APCの March 2018 の目次

Telstra and Optus announce a 2019 rollout of 5G fixed wireless NEW TECH TO BE TESTED AT THE 2018 GOLD COAST COMMONWEALTH GAMES. Telstra and Optus have partnered with the Commonwealth Games to test their 5G technology, with the former setting up a 5G Innovation Centre in the host city to conduct trials from. Meanwhile, Optus will provide the digital infrastructure needed for telecommunication services at the Games, ranging from telephony to cloud storage. Both telcos have also announced that they will be ready to begin the rollout of their 5G network to the public in 2019, with Optus promising a start early next year. SS Samsung is making processors dedicated to crypto mining ASIC CHIPS DESIGNED SPECIALLY TO MINE BITCOIN. Samsung has confirmed that it’s “engaged in the manufacturing…

Five years ago, you might have been forgiven for not being particularly concerned about any potential pitfalls of social media. Sure, powerful companies may retain your data and use it in various benign or nefarious ways, but at least you weren’t left out of parties. Over the last year or two, though, it’s become far harder to partake without a dark cloud lingering over it all. Whether it be internet addiction or the very real fact that whole election campaigns can be manipulated here, people tend to be more circumspect about social media nowadays (though usually not so much that they’ll cut their ties forever — if that’s possible). Some of the folk who were actively involved with the creation of Facebook and Google have formed a new group called…

MIXED-REALITY HEADSET  $799 | WWW.LENOVO.COM/AU Virtual reality hasn’t been the hit many expected. Almost two years after the release of the Vive and Rift, the PC finds itself playing second fiddle to the Sony PlayStation VR. Into this fragmented landscape, the Lenovo Explorer finds itself as an evolutionary oddity, straddling the moves made by the first-gen headsets and the untethered second-gen models. The hardware spec for the Explorer puts in a good show against those first headsets, supporting a higher native resolution, and the option of augmenting the real with the virtual, but it still relies on a long cable plugged into your graphics card. The most important aspect for any VR headset is the quality of the image that hits your eyeballs, and here, the Explorer is a mixed…

13-INCH ULTRABOOK  FROM $2,199 | WWW.RAZERZONE.COM The Razer Blade Stealth is one of our favourite ultrabooks, and it’s only getting better with age. This version sports Intel’s latest, 8th-gen Kaby Lake Refresh processors, helping it deliver its best ever performance. Starting at around $2,199, it’s more expensive than ever, partially thanks to its elevated specs. Each of the models in the range rocks a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with integrated Intel UHD graphics, a QHD+ (3,200 x 1,800) resolution display, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Our model also allows you to double your storage capacity. Despite the increase in screen size, the 13.3-inch Stealth is no larger than its 12.5-inch predecessor, maintaining most of its original dimensions at 32.1 x 20.6 x 1.4cm. The Kaby Lake Refresh…

INTEL MOTHERBOARD  $289 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU Motherboards like this don’t come around often. Perhaps it’s due to Coffee Lake’s minuscule power requirements, or maybe because Intel’s mature platform needs little iteration between generations, but the micro-ATX form factor doesn’t seem to get much love from mobo designers. Which is a shame, because it’s a perfect combination of form and function. Just take a look at the arsenal attached to this 9.6-inch square of PCB joy: two M.2 PCIe SSDs, six SATA 6Gbps ports, dual PCIe x16 slots, USB 3.0 header, five PWM fan headers, and support for 64GB of DDR4 running all the way up to 4,000MT/s. Pretty snazzy. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s more than enough to forge any number of RAID arrays, run SLI and Crossfire configs,…

4K MONITOR $1,299 | WWW.VIEWSONIC.COM.AU Desktop PCs get a raw deal when it comes to pixel count. After all, fairly affordable laptop PCs with full 4K panels are now widely available. Heck, 1440p is no longer anything special for a smartphone. 4K is about as good as it gets on the desktop, despite the much larger physical size of desktop panels. At least, it is unless you’re willing to spend megabucks. The net result is that desktop monitors can’t hold a candle to the best portable devices when it comes to pixel density, and thus display crispness and detail. The mitigating factor, of course, is that Windows, and indeed the internet at large, still doesn’t do a great job of supporting high DPI displays. That’s part of the…

