge compute offering that we have with Amazon, also now with Microsoft and many other partners. And finally, the network monetization with our MVNO partners, which are enjoying the best network that we have and we’re building.

For 2020, Verizon reported earnings of $4.30 a share on revenue of $128.3 billion, down 2.7% from a year ago.

Among the key items:
Verizon said consumer revenue was $23.9 billion, down 1.2% from a year ago.
Verizon’s consumer unit had 357,000 wireless retail postpaid net additions. That sum included 163,000 phone net additions, 81,000 tablet losses and 275,000 other connected device additions.
The company had 92,000 FiOS Internet net additions in the fourth quarter. FioS Video lost 72,000 net customers in the fourth quarter.
Business revenue was $8.1 billion in the fourth quarter, down 0.3%. Verizon Business added a net 346,000 wireless retail postpaid customers with 116,000 phones, 116,000 tablets and 114,000 other devices.
Verizon’s media business revenue was $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter, up 11.4% from a year ago. The growth was the first quarterly sales gains since Verizon acquired Yahoo in 2017.
As for the outlook, Verizon is projecting non-GAAP 2021 earnings of $5 a share to $5.15 a share. More

If you work for a large company, you undoubtedly have access to a corporate file server. But if you work for a small business or you’re working from home, your file server is likely to be in the cloud, probably something offered by Dropbox, AWS, Google, or Microsoft. Cloud-based servers are good (here I talk about how one saved my bacon), but for full-time work-at-home folks, cloud based servers don’t always cut the mustard.
Cloud-based servers are terrible for video editing, as it takes forever to upload and download video to the cloud (even if you have a fast pipe). If you’re doing anything with video (or other large files), you’re unlikely to find cloud storage practical except, maybe, for backup. Second, cloud servers can get kind of expensive. Sure, if you’re equipping a NAS, you’re paying for drives, but once you pay out the expense for the NAS and drives, you’re done. You don’t have to pay for it month after month after month.
Don’t get me wrong. I strongly recommend cloud storage as one leg in a 3-2-1 backup strategy, but for home and small office use, a NAS can be invaluable. It’s fast, it’s easy to get to, you can segment shares for family members or workgroups, and many NASes offer a wide range of additional applications that turn your box into a local, private, on-premises general-purpose business server (or, in the case of the QNAP below, a full media center computer).
Let’s dive in. I’m showing you five machines that I am sure will serve you well over the years.

Best-in-class UI in a four-bay model

Price per bay: $137
Drive bays: 4
Max capacity: 64TB
RAM: 4GB
1GB Ethernet ports: 2 DDR4
USB 3.0 ports: 2
Internal NVMe cache slots: 2
By far, the standout feature of any Synology NAS is the company’s exceptional DiskStation Manager (DSM) software. While the Synology hardware is on-par with many other NAS offerings, it’s when that hardware is combined with the DSM software that Synology’s offerings become best-in-class.
Also: We test the Synology DiskStation DS1817+ RAID
It’s not just the fit-and-finish of the UI, which is clear and crisp. It’s that each option and element of the software, whether part of the original install or one of the many optional apps, is understandable, clear, and well-considered. The company offers its own higher-performance RAID capability, as well. Here, at Camp David, I’m actually running all three of my main servers using DSM, and in the very few times I’ve had a disk failure, I’ve been able to recover and resume with very little effort or stress.
After spending half a year testing NAS boxes from seven different brands, the Synology offerings have been my unquestioned “go-to” recommendation. We’re spotlighting a four-bay unit here, but you can get units with more bays. I run both a four- and an eight-bay unit, along with an ioSafe five-bay unit (more on that below), and I’ve been very satisfied with all of them.
View Now at Amazon

Starter two-bay unit for small business and home offices

Price per bay: $150
Drive bays: 2
Max capacity: 32TB
RAM: 2GB DDR4
1GB Ethernet ports: 2
USB 3.0 ports: 2
If you’re just getting started with an internal NAS and you don’t want to spend a lot of money, this is probably the best price/performance you’re going to find. You can find two-bay Synology boxes for a hundred bucks less on Amazon, but they’re older models. And you can certainly find other two-bay NAS boxes for less than the $300 this unit costs, but they won’t have the exceptional DiskStation Manager software that makes all Synology units such stand-out machines.
Also: Best Network Attached Storage for 2020 CNET
That’s why I recommended this as a starter unit. It gives you the RAID capability that you should definitely have in all NAS boxes (which helps secure your data if a drive fails), along with a wide range of applications and add-ons, particularly for cloud-based backup.
View Now at Amazon

Powerful NAS ideal for your home entertainment system

Price per bay: $115
Drive bays: 4
Max capacity: 64TB
RAM: 4GB DDR4
1GB Ethernet ports: 2
USB 3.2 ports: 4
Internal graphics: Intel HD Graphics 600
Remote control: 1
HDMI 2.0 ports: 1
Don’t think of this box as just a NAS. Instead, think of it as a media center computer with RAID and NAS capabilities. Yes, QNAP made its name producing NAS boxes. But this unit adds Intel 600 graphics and an HDMI port, allowing you to play all your media directly from the NAS to your TV’s HDMI input.
Also: We test the QNAP TVS-473 RAID
The selection of applications QNAP offers is nothing short of ridonculous. Not only can you install the usual NAS suspects, but you can run a Chrome browser or even install a full Ubuntu on top of the NAS capabilities. The only thing missing to make this into a quite capable media center computer is Bluetooth for keyboard and mouse input, but you can use dongles like the Logitech Unifying Receivers to connect your keyboard and mouse to one of the four USB ports. It even comes with a remote control.
My one critique of the QNAP interface is that during my testing of a previous model, I had some difficulty with Mac-based files stored on the QNAP. If you’re using a Mac, connect to the QNAP using SMB instead of AFP and you’ll have better reliability.
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Easiest to manage RAID, but barely any server features

