January 31st, 2009

Comcast conducting tests on free Wi-Fi for its subscribers

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 6:13 am

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: Comcast Corp., Wireless LANs, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Sean Portnoy

Following in the footsteps of Cablevision’s Wi-Fi trials in Long Island, cable giant Comcast is now testing a free Wi-Fi service for its broadband customers in northern New Jersey, putting equipment in approximately 100 New Jersey Transit stations.

According to a report by The Associated Press, Comcast is promising data speeds of 1.5Mbps through the service. Subscribers just need to enter their login name and password in order to connect with their devices.

The Wi-Fi tests by the cable companies come as more people rely on 3G networks to surf the Web through their laptops and cell phones. In fact, they could keep more people from switching entirely to a cellular modem as their only form of Internet connectivity. To stem that tide, Comcast may need to roll out this Wi-Fi service across more of its markets quickly.

January 28th, 2009

Buffalo Tech returns to the router game, updates NAS lineup

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 6:17 pm

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: Game, NAS, Router, Buffalo, TeraStation Duo, Routers & Switches, Network-Attached Storage (NAS), Network Technology, Networking, Storage

Several weeks ago, I posted about a court decision that lifted the ban on Buffalo Technology selling its routers and access points in the U.S., which it had done for many years. No doubt expecting victory for some time now, the company was ready within a month to tout its new Wi-Fi lineup, which I got a chance to see a couple of weeks ago in a Vegas hotel suite.

Buffalo is introducing three new routers, as well as a hat trick of network adapters. Two of the routers are based on the Draft N spec, with the $99.99 Wireless-N Nfiniti High Power Router & Access Point (WZR-HP-G300NH; pictured) at the higher end and the $79.99 Wireless-N Nfiniti Router & Access Point (WHR-G300N) priced for more value-oriented consumers. The biggest differences between the two are that the WZR-HP-G300NH comes with USB and Gigabit Ethernet ports, adjustable antennae, and a quality-of-service (QoS) mode that prioritizes multimedia content streaming over the network. For price-conscious consumers that don’t want to make the step up to 802.11n, Buffalo is also offering a 802.11g router in the form of the $59.99 Wireless-G High Speed Router & Access Point (WHR-HP-G54). One thing Buffalo is not offering is a dual-band N router like D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear have. According to the Buffalo rep I spoke with, the company’s thinking is that the high-end ($100+) router market is too small for it to worry about for the moment.

Of course, Buffalo is releasing USB-based network adapters to go along with the new routers, though it isn’t offering a 802.11g one to go along with the WHR-HP-G54. Instead, it’s offering the $79.99 Wireless-N High Power Compact USB 2.0 Adapter (WLI-UC-G300HP) and $69.99 Wireless-N Compact USB 2.0 Adapter (WLI-UC-G300N); the primary difference is the pricier unit comes with a flip-out antenna. If size matters, Buffalo is offering the teeny-tiny Wireless-N Ultra Compact USB 2.0 Adapter (WLI-UC-GN; pictured) for $59.99 It measures just 0.6×1.6×0.2 inches.

While Buffalo will need to play catch-up in the router space, it’s already a market leader in network attached storage. It looks to build on that success with several new NAS devices, and it’s even trying to reduce confusion over its business and consumer lines by labeling the former TeraStations and the latter LinkStations, and not mingling consumer TeraStations and pro-level LinkStations as has happened in the past. The new TeraStation Duo is the first TeraStation to support just two drives, and it comes in 1TB (the $319.99 TS-W1.0L/R1) and 2TB (the $399.99 TS-W2.0L/R1) flavors. There’s also the TeraStation III (pictured), which can handle four drives, and comes in the $1,299.99 2TB TS-X2.0TL/R5 and the $2,299.99 4GB 4TB TS-X4.0TL/R5. Both new TeraStations support RAID Level 0 and 1 configurations, hot-swappable drives, and Mac OS X’s Time Machine feature, sport a pair of USB ports with printer server capabilities, and can work as a DLNA media server. They also have power-saving features like a scheduler that can automatically shut down the device during off hours. With room for more drives, the TeraStation III also offers RAID Level 5 support.