$200 EACH | GOOGLE.COM/WIFI The new Google WiFi is a product very much in the vein of the Ubiquiti mesh kit: a slick consumer-friendly solution that’s controlled entirely with a mobile app. Like Linksys and TP-Link, Google WiFi makes no distinction between satellite and router. There is only one product and you just buy as many of them as you need to cover your home. The first one you set up will be configured as a router, with one of the two Ethernet ports assigned as a WAN port; on additional Google WiFis, both ports will be assigned as LAN ports. In terms of actual WiFi capabilities, it’s limited to 866Mbps 802.11ac and 300Mbps 802.11n, which makes it one of the slowest products here. Relays happen in band…

$150 FOR A 1-PACK; $400 FOR A 3-PACK | WWW.TP-LINK.COM.AU T P-Link’s Deco M5 is similar in many ways to the Google WiFi, but with a few added extras that will likely appeal to families with kids. What sets the Deco apart most of all is its parental controls and antivirus. Every Deco comes with a three-year subscription to Trend Micro’s antivirus and parental controls. Viruses and malicious websites are filtered before they even get to the user, and there are actual content-based parental controls built into the Deco, as opposed to just the time controls built into most competing solutions. The antivirus and time-and content-based parental controls are baked into the mobile app. TP-Link’s mobile app is very well made, comparable in quality to many of the…

$620 | WWW.NETGEAR.COM.AU Usually DSL routers tend to lag a generation behind broadband routers when it comes to integrated tech. With the D8500, Netgear makes an exception to that rule. Although it’s rather more compact than most other AC5300 routers thanks to the use of four internal antennae, it is indeed a full tri-band 4x4 MU-MIMO wireless solution, which is about as good as you can get in a consumer product. And if that weren’t enough, Netgear has thrown in six Ethernet ports on top of the usual four, as well as a physical WAN port so that it can function as a broadband router. Netgear’s firmware is another high point for the router. It fully supports configuration from a mobile or a web interface, and it boasts…

$600 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU A tweaked version of the RT-AC5300, ASUS’s GT-AC5300 is designed to be the gamer’s fantasy router, the ideal platform for minimising lag. And not only does it pull that off, it does it with style. It’s a full AC5300 wireless router with MU-MIMO — which is pretty much the most powerful consumer wireless money can buy. The number of LAN ports has been increased to eight (compared to the four on the RT-5300 and most others) and both USB ports support USB 3.0. It’s all run on a very powerful 1.8GHz quad-core processor. For gamers, it’s perhaps the tweaks to the software that will make the most difference. ASUS has gone all-in on game optimisation. In addition to normal quality of service settings, two of…

$630 | WWW.NETGEAR.COM.AU WiGig, the common name for 802.11ad, has been floating around for a few years now. Using extremely high frequencies, WiGig can transfer data at up to 7.2Gbps — far faster than 802.11ac. But because it can’t travel through walls, it’s essentially limited to same-room usage. That last factor has generally made it a non-player, something that hardware manufacturers never bothered with because nobody had any use for it. VR changes that. In theory, VR headsets could use 802.11ad for wireless connectivity. No actual headsets do that yet, but the Netgear R9000 preps you for the day that they might. It’s one of the very few routers on the market that supports 802.11ad, at up to 4,600Mbps in this case. The Netgear is a powerful 4x4…

WINDOWS IDENTIFY BOOT BOTTLENECKS Since installing the Creators Update, my PC is taking much longer to boot. Any pointers? Julia Rendbury A lot of people have complained on user forums about the Creators Update resulting in noticeably slower boot times. The key thing is to pinpoint where the bottleneck occurs. To determine where it is, download and install BootRacer (www.greatis.com/bootracer), which will time your boot and split it into four stages. The pre-boot time should be around 3–5 seconds on a PC with Fast Boot enabled — if not, check your UEFI settings to see if the option’s available (it should be on most modern PCs). If the bottleneck appears to be linked to the Windows Boot portion of startup, it may be caused by disk errors. Right-click the Start…

