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| Table of specifications for the new ReadyNAS rang (source: Netgear) |
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Netgear's new ReadyNAS range uses BTRFS filesystem
Netgear has announced a major revamp of its ReadNAS range. The new models feature a brand new operating system, ReadyNAS OS 6, that uses the BTRFS filesystem, the first NAS OS to do so. BTRFS is an unusual filesystem with copy-on-write capabilities - this makes it easy to create data snapshots and recover any file, even if it's been deleted. You can read more about the new range in my article for ZDNet UK's First Take blog. Prices have not yet been announced.
Friday, 19 April 2013
New Fritz!OS firmware launched for Fritz!Box
I noticed a few weeks ago that a new version of Fritz!OS5 had appeared on the German AVM site, and have been eagerly awaiting the International version. It appeared today (version 84.05.51), so I installed it on my Fritz!Box 7390 to give it a spin. I haven't had time to check out exactly what's new, but the look and feel is unchanged, with a few minor tweaks - such as links to Fritz!Box, Fritz!NAS and MyFritz at the top right of the interface.
One thing that has gone is the dreaded 'Green' LAN port power management feature that drove many users to distraction. There seem to be quite a lot of new features, and it's going to take me a while to sort through them. I have noticed that the FritzFON now has a built-in network media player, so you can stream music from any DLNA media server. Not world-shattering, but certainly novel.
There's also a new Smart Home section, apparently for the upcoming FritzDECT 200 home controller, which sounds quite interesting. You can also now assign user accounts for web access to the Fritz!NAS, and Google Contacts (and some other online services) can be imported to a new address book, which is very neat and works well. There's also a new FritzAPP, and (finally) a single sign-on for the MyFritz remote management service.
It looks like a very worthwhile release, and you can get it by going to the Firmware Update section of the System menu and clicking Find New Firmware. I hope to go into more detail later as I explore the new features.
One thing that has gone is the dreaded 'Green' LAN port power management feature that drove many users to distraction. There seem to be quite a lot of new features, and it's going to take me a while to sort through them. I have noticed that the FritzFON now has a built-in network media player, so you can stream music from any DLNA media server. Not world-shattering, but certainly novel.
There's also a new Smart Home section, apparently for the upcoming FritzDECT 200 home controller, which sounds quite interesting. You can also now assign user accounts for web access to the Fritz!NAS, and Google Contacts (and some other online services) can be imported to a new address book, which is very neat and works well. There's also a new FritzAPP, and (finally) a single sign-on for the MyFritz remote management service.
It looks like a very worthwhile release, and you can get it by going to the Firmware Update section of the System menu and clicking Find New Firmware. I hope to go into more detail later as I explore the new features.
The overview screen is largely unchanged
 |
| You can now import Google Contacts into an address book |
Review: TP-Link AV500+ Gigabit Powerline Adapter
TP-Link has been quite busy recently, especially on the Homeplug front. I recently reviewed its new AV500 Nano Homeplug adapters for Computeractive magazine (unfortunately the review is not available online), and now I've had a chance to look at the larger AV500+ 'piggyback' adapters (model number is TL-PA551KIT for the twin starter pack).
Design and features
Unlike many bland Homeplug adapters, at least the PA551 has a touch of style, with a distinctive black body and white fascia panel. The passthrough mains socket is at the top of the fascia, with three green/orange status lights below. The build quality is excellent, with a solid feel to the adapters. In the box is the quick installation guide, mini-CD with the software utility and manual, plus two Ethernet cables.
Unlike the AV500 Nano adapters, the PA551 has a Gigabit Ethernet port, which gives them a decent - but not massive - performance advantage. The adapters are pretty bulky, though, being the same width but longer than the previous AV200 version (PA251). They won't fit side-by-side in a ganged extension socket, which in some ways is no bad thing - using them in extension sockets is never a good idea as it can affect performance if the extension has a surge suppressor.
The small Powerline utility is quite basic, but tells you links speeds and allows QoS settings to be changed, either using simple application settings (Internet, Games, Audio/Video or VoIP), or more complex VLAN or TOS bits.
