Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OnHub

on.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 641 posts

Re: OnHub

#171

Post by outworlder »

fweespeech wrote: post #67
adriancooney wrote: post #3

Very interesting. From looking at the specs, it looks like they're packaging a server and marketing it as a router. The configuration app is a very nice touch, routers have always a pain to configure. I'd love to stick this in my apartment (even though I can only receive a maximum of 10mb/s). As a side note, I'm surprised this isn't marketed alongside the Nest branch. It really has the look and feel of Nest products…

> routers have always a pain to configure Eh? You must buy some shitty routers, no offense. Compared to the rest of the market, paying $200 for a router isn't competitive. It just is not worth it given Google's "eh-we-will-do-it-and-stop-if-people-complain/sue" mindset. ---- To Melvin, since I'm submitting to fast: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013ALA9LA?ref=spks_0_0_2170510902&... > OnHub Wireless Router from Google and…

So what's your magical router? Does it have options actually make sense? And a help that is, like, helpful?

I'm talking about things such as "Enable XPRESS whatever". Help: "Turns XPRESS whatever on or off". And then you find out that no matter what the feature was supposed to do, theoretically, in practice it makes the router slow and unstable. Or, at worst, crashes it. No brand is immune. Many (non-enterprise) routers will advertise QoS features, but you find that you are better off without them.

That goes for almost all brands that are not classed as "Enterprise" - and even some that are.

Re: OnHub

#172

Post by Filligree »

zf00002 wrote: post #143
binarysolo wrote: post #6

$200 for the unit -- so it's competing on the higher end of consumer routers against offerings such as Apple's Airport. They seemed to have paid a lot of attention to human-friendly UI/UX though. Would probably wait for reviews to see what's up.

At $200 you're in the price range of just building yourself a pfsense box.

Great for people who know how, not so useful a comment otherwise.

Re: OnHub

#173

Post by shawn-furyan »

busterarm wrote: post #160
wnevets wrote: post #139

The biggest positive about a company like google releasing a router is the security updates. Most consumer routers out there are left to rot and you're forced to buy a one when its exploited.

You mean like phones locked on old versions of Android once Google moves on to new ones?

And don't they have Brillo? Having this without Brillo duplicates (particularly security related) effort and signals that Google doesn't consider Brillo to be acceptable for use in its own products.

I imagine going w/ Brillo would have set back the release schedule, but Brillo, if their vision for both products were to come to pass, is by far the more consequential product. Also... The wireless router market isn't exactly teaming with competitive one-upsmanship. They could have waited 0.5-2+ years without losing significant ground.

Note: Brillo is the stripped down variant of Android aimed at IoT (internet of things) devices that Google announced at the last Google I/O. This is an ideal early device for Brillo, since it's relatively powerful and isn't battery powered, so constraints aren't quite as high as they are in many IoT devices, yet it shares much of the problem space.

https://developers.google.com/brillo/?hl=en

[edited 6:39PM UTC to add the Note]

Re: OnHub

#174

Post by seanalltogether »

CrazedGeek wrote: post #125
dvlsg wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had mine for over a year now, and I've only had to reboot it 3 times - 4 if you count the time I unplugged it and moved to a new city.

I've had mine for a similar time frame and I've never needed to restart it, except to install updates. My cable modem goes out more often.

My biggest issue with this router has simply been the media server, however the wifi connections and vpn have always worked.

Re: OnHub

#175

Post by chinathrow »

Why does this thing need an ambient light detector? Really? Since when should infrastructure care what the environment looks like? Also TPM?

Can't wait for the teardown to find that there is a microphone in it.

Re: OnHub

#176

Post by outworlder »

fs111 wrote: post #94
keehun wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does have prioritizing: https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6246483

any plastic router has some sort of QoS build in. This seems to have a nicer UI though.

"any plastic router has some sort of QoS build in"... that doesn't work.

If you don't have an expensive product, do some tests with and without the router's QoS. You'd be better of with a raspberry Pi doing QoS in most cases.

Re: OnHub

#177

Post by methehack »

My read is that this about Google Fiber. You get a 1Gb connection but your router gets you like 80Mb/sec... that's a bummer, this fixes it (if it works).

Re: OnHub

#178

Post by oz »

will_work4tears wrote: post #49
twoodfin wrote: post #10

Hard to believe there's a huge market for $199 WiFi routers, no matter how sophisticated. On the other hand, even a sprinkling of installations is probably pretty valuable if it allows Google to derive more accurate ISP performance numbers. There's got to be some benefit in having thousands of devices directly connected to the ISP's network on the consumer end 24/7.

I paid almost that for my current router[0]. I think mine has better specs, even not being an AC (few, if none, of my devices use it anyway). Google's hub has no USB ports, no guest wifi (from what I can gather). Mine, however, has those things, though to be honest, most of the time, the printer or USB storage doesn't quite work right, though that could because I use a Mac and the driver's aren't supported as well. […

It has a USB 3.0 port:

https://on.google.com/hub/#specs

Re: OnHub

#179

Post by tomkinstinch »

tjohns wrote: post #167
tomkinstinch wrote: post #129

Interesting that it has a TPM[1]. Any guesses about the uses/implications of that? I wonder if it can be configured to act solely as an access point--I already have a ubnt EdgeRouter Lite, but wouldn't mind replacing my aging access point. EDIT: It does support bridge mode[2]. 1. https://on.google.com/hub/#specs 2. https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6240987?hl=en&ref_to...

Just a guess, but the TPM is probably for secure boot, just like on a Chromebook. Since security is one of the selling points. https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/...

That would make sense. We'll have to wait and see if the OnHub has a "dev" switch like Chromebooks. Hopefully it will be possible to put custom software on it (even if the Google software is just fine, the flexibility would be nice).

Re: OnHub

#180

Post by mtgx »

ropiku wrote: post #105
astrocyte wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"As a side note, I'm surprised this isn't marketed alongside the Nest branch. It really has the look and feel of Nest products with the LEDs and the speaker aesthetic. Also surprised this isn't an "Alphabet" product." It pretty much is... it's their way of sneaking the 'home automation' core/aggregation box into people's homes masked as a wireless router (for now). I'm sure the capability you mention will come headin…

Given that it has ZigBee, Bluetooth 4.0 I think it's meant to be a hub. It also mentions Weave which would work well together with Nest: https://nest.com/support/article/How-does-Nest-Protect-conne...

What about Thread?
Post reply on HN