
More Ways to Wi-Fi with the New ASUS OnHub - zacharytamas
https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/more-ways-to-wi-fi-with-new-asus-onhub.html
======
Roritharr
"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?"

~~~
IgorPartola
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.

~~~
lucaspiller
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.

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

~~~
IgorPartola
I don't update my router often, but I did it the day HeartBleed came out.
Security updates are a big deal for something that sits on your network like
that.

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angryasian
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.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
_For those interested in the difference , but I wish they would actually
provide hardware specs somewhere._

[https://on.google.com/hub/#specs](https://on.google.com/hub/#specs)

Click the "Specs" link at the top right.

~~~
angryasian
thank you I missed that. They seem identical besides the antenna and the
sensor. Personally I'd rather have the antenna as it seems like you should be
able prioritize from the app if they wanted to enable an easy .. Prioritize
feature.

~~~
mikecb
It does have a prioritize feature in the app.

------
fndrplayer13
Does anybody have any thoughts on how the hand wave feature works? I'm
interested in the OnHub as a Nest owner and potential future developer. I like
the addition of Thread and Weave, and the other future-enabled sensors on this
thing. Still, though, hard to justify the $220 price tag without knowing what
its really intended for.

~~~
tdupree
Looks like you need to preconfigure a "priority device" in the app, and then
waving over the router at any given time reserves more bandwidth for that
device for 2 hours.

Here is a help article that explains the wave control a little more.
[https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6294727#post-
wave](https://support.google.com/onhub/answer/6294727#post-wave)

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MrQuincle
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?

~~~
wlesieutre
Bluetooth Smart Ready is a stupid branding mistake. It means "This device can
talk to normal Bluetooth devices and Bluetooth Low Energy devices." Bluetooth
LE is apparently "Bluetooth Smart" now.

I don't think Weave and Thread are really in play yet (Nest might use Weave?).
Weave looks like a protocol for phones talking to smart home devices, and
thread is a network layer built on the same radios as ZigBee.

[https://developers.google.com/weave/](https://developers.google.com/weave/)

[http://threadgroup.org/](http://threadgroup.org/)

------
chx
Is it just me who finds auto upgrade on a router very scary? I mean, I get it,
ordinary ppl wouldn't upgrade otherwise but still the security / surveillance
aspects are frightening.

~~~
simoncion
Do you take the time to reverse engineer and _fully_ understand both the
original firmware shipped with and every subsequent update that is issued for
your home networking equipment?

If you _don 't_, then you only stand to _benefit_ from a router that silently
auto-updates from software delivered by a company that has _really_ good
OPSEC.

As an aside:

If you don't encrypt your traffic, _any_ device on the path between you and
your traffic's destination can read your traffic. If you're not concerned
about _that_ , then you _should_ be, as it's a much larger -and ongoing-
threat to privacy.

~~~
chx
Huh, I use OpenWRT and hope there's not much left of the originals. I use
redsocks on my laptop to direct my traffic into an OpenSSH provided SOCKS5
proxy terminating on my own server in a German data centre. This should
eliminate _some_ snooping.

------
otterpro
I like the self-update and its simple operation. The hand-wave seems to be
gimicky, but it looks quite useful.

As for the design, I think Apple's Airport Extreme looks much nicer, and more
importantly, the Asus onHub as glowing base. Anything that has LED or glowing
lights will not pass my wife, especially if it is placed anywhere prominent in
the living area.

~~~
magicalist
> _Anything that has LED or glowing lights will not pass my wife, especially
> if it is placed anywhere prominent in the living area._

Don't know about this one, but with the last one you could disable the LEDs
completely.

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amalag
The multiple antennas with a small computer was something only in really high
end wifi access points. Having it in consumer equipment is really cool.

------
AdmiralAsshat
I hope the USB port actually does something on this model.

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pearjuice
Just $219.99 for a data harvesting and privacy invading glorified cylindrical
router marketed as home decoration, with an obnoxious ASUS logo on top.

To be honest, this could be a great prop for some sort of Hollywood thriller,
in which the protagonist, a family man portrayed as computer illiterate, buys
a new router for his family. At first it's the best thing they ever purchased,
but after the scene with the children going to bed and the OnHub™ emitting a
strange fluorescing light, things seem to go awry for the family. His wife is
getting really confronting targeted advertisements jeopardizing their
relationship and his children end up really sick due to painful headaches
which the doctor says only occur in nuclear zones of destruction due to
intense radiation. Will he find out what's causing all of this or is it
already too late? Coming soon in a theater near you.