For those of you who have recently installed Ubuntu 17.10, you’ll be graced with the new-look Gnome Shell. This is the graphical part of the desktop environment. If you’re new to Linux, then you may be surprised to find that the panel is at the top of the screen. There’s a menu launcher at the top left, a dock containing applications on the left and various settings icons and a clock in the top bar. Despite the Gnome project’s emphasis on simplicity, the desktop actually has a huge number of features, each of which can be fine-tuned to suit your needs. This lies at the very heart of the Linux experience and is why there are so many different ‘flavours’ of the OS available. WONDERWALLS When setting up Ubuntu, your…

Python is a fun and easy programming language to learn that installs easily on your PC — that’s unless you’re running a computer that won’t let you install your own software. With many schools and businesses locking down their machines to within an inch of their life to minimise security risks, it’s not an uncommon problem. But if your computing device includes a solid web browser, you’re back in business — just code Python via your browser. PYTHON ON A BROWSER With schools getting on-board the STEM bus and looking to offer programming lessons, there’s a mini-boom happening in browser-based Python coding solutions. Whether you’re happy to pay or looking for freebies, whether you want something that’s cloud-based or a solution that runs entirely on your computing device, there’s no…

PS4, XO | $99.95 | WWW.BIGANT.COM Coinciding with the commencement of the Australian Open, AO Tennis is a title with big goals. The sim claims to “set a new standard for what a tennis game can offer fans”, and while it boasts 10 years’ worth of shot data feeding into its AI system, and photo-realistic depictions of real-life players, the “most advanced tennis game ever produced” still has a lot of improving to do. First of all, there’s no tutorial, and while some may appreciate this ‘learn as you go’ style, the option for at least a training session to get a handle on the basics of playing would go a long way. The easiest place to start is in Casual mode. We lost our first three games…

GET WINDOWS RUNNING THE BEST THAT IT CAN Optimise your experience with Ashampoo Win Optimizer 2018 FULL VERSION WORTH $40 Ashampoo WinOptimizer 2018 cleans, accelerates and secures your Windows system. The program takes care of maintenance issues that arise from regular Windows use. Tools such as one-click optimisation declutter hard disks, repair invalid shortcuts and delete the browsing history and cookies to save space and protect your privacy. Various modules help analyse, customise and optimise Windows systems. DOWNLOAD LINK: www.ashampoo.com/lpa/apc TAKE FULL CONTROL OVER YOUR WINDOWS BOOT-UP Eliminate bloat and streamline work with Abelssoft StartupStar FULL VERSION WORTH $30 StartUpStar eliminates startup irritants! It’s an almost universal problem on Windows PCs — unneeded programs that run on startup, adding extraneous time to the boot process. How does one…

123456 THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR PASSWORD FOR THE FOURTH YEAR IN A ROW In 2013, ‘password’ was overtaken as the world’s most commonly used password and supplanted by ‘123456’ and, according to security software company SplashData, the popular numerical sequence has maintained its throne now for the fourth year running. While the eponymous ‘password’ remains in second place, it is followed by some other deeply obvious options, with ‘12345678’ in third place, ‘qwerty’ in fourth, ‘12345’ in fifth and ‘123456789’ in sixth position. So if you’re using any of these... please don’t. 64% AMOUNT OF SMART SPEAKER OWNERS WHO SAY THAT THEY’RE USING THEIR SMARTPHONES LESS A global survey conducted by research group Accenture has found that almost two-thirds of the respondents that use a smart speaker are using their…

MAJOR TECH SPECS ■ Octa-core Kirin 970 and Mali-G72 MP12 GPU ■ 6.0-inch 1,080 x 2,160 (402 ppi) AMOLED display ■ Dual 20MP and 12MP f/1.6 main camera unit by Leica ■ 8MP f/2.0 selfie camera ■ 128GB storage and 6GB RAM, or 64GB storage and 4GB RAM ■ Android 8.0 Oreo and EMUI 8.0 KEY FINDINGS ■ Before we deconstructed the Mate 10 Pro, we lined it up next to its older brother the Mate 9. At first glance, differences are minor: there’s the new Leica dual camera with optical image stabilisation, and the round fingerprint sensor below. More noticeable is the ergonomic curved glass back and a signature stripe highlighting the dual-lens camera. You may notice that the Mate 10 Pro is slightly smaller, too — although the…

