Wi-Fi & Networks
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News
If software eats everything, are network engineers on the menu?
If you're a network engineer, don't rush out and learn a programming language. To compete in the new world of software-defined networking, it might be more important to start thinking like a programmer. That was one of the ideas that emerged this week at the ONUG Spring conference.News
FCC chairman to announce plans to repeal net neutrality
The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to announce plans to repeal the agency's 2015 net neutrality rules on Wednesday.News
ONUG gets closer to making SD-WANs talk to each other
A group of networking engineers and vendors is making progress toward an API that would help enterprises merge SD-WANs from different vendors.
News
Users’ orders: Make it easier to build hybrid clouds
At its spring conference next week, the Open Networking User Group will focus on enterprises extending their infrastructure to create hybrid clouds, a process the group says is too hard and too time-consuming.
News
Flaws let attackers hijack multiple Linksys router models
Two dozen Linksys router models are exposed to attacks that could extract sensitive information from their configurations, cause them to become unresponsive and even completely take them over.
Reviews
TP-Link Deco M5 router review: This mesh network comes with a side of antivirus
Much more than a me-too product, the Deco M5 delivers both innovation and performance.News
Google is helping to build another Asia-Pacific submarine cable
Google is investing in another massive undersea fiber-optic cable as a part of its plans to build out network connectivity around the world. The company announced Wednesday that it is helping to fund a project called Indigo, which will connect Jakarta, Singapore, Perth and Sydney to one another.News
Google’s Espresso networking tech takes SD-WAN to internet scale
Google is working to accelerate the performance of its applications over the internet by building out a software-defined network at broad scale. On Tuesday, the company announced Espresso, a system that provides increased network performance to users of the company’s applications.
News
New ONOS release helps automate network configuration
The latest update to the ONOS open networking operating system should make it easier to automatically configure devices and services on a network.
News
Vodafone prepares an LTE moon shot, quite literally
Thanks to Vodafone, the Taurus-Littrow Valley on the Moon will get its first mobile phone base station next year.News
How much can a fiber carry? Facebook and Nokia are pushing it
Facebook and Nokia have found a way to push a lot more data through a submarine cable across the Atlantic, which could help the social network keep up with the growth of video and virtual reality.
News
Huawei sees switch to flash as right time to rethink whole storage infrastructure
Huawei Technologies is going all flash with its latest enterprise storage system, the OceanStor Dorado V3. It's part of the new storage-as-a-service (STaaS) offering the company unveiled at Cebit.News
Netgear’s feature-packed 802.11ad router has dropped to $350
For today only, Amazon's offering Netgear's Nighthawk X10 router at an all-time low.
News
Unpatched vulnerability puts Ubiquiti networking products at risk
An unpatched command injection vulnerability could allow hackers to take over enterprise networking products from Ubiquiti Networks.News
Netgear’s Arlo Pro security camera starter pack has dropped to $600
If you need a solid wireless security camera set-up, this Arlo Pro four pack won't be getting much cheaper right now.
News
5G plans just hit the accelerator
The international body crafting the 5G standard has approved an accelerated roadmap that could see large-scale trials and deployments in 2019 instead of 2020.News
Intel’s PC chief talks about 5G, changes in chip design
Intel surprised many when the company hired outsider Venkata Renduchintala to lead the company's PC, Internet of Things and Systems Architecture groups. With more than a year under his belt, he's spearheading a cultural change inside the company, getting employees to think beyond PCs and talk about technologies like 5G and the Internet of Things.News
Extreme will buy Avaya’s networking business for $100 million
Avaya has found a buyer for its networking business: Extreme Networks will buy the division for about US$100 million as part of Avaya’s bankruptcy process.
News
ZTE pays $892M settlement to US over illegal sales to Iran
Chinese smartphone maker ZTE has agreed to pay US$892 million to the U.S. government for illegally selling networking technology to Iran.
News
Netgear’s R6300v2 dual-band 802.11ac router is down to $70 today
It's a pretty solid Wi-Fi router with gigabit ethernet, beamforming, USB peripheral support, and remote access for well under $100.
How-To
How to identify and resolve double-NAT problems
We’ll show you how to eliminate this conflict between your router and your broadband gateway.
News
India’s Reliance Jio is blazing a trail to all-IP mobile networks
Fast-growing Indian mobile operator Reliance Jio may offer a glimpse of where all mobile networks are going eventually, to packet-based Internet Protocol infrastructure.News
This tool can help you discover Cisco Smart Install protocol abuse
Cisco's Talos team has released a tool that allows network owners to discover switches on their networks that might be vulnerable to Cisco Smart Install (SMI) attacks.
News
Enterprises enter the 5G spotlight at MWC
Enterprise uses of 5G are the focus for many participants at this week's Mobile World Congress, a shift from flashy promises of mobile broadband speeds a year ago. The key enterprise benefits worth exploring, vendors say, are high reliability, low latency and longer IoT battery life through more efficient networks.
News
SK Telecom pushes for interoperable quantum crypto systems
SK Telecom and Nokia have developed a prototype quantum cryptography system that combines the South Korean company's quantum key server with an encryption device from Nokia.