Price per bay: $132
Drive bays: 5
Max capacity: 50TB
RAM: 2GB DDR3
1GB Ethernet ports: 2
Internal mSATA slots: 1
It’s kind of odd that Drobo hasn’t updated its one NAS storage array since 2017, but that goes to Drobo’s main focus as a direct-attached storage solution. Even though it’s been around for a while, the Drobo 5N2 has to go into our list of the best NAS devices, chiefly because its RAID functionality is just so good.
Also: We test the Drobo 5N2 RAID
Let’s clarify where this device fits: If you want a server with lots of apps and features, the Drobo is absolutely not for you. But if you want brain-dead easy RAID that keeps your drives safe and available on your LAN, and you don’t really care about much else, the 5N2 is a win. The Drobo justifiably won my best-in-show award for RAID performance, which was flawless in my testing. It also landed at the very bottom for network features, so you win some and you lose some. Go ahead and read and watch my full review for the in-depth details.
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Water and fireproof NAS capable of surviving an insurrection

Price per bay: $325
Drive bays: 2
Max capacity: 24TB
RAM: 2GB DDR4
1GB Ethernet ports: 1
USB 3.0 ports: 2
Face it. No matter where you work or what you do, one day the #&@! is going to hit the fan. It doesn’t matter if it’s earthquakes or hurricanes (two things my home office had to live through) or some other form of disaster, it’s likely that your drives will be at risk, at least part of the time.
Now, let’s be clear: We never recommend you store all your data in one place. In fact, the 3-2-1 backup strategy we recommend involves storing three copies of your data, using at least two different types of storage mechanisms and at least one copy of which is stored off-site. But restoring from off-site can be difficult and time-consuming, and cloud backups get very expensive as your data usage goes up. It’s not a bad idea to have a robust storage solution in-house.
Also: We test the ioSafe 1515+ battle-hardened RAID
That’s where ioSafe comes in. ioSafe builds NAS boxes inside boxes that are, essentially, safes. They’re fire and water-proof. They also weigh a ton and are rock solid, so (especially if you attach them to a floor or closet with an available bracket), you can prevent them from walking away. As a bonus, the ioSafe machines use Synology’s DSM software, making them very easy to use.
I use an ioSafe machine as a second backup to my main Synology box. It comes on once a week, accepts a backup, and then shuts off. That way, even if my network is breached, the ioSafe is powered down except for a few hours each week. My drives are protected physically and (mostly) air-gapped from the internet. You can implement this strategy, as well.
I have a five-bay model, but I’ve recommended a two-bay model here, simply because they are quite expensive due to the added protection. Also, expect to pay $50 to $100 for shipping because these machines are very, very heavy.
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Build your own
I wouldn’t be allowed to get out of this article alive if I didn’t mention the option of building your own NAS box. There is no law that says you need to buy a pre-built box from a vendor. You can repurpose an old PC or even build a very custom NAS solution to meet your exact needs.
For years and years, I always built my own NAS boxes, including some that were very customized. But as the NAS offerings from vendors like Synology, QNAP, and Drobo got better, the need to build my own diminished. I also had a ton of other projects to work on, and delegating NAS building to others saved me some time.
If you’re super-comfortable with speccing PC parts and building PCs, you’ll probably want to go it on your own. But if you’re new to PC building, buying an appliance NAS is probably the way to go. I’m not going to go into too much more detail, because this article covers it in some depth. Not everyone agrees with my assessment, so if you want to really see what folks think, visit my YouTube video of the same name and dig through the hundreds of comments. There are good conversations there.
Our process

As with many of my other “best of” lists, this one comes out of my experience. I’ve been running NAS boxes since sometime in the 1980s. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to bring boxes in from seven vendors and stress test them in the lab. From those tests, come my top recommendations. 
While the devices here aren’t the identical ones tested in the lab (with one exception), these all reflect the technology from each vendor. In addition, I’m using devices from three of the four vendors recommended here on a daily or weekly basis, so I have a lot of experience with how well they work.
How to choose
So, how should you choose? In this case, the decision tree is pretty straightforward. You need, of course, to determine your budget and storage needs. Almost all vendors offer models in two bays (room for two drives) and up. If you need a ton of storage, get more bays. I’m running two eight-bay units, one four-bay unit, and one five-bay unit here at Camp David, but I produce a lot of video and need a lot of media asset storage.
From there, here’s a good decision tree:
If you want a media center computer and don’t have a lot of heavy Mac users: Get the QNAP. It has integrated graphics, a boatload of apps, an HDMI port, and can directly connect to your TV.
If you’re concerned about surviving the apocalypse or you work in Congress: Get the ioSafe. It’s an armored fortress of a NAS.
If you don’t care about apps and just want to share files with easy-peasy RAID: Get the Drobo. It makes RAID (even on the bad days when a drive fails) about as easy and reliable as it gets.
If you have any other NAS needs, get the Synology options: Synology is bar far the brand I recommend when people come to me for NAS recommendations, as borne out in my lab testing and experience.
So, there you go. Let us know what you’re doing for file sharing, local storage, and NAS options in the comments below.

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