We’ve come a long way from Xerox’s three-button box with wheels on the bottom, but while there’s a lot more to choose from, the importance of the mouse hasn’t diminished. So which to choose? We’re smashing the three pillars of mousing against each other: the traditional, standard wired mouse; the pretty-much-standard wireless mouse; and the new kid on the block, the wireless charging mouse. Should you stay with what works, pick freedom over tethering or empty your wallet in pursuit of a mouse that charges itself? Let’s find out... Round 1 CONVENIENCE As with any attempt at making comparisons between competing standards, a great many of these categories will be highly subjective — and here’s the first. A wired mouse is fundamentally less convenient than a wireless one, right? By…

2-IN-1  $499 | WWW.KOGAN.COM/AU This $500 2-in-1 from budget Aussie retailer Kogan really is better than it has any right to be. With a unibody metal chassis, it both looks and feels incredibly sturdy and durable, and its 13.3-inch IPS display is better than what you often find on laptops for two (or even three) times this price. Don’t get us wrong, though: this is not a powerhouse that’s going to take down the likes of say, Dell’s XPS 13 — a device that’s still our favourite Windows ultrabook, despite the general design being a few years old now. In fact, compared to that Dell, what’s under the C300’s hood looks rather sedate. Primarily powered by a quad-core 1.1-2.2GHz Intel Celeron N3450 processor — a chip that’s about a year…

LAPTOP  FROM $1,499 | WWW.ASUS.COM/AU ASUS’s new VivoBook Pro has managed to dodge the price-up/ performance-down rut that many of its aluminium-clad counterparts get stuck in. Impressively, this sleek machine actually runs as fast (and hot) as some gaming systems. The VivoBook Pro sports a very familiar MacBookesque aesthetic combining a brushed aluminium shell with premium and well-spaced keys and sensibly stylish curves. With substantial bezels, a 19mm thick chassis and a weight just shy of 2kg, this 15.6-inch unit doesn’t follow in the footsteps of the slim-and-compact ultrabooks that currently rule the roost, but the bonus room allows it to pack in some surprising power and shave off some dollars instead. Most notably, the inclusion of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (4GB VRAM) GPU and a quad-core Intel Core…

SSD $390 (1TB) | WWW.CRUCIAL.COM The march of technology waits for no man. Unless the poor sap in question relies upon the SATA interface for his PC storage connectivity. In which case, technology is apparently happy to sit down and soak up the view. That’s because of the limitations associated with SATA. First, there’s a hard bandwidth limit of around 550MB/s, net of overheads. Then there’s the fact that SATA is reliant on the AHCI control protocol, which hails from the mists of 2004, making it positively antediluvian in tech terms. Critically, it also means that AHCI was never conceived with solid-state storage in mind. It was designed to suit magnetic drives and read heads, not NAND chips. One of the more obvious upshots is the practical cap…

Unless you’ve been missing in action since the Y2K Bug failed to destroy civilisation, you already have some form of networking in your home. A typical home network combines wired and wireless networking, with your main PC, possibly a printer and perhaps a games console plugged into a router using an Ethernet cable, and other devices — those in other rooms, as well as mobile devices — connecting wirelessly. At the centre of your network lies your modem and router (or modem router if you have an all-in-one unit). This acts as a bridge between the network in your home — a Local Area Network, or LAN — and the world’s best-known Wide Area Network (WAN), the internet. It’s possible you only use your network for accessing the internet, but…

$290 FOR A 1-PACK; $650 FOR A 3-PACK | WWW.LINKSYS.COM.AU While we’re not enamoured with the industrial design or the price, it’s hard to argue against the Velop’s capabilities. It combines elegant mobile control of the Ubiquiti with the tri-band performance of the Orbi and the simple symmetry of Google’s WiFi. Let’s start with the setup. Like Google WiFi, there is only one Linksys Velop. You can buy them in packs of one, two or three, but each device is the same. The first Velop you set up will be the router, with one of the two Ethernet ports assigned as the WAN port. Additional Velops can then be added to expand the network. The network that drives the Velop, however, is rather more powerful than that of…