On the consumer side, the new LinkStation Pro has a sleek look and competitive pricing: $209.99 for the 500GB LS-XH500L and $299.99 for the 1TB LS-XH1.0TL. While it has many of the features you see in competing NAS drives—a pair of USB ports, DLNA server support, Web access to your files— it stands out with an iPhone app that lets you access those files on your phone, including streaming media content. The one-year warranty’s a little on the thin side, however. I hope to take a look at one when they become available soon, so stay tuned.

January 24th, 2009

Datto launches Box 2 Box P2P NAS device

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 7:28 am

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: Network, P2P, Datto, Box 2 Box, Peer To Peer (P2P), Network-Attached Storage (NAS), Networking, Internet, Storage, Hardware

Datto is hoping its new twist on network attached storage (NAS) can stand out amid an increasingly crowded field of competitors. The Box 2 Box device, due in March, is designed to create a peer-to-peer network with other Box 2 Box drives, letting you sync files between the two, even if they’re not using the same home network.

In its promotional spiel, the company suggests a couple of possible uses for the P2P capabilities, including syncing your data with a remote drive for increased security or automatically updating a relative’s drive with new family photos when they’re backed up to your Box 2 Box. Additional units using the Synapse technology Box 2 Box comes can join the P2P network as well, and Datto claims the connection can work regardless of firewalls or connection settings. Box 2 Box drives come with four USB ports for additional storage, and are powered by an Intel Atom 230 CPU running a Linux-based OS. It doesn’t come with any backup software, however.

Of course, in order to make use of the Box 2 Box’s P2P features, you’ll need to purchase a pair or more of the drives, which isn’t cheap. Datto is offering some pre-releases savings on its Web site, whether you purchase a single drive or a two-pack. Still, $349.99 for a single 250GB Box 2 Box (BXP-250) is far more than you can pay for most rivals’ equivalently sized NAS drives; that price becomes $619.95 for a pair. However for $30 more, you can get a 500GB version (BXP-500), or $659.95 for a bundle of two drives. The $479.95 BXP-1000 comes with a terabyte drive and a second Gigabit Ethernet port, while a two-pack costs $849.95. Datto is banking on the fact that its P2P functionality is worth the price premium, though the two 500GB Box 2 Boxes still cost only slightly more than a single new HP MediaSmart Server.

January 17th, 2009

Hands on with Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD media player

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 7:51 am

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: Seagate Technology LLC, Media Player, Media Players, Corporate Communications, Digital Media, Home Networking, Digital Music, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Marketing

Still playing catch-up from CES. You usually find Seagate inside devices that store media in your living room, but the hard drive giant is making a bid for more visibility with a player of its own. Its new FreeAgent Theater HD media player, due for release in March, is a bit different than competing units like Netgear’s Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150 and Internet TV Player (ITV2000), however.

For starters, it doesn’t come with any built-in storage, as it’s essentially a dock for Seagate’s line of FreeAgent Go portable hard drives. (If you don’t already own one, Seagate will be offering a FreeAgent Theater HD bundled with a FreeAgent Go drive.) Of course, it also offers a USB port to attach any kind of external storage to the unit. In other words, this isn’t a media streamer, as it doesn’t come with any wired or wireless networking support. And unlike many of those streaming devices, the player doesn’t come with HDMI output, which provides the highest-quality digital connection between a video component and an HDTV. The Seagate rep I spoke with told me that this was a cost consideration, and that the component-video output the FreeAgent Theater HD provides will be fine for the mainstream consumers the device is intended for. There will be some people who will see there’s no HDMI support and move on, but apparently the company isn’t marketing to them. For older TV sets, the FreeAgent Theater HD sports S-Video and composite-video ports as well.