News
Facebook’s Telecom Infra Project is a year old
Facebook's Telecom Infra Project is already pulling in a significant proportion of the world's telecommunications industry, just a year after it launched with the goal of dramatically cutting the cost of building networks needed to get the next billion users online.
News
NTT DoCoMo demos VR control of robots over 5G
At this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Japan's NTT DoCoMo is demonstrating remote control of robots via a wireless virtual reality system over a next-generation 5G wireless link.News
Telefonica-Sigfox deal is a big win for diverse IoT networks
The global partnership announced Wednesday between Telefonica and IoT specialist Sigfox could ensure the latter’s long-term success while accelerating the overall growth of LPWANs (low-power, wide-area networks).News
Amid cyberattacks, ISPs try to clean up the internet
From what Level 3 Communications can tell, there’s a staggering 178 million IP addresses out there associated with malicious activity.News
Police arrest man suspected of building million-router German botnet
Last year, someone turned a German internet service provider into a million-router botnet. German police think they will soon have the culprit.News
Freebies from Reliance Jio hasten Indian mobile consolidation
India’s largest operator, Bharti Airtel, is to acquire the Indian mobile business of Norwegian carrier Telenor, in an apparent move to counter the impact of disruptive pricing by new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm.
News
Brocade’s Ruckus Wi-Fi business finds a buyer
Broadcom will unload the Ruckus Wireless Wi-Fi business for US$800 million after it takes over Brocade Communications Systems later this year.
News
Kite-surfing could put rural Brits online
Network operator EE will deliver 4G internet access from a kite-like balloon first developed as an observation and communications platform for the military.News
Intel supercharges Atom chips with 16 cores and pro-level features
Intel's Atom was mostly known as a low-end chip for mobile devices that underperformed. That may not be the case anymore.
News
Don’t wait for 5G: LTE could be your key to IoT
One of the many whiz-bang features promised in 5G is a new way of connecting millions of small, low-powered IoT devices. But there's no need to wait: Two forms of LTE tuned for IoT have entered a market that's already heating up with rapidly expanding specialist networks.
News
LTE speeds outpace home internet with new Qualcomm and Intel modems
With every new generation of smartphone, LTE connections get faster. That's because the devices have faster modems that can transfer data at unprecedented download speeds.News
This chip adds Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and smart device chops to maker boards and gadgets
Qualcomm crams new wireless technologies — Bluetooth Low Energy 5, OpenThread, and ZigBee 3.0 — on a new chipset.
News
AT&T jumps on the unlimited data bandwagon with an expensive new plan
AT&T is introducing its own unlimited data plan, but don't count on using your smartphone as a hotspot.News
5G progress at Ericsson could help enterprises work worldwide
The Swedish network giant Ericsson will have a lot of prospective 5G equipment to show to gearheads at Mobile World Congress later this month, but the future cloud capabilities it demonstrates may be just as important for a subscriber’s experience.
News
In Verizon’s wake, T-Mobile adds hotspot data, HD video streaming to unlimited data plans
T-Mobile is adding features to T-Mobile One that it didn't have compared to Verizon's new unlimited call, text, and data plan.News
Forget the network perimeter, say security vendors
Security vendors start embracing Google's BeyondCorp network security model that treats all apps and devices as being on the Internet instead of assigning higher trust to local networks.
News
Chips coming by June will herald the next generation of Wi-Fi: 802.11ax
Qualcomm will start shipping sample chips for the next generation of Wi-Fi by June, helping device and network vendors develop products that might quadruple users’ speeds and lengthen battery life.News
Verizon revives its unlimited data plan after purging legacy unlimited data plan users
Verizon is offering an unlimited data plan once again, but don't go over 22GB per month.News
On land and in space, IoT networks can now cover the planet
At Mobile World Congress later this month, Nokia will show off what it calls WING (worldwide IoT network grid), a virtual global infrastructure that may include multiple carrier networks and satellite systemsNews
Low-power IoT networks go global with a satellite backbone
Inmarsat says it’s built the first global IoT network by combining land-based low-power networks with its mesh of communications satellites, bringing data connections to things like cattle in Australia and reservoirs in Malaysia.News
Flaw in Intel Atom chip could crash servers, networking gear
A flaw in an old Intel chip could crash servers and networking equipment, and the chip maker is working to fix the issue.
News
HPE acquires security startup Niara to boost its ClearPass portfolio
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has acquired Niara, a startup that uses machine learning and big data analytics on enterprise packet streams and log streams to detect and protect customers from advanced cyberattacks that have penetrated perimeter defenses.News
Now Cisco can even network your building systems
The latest network hardware from Cisco Systems gives new meaning to the words “light switch.” The Cisco Digital Building Series is an Ethernet switch designed to connect building infrastructure.News
Easy-to-exploit authentication bypass flaw puts Netgear routers at risk
It has taken Netgear over half-a-year to identify router models vulnerable to a serious authentication bypass vulnerability and to release patches for them.News