$650 | WWW.DLINK.COM.AU D-Link’s ginormous space-crab routers have finally got a modem attachment. Just as with Netgear’s Nighthawk D8500, D-Link’s new Cobra router puts a lie to the notion that DSL modem routers lag a generation behind the best broadband routers. This is a router with the lot, including the fastest wireless available in consumer routers. It really is enormous. Like D-Link’s top-end broadband routers, the Cobra has a large footprint and a unique design. Eight antennae circle the central pyramid, allowing the router to generate two independent 4x4 MU-MIMO AC networks, each capable of 2,137Mbps. And the wireless is fast. Tested using a 3x3 MIMO client device, it was the fastest modem router we’ve tested, likely being limited more by the Ethernet at short range than by…

$350 | WWW.TP-LINK.COM.AU If you want something high-end, but the Netgear D8500 is perhaps just a bit too rich for you, then the new TP-Link Archer VR2800 might be a very nice compromise. It’s a router with excellent specs without going nuts, as well as a solid set of tools and features. While it doesn’t have the tri-band fanciness of the Netgear, it still offers 4x4 MU-MIMO wireless, enough to support even a large household of streamers and downloaders. It delivered when it came to our test results, too, maintaining surprisingly high speeds at range. It also makes good use of its twin USB 3.0 ports, with support for both USB storage and 3G/LTE modems. The latter can be configured as a failover or even load balanced with…

$270 | WWW.DLINK.COM.AU Although D-Link does offer huge tri-band routers in its range, we found ourselves more interested in the newer and smaller EXO AC1900. For the most part, it’s a fairly straightforward (but very cool looking) low-to-mid-range broadband router. But with a signal amp boasting up to 1,000mW of power, it promised to deliver whole-home Wi-Fi coverage from a single access point. In our tests, at 15m, it held its signal well, meaning that it will work just fine as the sole wireless access point in most homes. That said, it’s disappointing that it doesn’t support D-Link’s own Whole Home Wi-Fi tech, a mesh-like technology that lets you extend networks with multiple access points and wander seamlessly between them without needing to manually switch access points. If…

We love telling you to do boring stuff with your state-of-the-art PCs: back up your files, update Windows, use strong passwords... Now you can add another one to the list: encrypting your hard drive. But wait, don’t turn the page, we’re here to show you how full-disk encryption is easy, while ensuring those rascals at ASIO can’t access your data without your say-so (precluding any legally permissible enhanced interrogation techniques that our friends in the Department of Defence feel are appropriate). Turned your phone off and popped on your tinfoil hat? Let’s carry on... By default, the files on your Windows PC are accessible to anyone with physical access to it. If you use a local Windows account, it’s trivial to reset the password and gain administrator access; a suitably…

These days, Apple makes quite a big deal about how a lot of its apps are broadly the same on macOS and iOS. Even if you’re using just an iPhone, you get the majority of the features of Numbers or GarageBand in the palm of your hand. Which is great until you realise you need to use some of the bits that Apple left out. Given its relative simplicity on the Mac, it’s perhaps surprising to realise that Contacts isn’t quite as feature-rich on the iPhone and iPad. Sure, you can easily access all your contacts (assuming you’re using iCloud), and the interface is all very ritzy. But can you create groups? Nope. Smart groups? No way. Export contacts in a range of formats? No. How about set up a…

THE CONCEPT Right, let’s break this down quickly, and cover off the pain we suffered building it. In short, we forgot just how much hard work is involved when constructing a rig like this inside such a small case. There’s a certain amount of anguish and scraped knuckles that goes along with building the miniature inside the tiny. And it’s an accepted fact that it’s going to hurt. Yet, despite this, ITX builds will always have an allure, an attractive enticement to any would-be PC enthusiast. Why put yourself through so much torment — with cramped build conditions, frustration and more — to construct a system that would be just as at home in a mid-tower, as it would here? Well, two reasons. Firstly, there’s something intensely appealing about packing…