The player does do the usual playback of digital images, music, and video via the on-screen interface and included remote. Slide shows seem to be easy enough to create, with built-in transitions and the ability to add music to them. Audio support includes MP3, OGG, and WMA files, while the device can play video encoded in DivX, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats. My biggest concern with the FreeAgent Theater HD is file navigation, as the interface is presented more like the traditional folder-and-file structure found on a PC, without some of the spit-and-polish that competing devices present (particularly nice is the Linksys by Cisco Wireless Home Audio system’s ability to show all of an album’s tracks together even if they’re located on separate computers). I also had trouble moving around the interface with the remote for the few moments I got to play with it.

The Seagate rep pointed out that one of the reasons the interface was presented this way is how people organize media on their computers, especially digital photos. Most people leave the file names that their digital cameras assign to images, which can make it tough to wade through them. The FreeAgent Theater HD does include a thumbnail preview of images, and even the Linksys system had to resort to a similar file-and-folder view for images. Still, I’m not sure the interface’s semi-clunkiness is the best fit given the middle-of-the-road audience Seagate claims it’s trying to appeal to.

Seagate will be offering the FreeAgent Theater HD media player for $129.99 or bundled with a 250GB FreeAgent Go for $229.99 or a 500GB drive for $299.99. If you need a portable drive and want the ability to display your digital media on your TV, it may not be a bad deal, but the price for the dock itself may be a little high considering its lack of networking support. Western Digital has created a similar (and similarly priced) system in its WD TV HD Media Player, so it will be interesting to see if either of these approaches will catch on compared to streaming players instead. What do you think?

January 15th, 2009

CES 2009: Asus D200 is a mini-PC, NAS device, router, and more

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 4:13 pm

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: ASUS, NAS, Router, mini-PC, Network-Attached Storage (NAS), Routers & Switches, Storage, Network Technology, Networking, Hardware

One of the future releases Asus showed at CES last week was an interesting hybrid piece of hardware that users could set up as a miniature desktop PC, a NAS device, or even as a wireless router or access point. The D200 will ship with an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a pair of 1TB hard drives, a built-in 802.11n router, and a slot-loading DVD burner. It also comes with a 3.5-inch touchscreen that you can use to interface with the unit, though this feature wasn’t operational on the D200 displayed on the show floor. Connectivity includes four USB ports, a DVI port, and 6-channel high-def audio output. The drives can be set up in RAID Level 0 or Level 1 configurations, and it runs Linux at least for its NAS functions.

According to the Asus rep we’ve spoke to recently, the company hasn’t determined a price for the D200, but “availability will be probably in a few months.”

January 11th, 2009

CES 2009: Hands-on with Linksys by Cisco Wireless Home Audio system

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 2:41 pm

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: Speaker, Cisco Systems Inc., Director, Linksys Inc., Wireless, Home Networking, Networking, Personal Technology, Sean Portnoy

With its past purchases of Linksys and set-top-box maker Scientific Atlanta, Cisco hasn’t exactly been subtle about its intentions to be a major player in the connected home. Thus far, those acquisitions hadn’t produced anything particularly noteworthy, but that appears to change with the company’s new Linksys by Cisco Wireless Home Audio system. It’s clearly a lower-priced competitor to the highly touted but pricey Sonos Digital Music System.

The system has a number of pieces that will be sold in bundles and as separate components. These include the Conductor (DMC350 Wireless-N Digital Music Center), which is a standalone unit with built-in speakers, CD player, and 7-inch LCD (think Logitech Boom on steroids); the Director (DMC250 Wireless-N Music Player with Integrated Amplifier), which comes with an LCD display but needs speakers to play back audio; the Player (DMP100 Wireless-N Music Extender), which lets you stream music to any speakers it’s connected to; and a number of accessories. The accessories include a remote with color touchscreen, an iPod dock, and speakers. One final piece to the puzzle is the new Linksys by Cisco Media Hub, a NAS device that includes iTunes server capabilities and can automatically copy new media files from folders on your computer directly to the Media Hub.

