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More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

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Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#2
"With the ASUS OnHub, we’re also introducing Wave Control, which lets you boost the Wi-Fi speed for a particular device by simply waving your hand over the top of the ASUS OnHub—great for busy houses."

This sounds like a horrible feature.

"Honey, WiFis not working in the bathroom, could you wave over the router, that might fix something?"

Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#3

"With the ASUS OnHub, we’re also introducing Wave Control, which lets you boost the Wi-Fi speed for a particular device by simply waving your hand over the top of the ASUS OnHub—great for busy houses." This sounds like a horrible feature. "Honey, WiFis not working in the bathroom, could you wave over the router, that might fix something?"

Yeah. When your ISP's DNS server starts having hiccups and you are standing there waving at your router, feeling like an idiot... I never want to interact with my router. Why would I? And messing with QoS on demand like that is probably a terrible idea.

Having said that a router like this is a huge step forward for the masses. Most people don't bother configuring their routers, changing admin passwords, etc. They never update the firmware. These new routers from Google solve that, which in itself is fantastic. Here's what I'd love to see happen in addition to all this.

- OpenWRT + automatic updates. Why don't we have this yet? I am contemplating building an x86 based router just because of the auto-update thing.

- Wi-Fi AP's that double as smoke detectors. I already have a bunch of those in the house on every floor. As a bonus they could probably use the wires they already have to set up a high speed backbone. I currently use a Ubiquiti Uni-Fi that looks like a smoke detector and it's fantastic.

- Ability to sign onto a Wi-Fi network that is less painful than sharing the passphrase. For example, if a guest comes to my house all we have to do is bump our phones to get them on my guest network. My router is hidden and my access point is on the ceiling of the second floor.

Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#4

"With the ASUS OnHub, we’re also introducing Wave Control, which lets you boost the Wi-Fi speed for a particular device by simply waving your hand over the top of the ASUS OnHub—great for busy houses." This sounds like a horrible feature. "Honey, WiFis not working in the bathroom, could you wave over the router, that might fix something?"

On the contrary it sounds like an remarkably pragmatic feature which - assuming it works as advertised - will solve many actual real-life issues with wifi better than something less manual would have done.

Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#5

"With the ASUS OnHub, we’re also introducing Wave Control, which lets you boost the Wi-Fi speed for a particular device by simply waving your hand over the top of the ASUS OnHub—great for busy houses." This sounds like a horrible feature. "Honey, WiFis not working in the bathroom, could you wave over the router, that might fix something?"

Yeah. When your ISP's DNS server starts having hiccups and you are standing there waving at your router, feeling like an idiot... I never want to interact with my router. Why would I? And messing with QoS on demand like that is probably a terrible idea. Having said that a router like this is a huge step forward for the masses. Most people don't bother configuring their routers, changing admin passwords, etc. They nev…

I'd actually prefer my router didn't need updates. When I buy it I expect it to 'just work', like my microwave or toaster. If I wanted to upgrade from ADSL to Fiber or have the latest 802.11z standard I'm going to need different hardware, so I don't see an issue with replacing it then.

Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#6

"With the ASUS OnHub, we’re also introducing Wave Control, which lets you boost the Wi-Fi speed for a particular device by simply waving your hand over the top of the ASUS OnHub—great for busy houses." This sounds like a horrible feature. "Honey, WiFis not working in the bathroom, could you wave over the router, that might fix something?"

Yeah. When your ISP's DNS server starts having hiccups and you are standing there waving at your router, feeling like an idiot... I never want to interact with my router. Why would I? And messing with QoS on demand like that is probably a terrible idea. Having said that a router like this is a huge step forward for the masses. Most people don't bother configuring their routers, changing admin passwords, etc. They nev…

> if a guest comes to my house all we have to do is bump our phones to get them on my guest network.

InstaWifi does this. I think you only need to have it installed on the sending device. It hasn't been updated in a while but it probably still works. Would be nice to have this feature built in to Android.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.jessechen....

Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#7
According to the site 'Plus, it’s designed to last, even as the way we use Wi-Fi changes. It’s built to support a growing number of "smart devices" because it includes Bluetooth® Smart Ready, Weave, and Thread.'

It's difficult to find more info on that as a developer. Can you guys help me out?

Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. When your ISP's DNS server starts having hiccups and you are standing there waving at your router, feeling like an idiot... I never want to interact with my router. Why would I? And messing with QoS on demand like that is probably a terrible idea. Having said that a router like this is a huge step forward for the masses. Most people don't bother configuring their routers, changing admin passwords, etc. They nev…

I'd actually prefer my router didn't need updates. When I buy it I expect it to 'just work', like my microwave or toaster. If I wanted to upgrade from ADSL to Fiber or have the latest 802.11z standard I'm going to need different hardware, so I don't see an issue with replacing it then.

No security updates either? Even normal updates in general can bring better performance, user experience, etc.

Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#9
This is slightly confusing to me. Why did they release a TP-Link onhub and an asus onhub so close to each other ?

For those interested in the difference , but I wish they would actually provide hardware specs somewhere.

>OnHub is available from both ASUS and TP-Link. Both are powerful AC1900 routers and work with the Google On companion app. But each has a different elegant exterior design, along with two key differences. OnHub from TP-Link features a front-facing antenna reflector that acts like a satellite dish enhancing Wi-Fi range in that direction. OnHub from ASUS lets you control your OnHub with a wave over the top. For example, wave to prioritize a device to ensure it has enough Wi-Fi bandwidth, like Chromecast while streaming a movie.

Re: More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub

#10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. When your ISP's DNS server starts having hiccups and you are standing there waving at your router, feeling like an idiot... I never want to interact with my router. Why would I? And messing with QoS on demand like that is probably a terrible idea. Having said that a router like this is a huge step forward for the masses. Most people don't bother configuring their routers, changing admin passwords, etc. They nev…

I'd actually prefer my router didn't need updates. When I buy it I expect it to 'just work', like my microwave or toaster. If I wanted to upgrade from ADSL to Fiber or have the latest 802.11z standard I'm going to need different hardware, so I don't see an issue with replacing it then.

I don't think anyone actually WANTS updates to their device. But I'd certainly prefer that I be ABLE to in case some sort of catastrophic security failure occurs like the router having the telnet port open or a default root password open. I'd much rather have something that can be patched than something that is "locked down" yet vulnerable.

And yes, I'd prefer that the routers not have security holes in them in the first place. But I'm also realistic.

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