Performance
I used my standard test setup (see this post for more details), and used the latest version (1.3) of Totusoft's LAN Speed Test, with LST Server on the remote PC to check the throughput. The adapters pair up very quickly when plugged in - something that some adapters seem to take ages to do. Using the default packet size of 1MB and 100 test iterations, the results stack up pretty well compared to other AV500 adapters I've tested.
Average write speeds were 124Mbps, and read speeds 125Mbps, which is about the same as other AV500 models I've seen. It also means that the Gigabit Ethernet ports do give a 25% improvement over the AV500 Nano adapters, which are limited to 100Mbps. Out of interest, I also ran tests with a pair of older PA251 AV200 adapters - these managed around 70Mbps read and write throughput.
So you do get a lot of benefit out of moving to the AV500 standard, but you should never expect full 500Mbps speeds - that only refers to the PHY link speed, not throughput. According to the software utility, link speeds were around 350Mbps on the PA551 during testing - they wouldn't connect any higher. Variability during test runs wasn't too bad, either, at around 5-10%.
Verdict
At a street price of around £80, the PA551 twin-pack is cheaper than the Devolo dLAN 500 AVPlus and speeds are comparable. They do look more attractive than most other models, but they are large. The passthrough mains socket is ideal for those with a limited number of wall sockets, though. This product should definitely be on your shortlist if you're looking for some reasonably-priced, well-made Homeplug adapters.
Details
Model: TP-Link TL-PA551KIT AV500+ Gigabit Powerline Adapter
Cost: £79
Contact : TP-Link
Find it on Amazon:
Design and features
Unlike many bland Homeplug adapters, at least the PA551 has a touch of style, with a distinctive black body and white fascia panel. The passthrough mains socket is at the top of the fascia, with three green/orange status lights below. The build quality is excellent, with a solid feel to the adapters. In the box is the quick installation guide, mini-CD with the software utility and manual, plus two Ethernet cables.
Unlike the AV500 Nano adapters, the PA551 has a Gigabit Ethernet port, which gives them a decent - but not massive - performance advantage. The adapters are pretty bulky, though, being the same width but longer than the previous AV200 version (PA251). They won't fit side-by-side in a ganged extension socket, which in some ways is no bad thing - using them in extension sockets is never a good idea as it can affect performance if the extension has a surge suppressor.
The small Powerline utility is quite basic, but tells you links speeds and allows QoS settings to be changed, either using simple application settings (Internet, Games, Audio/Video or VoIP), or more complex VLAN or TOS bits.
 |
| Quite stylish for a Homeplug adapter |
 |
| The utility lets you set QoS parameters and upgrade firmware |
Performance
I used my standard test setup (see this post for more details), and used the latest version (1.3) of Totusoft's LAN Speed Test, with LST Server on the remote PC to check the throughput. The adapters pair up very quickly when plugged in - something that some adapters seem to take ages to do. Using the default packet size of 1MB and 100 test iterations, the results stack up pretty well compared to other AV500 adapters I've tested.
Average write speeds were 124Mbps, and read speeds 125Mbps, which is about the same as other AV500 models I've seen. It also means that the Gigabit Ethernet ports do give a 25% improvement over the AV500 Nano adapters, which are limited to 100Mbps. Out of interest, I also ran tests with a pair of older PA251 AV200 adapters - these managed around 70Mbps read and write throughput.
So you do get a lot of benefit out of moving to the AV500 standard, but you should never expect full 500Mbps speeds - that only refers to the PHY link speed, not throughput. According to the software utility, link speeds were around 350Mbps on the PA551 during testing - they wouldn't connect any higher. Variability during test runs wasn't too bad, either, at around 5-10%.
Verdict
At a street price of around £80, the PA551 twin-pack is cheaper than the Devolo dLAN 500 AVPlus and speeds are comparable. They do look more attractive than most other models, but they are large. The passthrough mains socket is ideal for those with a limited number of wall sockets, though. This product should definitely be on your shortlist if you're looking for some reasonably-priced, well-made Homeplug adapters.