When the iPhone first hit the market in 2007 and the HTC Dream Android phone arrived the following year, they were quickly dubbed ‘smartphones’ for their ability to do more than just make phone calls. But with ‘smart’ technology now applied to almost everything from TVs to fridges, smartphones don’t seem as especially smart any more. However, according to market research firm Gartner, smartphones are about to take ‘smart’ to the next level. In 2017, 10% of smartphones feature artificial-intelligence (AI) capabilities. By 2022, that proportion is predicted to top 80%. Still, as we’ve said before, if you want to see what’s coming in future phones, just look at what’s happening with System on a Chip (SoC) processors today and you’ll get a good idea. NEW ARM CORTEX A-SERIES The…

PC, PS4, XO | $99.95 | WWW.BANDAINAMCOENT.COM Dragonball Z games come out annually, and outside of a sizeable hardcore fanbase for that series, no one else seems to care. Dragon Ball FighterZ has been an exception though: rather than taking the usual light RPG brawler format, it’s a fairly straightforward beat-‘em-up in the mould of Street Fighter. So why has it become such a sensation? Seeing it in action will partially answer that question. Arc System Works, the studio responsible for this instalment, is exceptionally good at making anime-centric games look like cartoons come to life. And that’s exactly what FighterZ looks like. In fact, you could argue that Dragon Ball FighterZ looks better than the cartoons, its animations more fluid, its colour scheme more varied and vibrant.…

“The signal will not connect through the breaker and RCD from one circuit to the other.” POWERLINE NOT JUST “PLUG AND GO” I was recently reading your Xmas issue (APC #449) and came across the TP-Link TL-PA8010P on page 62, which won the award for ‘Best powerline kit’. Your assertion of just “plug them in and hit the button“ does not always result in a working setup. As an electrician, I have come across several instances of people not being able to get a connection. The problem occurs when the two power outlets concerned are on separate circuit breakers in the main box. The signal will not connect through the breaker and RCD from one circuit to the other. Fitting a new outlet, so both devices are on the same…

TRENDS THE BATTLE OF THE VOICE ASSISTANTS Last year saw Amazon’s Alexa take over CES, with the voice assistant integrated into home appliances and cars that were on display at the tech show in 2017. This year, Google Assistant entered the fray — whether it was the first 4K projector with Alexa or an entirely new family of smart display products housing Google Assistant, CES 2018 served as a showcase for voice assistants. Only Siri missed out on the party, though Apple’s assistant tends to be more of a lone wolf, anyway. Google and Amazon both recognise that, if they want the voice assistants everywhere, they need to be integrated into everything. And that’s exactly what it was like at CES 2018 — from smart home devices to AV products…

GAMING LAPTOP  FROM $3,399.95 | WWW.RAZERZONE.COM Razer is basically attempting the impossible with its latest revamp of the Blade Pro, matching a 17.3-inch screen with a thin (well, ‘thinner’) form factor than you typically see in gaming laptops of this size. The result is admittedly still a beastly and burly machine, but it’s one that’s been made about as svelte as you could reasonably ask, and weighs a respectable 3.07kg sans power brick. Like Razer’s other Blades, the overarching design is rather MackBook-like, with nice clean lines and a tough metal exterior that looks very much like a black version of Apple’s circa-2012 MacBooks — and, physically, the Blade Pro is the closest thing we’ve seen to a 17-inch MacBook since Apple discontinued the latter way back in 2012. The…

2-IN-1  FROM $1,899 | WWW.LENOVO.COM/AU The Lenovo Yoga 920 features USB-C ports, an improved webcam location, a better keyboard and boosted battery life, while retaining the 360-degree hinge that’s a hallmark of the Yoga range. However, with devices such as the Microsoft Surface Book 2 pushing the boundaries of what we should expect from 2-in-1s, the Yoga 920 has its work cut out if it’s to really stand out. The base model Yoga 920 comes with an Intel Core i5-8250U processor, a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, a 13.9-inch 1080p touchscreen and an Active Pen stylus. The second model — which we’re testing here — comes with the same specs as above, but features a faster Intel Core i7-855OU processor and a larger 512GB SDD. The 920 is thin, yet…