I got to see the system in action in a hotel suite with all of its components placed around the room. Its user friendly interface was on an HDTV, while the Player was connected to a nearby A/V receiver. One cool feature of the interface—depending on if your tracks have their ID3 tags in order—is that it will pull all the tracks from an album into a singular grouping even if they’re stored on different PCs or devices. You can also view images and videos through the system, though video support is not emphasized with this offering. You’re able to stream a track to multiple rooms or stream one track to one room and another track to a separate device on the system. You can even switch a track at the same spot from one room to another, though there was a noticeable delay in the switching during the demo. The Linksys rep claimed this performance was atypical and blamed it on the amount of wireless network traffic in the hotel.

The DMWR1000 Wireless-N Touchscreen Remote (pictured above with the Director and iPod dock) was impressive—and for $349, it better be. It lets you control your docked iPod, which is made easier thanks to the included jogwheel. An IR remote is included with the Conductor, Director, and Player units, but the color touchscreen DMWR1000 really blings out the setup if you can afford it or the Premier Kit it’s bundled with (more on the kits below). Speaking of color interfaces, the pricier version of the Media Hub, the NMH400 series (pictured), comes with an LCD that provides info like the amount of available space and how the drive space is being used by media type. As the components’ product names suggest, they all have built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, along with Ethernet ports for wired connectivity. The system supports RadioTime Internet radio service along with the Rhapsody online music service, though not Pandora or Sirius XM satellite radio, both of which the Logitech Boom supports.

Linksys will sell the Wireless Home Audio system in three different bundles, with consumers free to purchase additional componets a la carte to place around the house. The priciest, the $999.99 Premier Kit, consists of the Director, Player, and Wireless-N remote; this setup pretty much mirrors the lowest-priced Sonos bundle (though the Sonos system requires one wired connection and its remote is not touchscreen-enabled). But Linksys also offers two lower-priced alternatives: the $849.99 Trio Kit (two players and the controller) and the $549.99 Executive Kit (a Director and stereo speakers). The Media Hub NMH305 (which lacks the built-in display) comes with 500GB of storage for $299.99, while you can purchase the NMH405, also with 500GB of storage, for $349.99 and the 1TB NMH410 for $429.99. With a second drive bay and a USB port, the Media Hub gives you option for adding more storage in the future.

The Wireless Home Audio system should definitely give Sonos some competition, though the price is still pretty steep for most consumers. It’ll be interesting to see if any of these ideas migrate over to the Scientific Atlanta set-top boxes in the future as well. There’s certainly no reason you couldn’t add an 802.11n radio to the box and have a decent interface for streaming your music and other media files—other than the fact that the Linksys devices probably have a much higher profit margin than a cable box.

January 8th, 2009

CES 2009: Hands-on with Netgear's new streaming media devices

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 10:30 pm

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: Video, NetGear, Streaming Media, Elite, Home Networking, Corporate Communications, Web Site Development, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Networking

Certainly one of the big stories at CES this year has been TV manufacturers finally embracing the Internet on their new sets, thanks in large part to the widget platform that adds real-time streaming info on-screen while you’re watching shows. But home networking companies aren’t yielding the living room just yet, as Netgear demonstrated to me this afternoon at their booth.

Info on the company’s new Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150 leaked a few weeks ago, but now the streaming media device is official. The big upgrade from its previous iteration is the 500GB hard drive it possesses; the drive is removable so you can add a higher-capacity one if you’d prefer. In addition to playing back the media files on that drive on your TV through its various outputs (including HDMI, component-video, and composite-video), the Elite can stream them from your home network (including NAS devices) or external storage you attach to its two USB ports.

The Elite can handle 1080p HD content, as it delivered a Blu-ray trailer flawlessly. Of course, it was using a wired connection, so mileage may vary for 1080p video delivered wirelessly through its built-in 802.11n. Make that dual-band wireless, as it can work on either a 2.4GHz or 5GHz network. Though Netgear’s content partners are limited in comparison to other streaming devices that have Netflix or Amazon on-demand programming capabilities, the Elite makes up for it with a huge number of file formats supported, including DviX, Xvid, MP4, WMV, and AVI videos, the usual digital audio formats, and even high-def audio like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

If you have more than one Elite unit, you can start watching a video on one TV and then continue it on another. But given the $399 price when it ships next month, I’m not sure just how many people will be doubling up. Nonetheless, the Elite seems like a good solution if you have a large library of videos in nonproprietary formats.