Details
Model: TP-Link TL-PA551KIT AV500+ Gigabit Powerline Adapter
Cost: £79
Contact : TP-Link
Find it on Amazon:
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Review: TP-Link TL-WDR3600 N600 dual-band router
Another bargain from TP-Link, for those who don't need 3-stream 11n capabilities
Router prices are dropping to crazy levels, typified by the measly £60 you need to get hold of the TP-Link TL-WDR3600. This is a dual-band, dual-stream (N600) cable model (it doesn’t have an ADSL modem), and although it offers little in the way of innovation it has plenty of decent features and adequate performance.
Styling aside, there’s plenty to like about the WDR3600. The setup wizard on the CD works well, and allows you to clone the MAC address if needed. There’s also a wizard in the web management menu, which can be opened using the http://tplinklogin.net shortcut (the default username and password are both ‘admin’).
Access Control
The WDR3600 does have a few access control features, including parental controls and bandwidth control. They’re not the easiest for novices to set up, though, as they do need an understanding of protocols and ports. The parental controls can be used for white-/blacklisting IP addresses, domains or protocols and scheduling access times for any MAC address. Bandwidth control is fairly basic, allowing rules-based limiting of inbound or outbound traffic. There are no automated QoS settings.
The WDR3600 is powered by Atheros chips, with an AR9344 system-on-a-chip (SoC) providing the 2.4GHZ radio, plus a separate AR9582 2x2 chip for 5GHz operation. An AR8327 chip provides the Gigabit Ethernet switching. This hardware is very similar to that found in its big brother, the TL-WDR4300, with the exception of the 5GHz radio - the WDR4300 uses a 3x3 AR9582 chip.
Performance
The WDR3600 is configured by default for auto channel width settings on both bands. As usual, I tested using the defaults. My test environment (my home) is surrounded by several neighbouring 2.4GHz networks (but no 5GHz networks yet), making it a good place to see real world performance.
As usual, I used the Advanced Networking Tests section in Passmark Performance Test 8 (I do also run Totusoft’s LAN Speed Test for a quick sanity check). The standard client adapter I use is a 3-stream (450Mbps) Intel Ultimate N Wifi Link 5300AGN adapter retrofitted to an Acer Aspire One netbook.
At 5GHz the close range performance was actually slightly less than the 2.4GHz results at 48Mbps, which is quite unusual. However, at 25m it was much better at 18Mbps - this is still a fairly average result, however.
Conclusion
Although its performance results are not particularly noteworthy, considering the price they’re perfectly acceptable. Oddly, the numbers are slightly better than those I measured in the more expensive TL-WDR4300.
Price: around £60
Contact details
Router prices are dropping to crazy levels, typified by the measly £60 you need to get hold of the TP-Link TL-WDR3600. This is a dual-band, dual-stream (N600) cable model (it doesn’t have an ADSL modem), and although it offers little in the way of innovation it has plenty of decent features and adequate performance.
 |
| It's not pretty, but it works well |
 |
| Dual USB2 ports distinguish this from the WDR3500 |
Hardware
The design is exactly the same as the pug-ugly TL-WDR4300 (click for my review),
with a large, shiny black plastic case that - to my mind at least - just makes
it look cheap and nasty. This feeling is reinforced by the 10 (yes, 10) blue
status LEDs on the front. Blue LEDs have been so overdone in recent years that
now they just look old-fashioned. In this case, it’s not helped by the fact
that the LEDs are quite large and most of them blink constantly, which is
incredibly distracting if the router’s in view. I do like status LEDs, but they
need to be both discrete and clear - in the WDR3600 it’s hard to tell which is
which from a distance, and they don’t change colour when there’s a problem,
just blink differently.
It has two standard detachable dual-band external antennas.
These look a bit ungainly, but many users still prefer them to the more
fashionable internal micro-antennas. At the back are the standard four Gigabit
Ethernet ports, plus a dedicated WAN port (also Gigabit Ethernet). Two USB2
ports (which differentiate this model from the single-ported WDR3500), a power switch and reset button complete the external hardware features.