SSD 860 EVO FROM $140 (250GB); 860 PRO FROM $200 (256GB) | WWW.SAMSUNG.COM/AU Much like the Crucial MX line on the previous page, Samsung’s SATA-based SSDs basically maxed-out the SATA interface a few generations ago — and, in fact, it’s been over 3.5 years since Samsung’s last major refresh of this mainstream line: the Korean company releasing the 850 Pro and EVO way back in 2014. It hasn’t updated the line because it hasn’t needed to — despite its age, the 850 EVO continues to be the top-selling consumer SSD family in the global market. These new drives are a by-the-books upgrade that follows much the same Samsung formula as before — the company makes every major component, from the 64-layer V-NAND flash (up from 32-layer) to the…

Home mesh network kits first started appearing about two years ago, and since then, many of the networking industry’s leading brands have released their own take on the technology. What mesh kits do it create a seamless multi-node network that works far better than older range extenders. You can set down multiple wireless access points — as many as you need to cover your home — and wander around the house, seamlessly roaming from one access point to the next without having to reconnect or losing internet connectivity. The access points themselves create a back channel network to relay data between them and ultimately connect you to the internet, regardless of which access point you’re currently connected to. They also did something that conventional routers should have done years ago…

$550 FOR KIT OF ONE ROUTER AND ONE SATELLITE WWW.NETGEAR.COM.AU One of the first mesh kits to become available in AU, Netgear’s Orbi remains a top pick — especially the high-end RBK50 kit. It includes one router and one satellite, and gets pretty much everything right when it comes to mesh networking. Perhaps its most notable advantage is its tri-band support. Where most mesh kits use the same radio channel for communicating between mesh nodes as they do for user communications, the Orbi has a 1,733Mbps channel devoted entirely to relaying data between the satellite(s) and router. That’s a big deal, and it showed in our test results. Users can connect to the satellite or router at up to 866Mbps, and the router and satellite both have a…

In spite of the brief promise of a fibre future, good old copper is going to remain the primary connection method for a large chunk of Australians. Fibre to the node, fibre to the building and fibre to the curb will comprise the largest chunk of the NBN, and for all those services, you will need a DSL modem. Your old ADSL modem is probably not going to cut it, however. These new services require VDSL2 support, so a lot of you will be looking for a new solution. There are plenty of options available, from sub $100 ‘just the basics’ cheapies to a handful of wireless powerhouses with features rivalling the best broadband routers. This month, we’ve looked at some of the options available to you below. HOW WE…

$310 ($245 FOR VERSION WITH NO WIRELESS AS ALL) WW.DRAYTEK.COM.AU DrayTek has a large array of DSL modem routers, from the minimalist Vigor120 up to VoIP/VPN/SIM slot toting corporate routers. The Vigor2760n range sits in the middle. We’ve looked at the base Vigor2760, which lacks any wireless at all, as well the Vigor2760n which has 300Mbps 802.11n support. Both routers have full access to DrayTek’s powerful firmware. This firmware boasts a suite of tools not normally available on consumer routers. You’ll find some very comprehensive VPN tools available on the platform, with up to two simultaneous tunnels supported. It will support USB LTE modems attached to the USB port, with load balancing and failover as options. It has content filtering options, as well as advanced session and bandwidth…

Of all the different broadband technologies used in the multi-technology mix NBN, only two — FTTN and FTTC — require that you buy a modem router. For all the others, all you’ll want is a broadband router. These routers have an Ethernet WAN port, and that’s all that’s needed for FTTH, HFC, fixed wireless and satellite. On those services, the modem is built into the NBN equipment when it’s installed in your home. Broadband routers aren’t only for those particular NBN users, however. Many people looking to supplement their existing modems or modem routers also look for a broadband router. There are features available in many broadband routers that just can’t be found in many DSL devices, most especially high-performance gaming optimisation. There are a number of broadband routers right…

$350 | WWW.LINKSYS.COM.AU The WRT32X is Linksys’ attempt to deliver a router targeted at gamers. While Linksys hasn’t gone full gonzo like ASUS did with its GT-AC5300, it has nonetheless delivered what is a very capable (and far more affordable) gaming router. The basic specs are high-end without being extreme. It’s a dual-band 3x3 MU-MIMO router. It is unusual in that it supports 160MHz bands for 802.11ac (the first consumer router we’ve seen that does that), allowing it to hit 2,600Mbps without resorting to tri-band. To get 2,600Mbps, however, you would need a client device that also supports 160MHz bands — most only support 80MHz and would be limited to 1,300Mbps. There’s a quad-core 1.8GHz processor under the hood — very powerful for a router. Perhaps more significantly,…

