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Google WiFi router - October 4, 2016

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Lifer
http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/0...-wifi-a-129-home-wi-fi-router-on-october-4th/

UniFi-like mesh network on the cheap? If so I'd be interested.

Right now I have AirPort Extreme and that upgrade has meant good to very good coverage in most of my large house and usable coverage at the furthest spots in the house.

If I could buy three Google WiFi routers/access points to create a mesh network seen as a single router by clients with good coverage everywhere, it would be a nice step forward. Currently if I use additional access points, the clients hang onto them far too long, even when there are stronger signals available.

I had considered UniFi but the cost for high speed ones and the problems reported kept me away.
 
Sounds great, but it's a big slap in the face to existing OnHub owners who were completely abandoned. Would have to hope Google doesn't abandon this too.
 
Sometimes I get the impression that Google just throws a bunch a products against the wall to see which ones stick.

Also, I hadn't even heard of OnHub until very recently. It really slipped under the radar for me.

Could this be OnHub 2.0, but just rebranded? ie. They don't want to fix OnHub, but just release a totally separate version 2.0. They could release a few more maintenance firmware updates for OnHub, but reserve any upgraded functionality for the updated hardware.
 
OnHub wanted to focus on simplifying connecting wireless devices and IOT. The distinctive 'o' logo and 'on' branding you'll see on automated devices at Home Depot/Lowes. However, they are FAR too slow with implementing things. It's only a year later that they have support for Philips Hue. It's pretty impressive that it's a web based interface to turn on/off change colors of lights. They can also outright replace the Philips Bridge by turning on the internal ZigBee antenna, but don't. Mostly because it's a partnership with Philips. They also still don't have IPV6 support in normal NAT mode. Works fine in bridge mode though.

Google WiFi could be an ecosystem that onHub is part of. It's one of the best coverage-wise wireless routers I've used. It'd make a great primary mothership router. With Google's expertise in software, the new mesh type devices can absolutely be used with onHub or stand independently. However as a bipolar happy/frustrated owner of 4 onHubs, I know better to not expect much. I still am hoping that xda developers picks up, but I have seen nothing.

I guess we'll find out in a week.
 
Yup, the rumours are true. Even the name is correct: Google WiFi

google-wifi-640x364.jpg


https://madeby.google.com/wifi/

Wi-Fi managed for you with Network Assist.

Keeps itself fast.
Network Assist is intelligent software built into Google Wifi to provide you with the fastest possible speed. Behind the scenes, Network Assist automatically helps you avoid Wi-Fi congestion, and transitions you to the closest Wi-Fi point for the best signal.

Speed coach.
Network Assist will offer suggestions on how to optimize performance, like where to move a Google Wifi point for faster speeds or providing data so you can adjust your ISP plan.

Control what matters.

A simple app.
The Google Wifi app gives you total control over your network. Easily share your Wi-Fi password, see what devices are online, and prioritize them for better performance.

Family Wi-Fi pause.
Google Wifi’s family controls allow you to pause the signal to your children’s devices, like at bedtime or dinnertime.
 
There's hope: https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/7168220. Google WiFi and onHub will use the same app. Also got an email from google about the onHub stating that the family and home features shown during the presentation today such as WiFi pause and Home control will be available in the app which includes onHub. They even expanded the network assist. I do love the latest app update that lets you run local LAN WiFi test throughout your home without having to rerun the internet test. I'm actually surprised that other routers don't have this feature.

This all looks promising, but c'mon Google turn on those unused ZigBee and Bluetooth antennas and USB port on the onHub.
 
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This looks great. I've installed Ubiquiti & Aruba gear for commercial purposes and having mesh at home would be pretty awesome.
 
Does this pipe all your network traffic to the GoogleDome for analysis? I would be hesitant to use any Google-branded networking equipment.
 
Where'd you get your info about that? I keep hearing it, but nothing about it has been proven. By the way, I love and use Google Now (which is now Google Assistant) Map History/even Rewards and the onHub does not funnel your traffic. They are not interested in sheer data, they want human interactions.
 
Since it appears completely wireless, is this working as an extender where it halves your speed?
 
rh71 said:
Since it appears completely wireless, is this working as an extender where it halves your speed?
Click to expand...
How would it work completely wirelessly? It needs a network connection somewhere. And if one of a three-pack has a network jack, I would guess all three of a three-pack have network jacks.

Thus, I suspect it is similar to the UniFi solutions where all of the routers are hardwired to the LAN, but with 802.11ac for the home at a lower price. And free information harvesting thrown in?!? 😉

If I hadn't have purchased an 802.11ac Airport Extreme a while back, I would have considered giving this a go, with a 3 or 4 unit mesh network. In the past I had run one 802.11n Airport Extreme with additional cheapo connected access points to provide WiFi to specific rooms, all with the same SSID so I could roam from one access point to the next. The Airport Extreme did most of the house, but the added cheapo ones provided WiFi in some spots at the edge of the range. But the problem was it was no mesh, just a bunch of units fighting one another and hanging on to crappy connections of client devices. To switch access points, I'd have to turn off WiFi and turn it back on to make the client device choose the strongest signal. I had considered going UniFi, but their 802.11ac pricing was way too high and they had many problems. Finally I just got the 802.11ac Airport Extreme which has a much better antenna setup than the 802.11n and so now I get very decent WiFi in most of the house, but there are still very small spots that have spotty reception. Now that the WiFi is only spotty in rare places in which I don't spend a lot of time in, I keep a couple of those cheap additional access points but with a different SSID for each of them, and only manually choose those as necessary, which as mentioned is only very rarely. However, a well-designed mesh of 4 access points which actively managed connections of clients would solve all these problems.