With the Internet TV Player (ITV2000), Netgear is taking a totally different approach than with the Elite. This tiny device is a plug-and-play Internet video streamer that doesn’t add a ton of other features. It connects to your home network either through its Ethernet port or a USB wireless adapter, and hooks up to your TV with an HDMI port. Its menu system offers a YouTube “channel” as well as a number of other online video content providers, such as the BBC, National Geographic, TMZ, ESPN. Video quality, of course, depends on the source file. Netgear has partnered with CinemaNow for paid streaming downloads, but doesn’t offer Netflix or Amazon on-demand video streaming like some other competitors. Support for Hulu.com, on the other hand, is more likely in the future.

One market segment that the ITV2000 seems particularly well-suited for is fans of international TV, as its other key feature is its ability to display TV stations that stream their programming over the Web. That includes a number of European stations; with a couple of taps on the included remote, SkyTV from the U.K. was streaming from the sample unit I saw demoed. Finally, the device can work as a BitTorrent client in concert with USB-connected external storage.

Still, the ITV2000 may be a tough sell given its $199 price point and the lack of premium services attached to it. Since it isn’t due out until summer, Netgear could potentially adjust its features or pricing in the meantime.

January 7th, 2009

CES 2009: D-Link combines router, NAS device, and photo frame in one device. Also releases 450Mbps 802.11n router.

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 11:37 pm

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: D-Link Systems, NAS, Router, IEEE 802.11n, Photograph, Xtreme N DIR-685, Network-Attached Storage (NAS), Routers & Switches, Home Networking, Network Technology

D-Link jumps into the CES fray with two new routers that definitely stand out, one for its versatility and the other for its (potential) speed.

The Xtreme N DIR-685 is a 802.11n router at its heart, but it also comes with an undisclosed capacity for network attached storage (NAS) and a 3.2-inch LCD for displaying digital photos. The device has a pair of USB ports that use D-Link’s SharePort technology to let any computer on your network easily access printers or external drives connected to the router. NAS features include UPnP server capabilities, a BitTorrent client, and a built-in FTP server for remote access to files stored on the DIR-685.

Promising that it will be the fastest router on the market when it hits in the second quarter of 2009, D-Link has introduced the Xtreme N 450 Dual Band Router, which should be the first 802.11n router with a maximum throughput of 450Mbps instead of 300Mbps. The company claims the device’s speed bump is thanks to the latest wireless chip design. It also comes with a SharePort-compatible USB port, and can operate simultaneously in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels.

Both routers make use of D-Link Green technology, which can adjust power usage according to factors like cable length and port activity and can shut down the device according to your scheduling. Pricing for either unit has not yet been announced.

January 5th, 2009

Iomega launches new low-price Home Media Network Hard Drives

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 7:51 pm

Categories: SOHO Networking

Tags: NAS, Iomega Corp., Network, Media, Network-Attached Storage (NAS), Storage, Hardware, Sean Portnoy

While HP is taking the high (price) road in the NAS market with its new MediaSmart Servers, Iomega is going the other direction with its new Home Media Network Hard Drive line. Considering how cheap hard drive prices are getting, it’s a reasonable tactic. How reasonable? Iomega is selling the 500GB model for just $159.99, while a 1TB version is $229.99.

The devices are also well-featured, with iTunes and UPnP server capabilities, DLNA device support, and a USB port to attach more storage or a printer to the unit. It comes with EMC Retrospect software for backup duties, and you also get 2GB of online storage courtesy of MozyHome Online Backup service. (Unlimited online storage is available for $4.95 per month.) While the Home Media Network Hard Drives are Mac compatible, they don’t offer Time Machine support like HP’s new NAS devices.

The biggest limitation for Iomega’s new offerings is that they can only house one drive. You can still build your own NAS device for a little less with some expansion room, but if you’re not interested in a DIY project and just want networked storage for as little as possible, the Home Media Network Hard Drives are probably worth a look when they become available sometime early this month.