Configuration
Styling aside, there’s plenty to like about the WDR3600. The setup wizard on the CD works well, and allows you to clone the MAC address if needed. There’s also a wizard in the web management menu, which can be opened using the http://tplinklogin.net shortcut (the default username and password are both ‘admin’).
The settings menu is the standard TP-Link 3-column
text-based interface (there’s an emulator at http://www.tp-link.com/resources/simulator/TL-WDR3600/Index.htm
if you want to take a look). There’s a growing trend to graphical interfaces,
but I still prefer the speed and simplicity of text, as long as stuff is easy
to find. In this case, it is, with a category menu down the left side, settings
in the middle and contextual help at the right.
The USB ports support printers and storage, but not 3G
dongles. User accounts can be created for volume-level access via Windows
Explorer, but shared folders can only be created for FTP access.
There’s also a DLNA media server, although this can only
share up to six separate folders on each storage device.
 |
| It uses the standard TP-Link menu layout |
One unusual feature, also seen in the WDR4300, is the
hardware NAT acceleration - this can be enabled or disabled in the NAT section
of the settings. Personally, I think it’s a bit of a waste of time - all it
does is improve WAN to LAN throughput to a quoted 800Mbps. This feature is
really intended for enterprise use when connected to a Gigabit WAN, so that
internet traffic can be sent at wire speed. For ordinary broadband, it’s not really
necessary. Also, some readers of this blog have complained about the hardware
NAT affecting VoIP in the WDR4300, although during a couple of weeks’ testing the
WDR3600 I saw no problems (my SIP provider is Sipgate).
Access Control
The WDR3600 does have a few access control features, including parental controls and bandwidth control. They’re not the easiest for novices to set up, though, as they do need an understanding of protocols and ports. The parental controls can be used for white-/blacklisting IP addresses, domains or protocols and scheduling access times for any MAC address. Bandwidth control is fairly basic, allowing rules-based limiting of inbound or outbound traffic. There are no automated QoS settings.
Interior
The WDR3600 is powered by Atheros chips, with an AR9344 system-on-a-chip (SoC) providing the 2.4GHZ radio, plus a separate AR9582 2x2 chip for 5GHz operation. An AR8327 chip provides the Gigabit Ethernet switching. This hardware is very similar to that found in its big brother, the TL-WDR4300, with the exception of the 5GHz radio - the WDR4300 uses a 3x3 AR9582 chip.
Performance
The WDR3600 is configured by default for auto channel width settings on both bands. As usual, I tested using the defaults. My test environment (my home) is surrounded by several neighbouring 2.4GHz networks (but no 5GHz networks yet), making it a good place to see real world performance.
As usual, I used the Advanced Networking Tests section in Passmark Performance Test 8 (I do also run Totusoft’s LAN Speed Test for a quick sanity check). The standard client adapter I use is a 3-stream (450Mbps) Intel Ultimate N Wifi Link 5300AGN adapter retrofitted to an Acer Aspire One netbook.
At close range (1m) on the 2.4GHZ band the WDR3600 did very
well compared to some routers I’ve seen recently, managing 50Mbps average
throughput. It didn’t do so well at 25m, though, with a very unreliable
connection averaging around 5Mbps.
At 5GHz the close range performance was actually slightly less than the 2.4GHz results at 48Mbps, which is quite unusual. However, at 25m it was much better at 18Mbps - this is still a fairly average result, however.
 |
| 1m/2.4GHz |
 |
| 1m/5GHz |
 |
| 25m/2.4GHz |
 |
| 25m/5GHz |
Conclusion
Although its performance results are not particularly noteworthy, considering the price they’re perfectly acceptable. Oddly, the numbers are slightly better than those I measured in the more expensive TL-WDR4300.
It does have an almost identical set of features to the
WDR4300, though, and given that the WDR3600 is around £15-£20 cheaper, I’d definitely
recommend it, especially for those who don’t have any 3-stream 11n clients.
Price: around £60
Contact details
Phone: +44 (0) 845
147 0017
Find it on Amazon:
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