Yes, I have a big house, and even worse, it's L-shaped, which together make full coverage of the house (and back patio) difficult.
 
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So I'm thinking of getting 3 of these for my house. Might be overkill but it's more cost effective than buying two standalone.

Right now my house is ethernet hard wired with an 8 port switch at the panel. Thinking of having my room with Modem -> Google Wifi -> switch -> wall/TV/Xbox/sound bar. The wall goes back to the main house switch which will go downstairs to the other two Google Wifi points.

Are there any downsides to having switches at a few of these ethernet jacks around the house?
 
No downsides to having many switches at different Ethernet jacks. I have two onHubs with the GWiFi feature firmware updates and was able to successfully Mesh with a wired and wireless backbone. After doing so you do need to let it analyze and figure out what's the best frequency before benchmarking. I saw mine change 2.4G channels after ~8 hours. I think I'll let it sit a week or two to really learn about my WiFi environment before doing my own tests.

The Google WiFi's signal strength is fantanstic. I was worried that it'd be weak, but it's just as powerful as the onHub.

2.4G http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/graph/117/1235/2398/3115
5G http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/graph/119/1235/2398/3115

It follows the fantastic benchmark router ASUS RT-AC68u. It's data throughput with strong signals is behind. However in the real world with what most people have WiFi trouble with like medium-weak 2.4G and really weak 5G, it exceeds the AC68u and maintains higher speed past the lowest signal levels in their test. Other routers also go past, but dip, the GWiFi is flat with 2.4G.

That's just for ONE puck. I can only imagine three!
 
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I want this but will not buy new or full price, I never buy anything that way. Hopefully a set of these pop up on Craigslist
 
Man this thing is backordered to hell. There's something wrong with my R6400 that the 5G radio is messed. Can't come soon enough 🙁
 
It's 2017 now and it's still unavailable in Canada.

Instead, I just bought another Airport Extreme to add to my current two. They don't truly mesh, but since my household's mobile devices are almost all Macs or iOS devices, and since Macs and iOS devices will roam seamlessly on multi-Airport networks, the effect is basically the same. (These same Apple devices will not roam seamlessly on non-Airport networks or on mixed Apple and non-Apple networks.)
 
Stock of GWiFi after it's 1st batch sold out in December is very hard to find in the U.S. as well. Others on reddit are using online stock trackers to get theirs. In the meantime others are getting price gouged on Amazon and ebay.
 
razel said:
Stock of GWiFi after it's 1st batch sold out in December is very hard to find in the U.S. as well. Others on reddit are using online stock trackers to get theirs. In the meantime others are getting price gouged on Amazon and ebay.
Click to expand...

Check Google's main site often. It pops up randomly for orders. My co-worker was able to place one this morning.
 
Well, I hope it comes here soon. I just Gigabit internet access and it was a real eye opener. Yeah, pages load instantly now (on fast computers), but the 1/2 second delay wasn't such a huge deal on slower speed internet access.

The eye opener part though is how it brought my Airport Extreme to its knees. I thought I'd be OK since the AE is rock solid and I get internal real-world speeds over 800 Mbps (with large file transfers). Furthermore, when it gets an IP address via regular DHCP (like on cable internet) it's happy, getting 700-800 Mbps on the network. However, I wasn't able to get more than about 225 Mbps using PPPoE. It turns out measured max speeds out there on PPPoE are about 250 Mbps. Furthermore, it often has difficult establishing a PPPoE link with this network. Dunno why since PPPoE worked perfectly on the same network on VDSL2, but I wonder if it has to do with the speed and some other compatibility issues. I can allow the gateway to serve an IP address to it to get back the speed, but then it is doing double NAT.

BTW, my new gateway/modem is a real beast. It is the Sagemcom 5566, which is a custom product for Bell Canada, but rebranded as the Home Hub 3000. It has twelve antennae for two 5 GHz and one 2.4 GHz transmitter I believe. The reason for this is it actually reserves one 5 GHz transmitter for TV, since my IPTV receivers are either wired Ethernet or else WiFi based, with no coax support anymore. The other 5 GHz and the 2.4 GHz are for regular client devices on a different subnet and it's pretty damn strong. Probably stronger than my Airport Extreme. I also has the ONT for the optical fibre built-in, and it also has a built-in battery giving it up to 6 hours internet access even with no power.

The problem though is it's still one access point, so it's still weak at the end of the house. And at least with the mobile interface the configuration is very limited. I'll have to check out the desktop interface, but I'm not that optimistic.

What about Google WiFi? How good is its performance for PPPoE?

What about its configurability? I want to have a restricted DHCP range since I have some machines on static IPs in the same subnet. I don't need complex management tools but I'd want at least simple port forwarding capabilities. QoS doesn't seem like a major need though at this time since the 1 Gbps on my setup is never even gets close to being saturated.

BTW, the modem's self speed test clocks in a 1.29 Gbps down, and 130 Mbps up. I can get the Airport Extreme to about 800/115 but once I use PPPoE it's more like 210/110.

tl;dr:

Airport Extreme does not do well with Gigabit PPPoE with my optical fibre gateway. It sometimes has PPPoE authentication problems, and even when it authenticates, it maxes out at 225 Mbps. It works near full speed in other modes, but I need to use PPPoE.

New gateway is strong, but I still need more than one access point, which it does not support.

How configurable is Google WiFi, and is it a good performer with PPPoE?
 
It's not very configurable at all. It's great with PPPoE. Sounds like you may want to check out smallnetbuilder's review or other reviews from reputable YouTuber reviewer like Linus or cNet.
 
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