The new multi-technology mix NBN has been something of a movable feast when it comes to technology. The rollout plan has been readjusted multiple times, and for those still waiting for the NBN, sometimes it may seem that the plans for your area change by the week — particularly if you’re in an area that was originally scheduled to get HFC access. Fortunately, the plans do seem to have settled down a little of late. If you head to nbnco.com.au right now and perform a search on your address, you’ll get a date and a connection type that’s more certain than it has been previously. Of course, now you’d like to know how this whole thing works, and what you’ll need and what you’ll have to do to set it…

We’re going to transform your Raspberry Pi into a music player with Volumio, a distro that has just one job: playing and streaming music. It’s relatively easy to set up, is designed for headless use and provides a user-friendly interface through your web browser for managing your music. This UI is replicated on the official Volumio apps for iOS and Android, so you can run everything from your mobile, too. It costs $1.49 on iOS and $1.39 on Android, but you can access Volumio through your mobile browser, or try a MPD-capable app such as MPDroid for Android instead. Note, however, that MPD apps can be fiddly to set up (connecting using IP address rather than hostname is more reliable). Volumio also doubles up as a UPNP/ DLNA and AirPlay…

Espressif Systems’ ESP8266 Wi-Fi chip has revolutionised the Internet of Things (IoT) for homebrew projects over the last few years. Packing in a 32-bit microcontroller chip with 4MB of flash storage, it’s not only capable of running Python code, it can also be cranked up from its stately 80MHz clock speed to a turbo-charged 160MHz. It’s been used in a wide range of development boards, many of which can be coded using the standard Arduino IDE. However, if you’re looking for the most versatile version that’s compact, breadboard-friendly and well-supported, the WeMos D1 Mini is the answer. BREADBOARD-FRIENDLY It might seem an odd point to push, but the D1 Mini is one of the few simple breadboard-friendly versions of the ESP8266 around. Breadboards are the ideal way to experiment with…

PC, PS4, XO | FROM $99.95 | WWW.MONSTERHUNTERWORLD.COM This has long been one of the most popular RPG series in Japan, which is a surprise, given how complex it is. After a long period spent wallowing in Nintendo exclusivity, Monster Hunter World is Capcom’s first attempt to bring the series to multiple platforms. Given the success of cooperative games like Destiny, now’s a better time than ever to make that move. The premise is simple enough: you’re a hunter, your quarry is monsters, and that’s about it. The truth is, these are eminently complex games, and while World blunts some of the more arcane elements of the series (mostly through streamlining the user interface), it’ll still be confusing to most players. Tutorials are thorough and abundant, but for…

PC | US$30 | WWW.SEVEN-GAME.COM/EN This game is a smorgasbord of genres and settings colliding to create something uniquely unusual. A real-time isometric RPG, stealth sandbox, post-apocalyptic sci-fi universe with just enough mysticism to make it fantasy-adjacent — there’s a lot to digest. Seven is a game about being a sticky-fingered thief named Teriel. A master crook, Teriel finds himself shunted off to the prison island of Peh to be a god-like emperor’s newest undercover agent. His mission: search for an ancient hidden spaceship. Oh, yes, and he’s been bonded to a daemon. In Seven, a thief is not a class — it’s Teriel’s career. So it’s not a set of specific abilities, nor does it limit the ways in which his myriad objectives may be completed. Most…

Dragon Age’s ‘Hard in Hightown’ is about to get real Fictional fiction writer gets publishing deal. Varric Tethras is well known among fans of BioWare’s Dragon Age games — largely for his wit, lies, writing prowess, his crossbow Bianca and his chest hair. But while many (your humble writer included) still despair over the fact that he is one of the few travelling companions that you cannot romance, there is cause for celebration — Varric’s oft-referenced Hard in Hightown novel is going to be published by Dark Horse Books! The 96-page-long book will include 24 black-and-white full-page illustrations and, most likely, fleshed out chapters. The story, which heavily borrows from and pokes fun at characters from Dragon Age II, is a mystery set in that game’s city of Kirkwall. The…