I'm curious how well those tiny antennas will perform. I know there are things you can do to make shorter antennas perform similarly to dipoles that are the same size as the wavelength (the standard wifi router antenna is sized for 2.4ghz signals); but they add to the cost (a basic dipole is stupidly cheap).
The feature set on this router is more than I could use in my home, but yes I agree that its fantastic to see a router without a plethora of external antennas jutting out of every edge.
Apparently Hora in swedish translates to prostitute. So other than unfortunate naming scheme it really looks like a good product for small enterprises.
Also: Hora, plural Horae, in Greco-Roman mythology, any one of the personifications of the seasons and goddesses of natural order or simply "hour" in Greek.
At reading "affordable WiFi 6 router with dual 10GbE ports" I though I had made a mistake getting a TP-Link Archer AX50 a few weeks ago. Then I saw that "affordable" in this context apparently still means $329. Thanks, but no thanks.
The 'affordable' qualifier is for the whole feature set : Wi-Fi 6 + 2x 10GBASE-T
A single-port 10GBASE-T expansion card comes in @ $200, and a dual port one at $260. Here, QNAP is giving 2x 10GBASE-T ports + a full-fledged Wi-Fi 6 router for $320 - if that doesn't mean 'affordable 10GBASE-T', I don't know what does. 10GBASE-T adds significantly to BOM cost, and I stand by the lead-up to this piece that this is an affordable piece of networking equipment given its feature set.
Not sure what purpose it would serve.. The WiSoC PCIe lanes are Gen 2 only, and frankly there is no use-case for a NVMe SSD here (most storage-intensive tasks related to Wi-Fi routers can be handled by a USB 3.0 external drive - thumb drive if compactness is required, or a regular external 2.5" drive enclosure)
Purpose? Pretty much everyone who buys a NAS for their home use owns a wireless router. QNAP is a NAS company, so this would be a perfect opportunity for them to stand out when entering the wifi router market. I would never consider a standalone QNAP wireless device (not their area of expertise), but a QNAP NAS + wifi router could have made me reach for my wallet. I can't believe I even have to justify this...
Regarding the external USB drive, I don't think plugging it into this router will turn it into a full-featured QNAP NAS (correct me if I'm wrong).
This particular SoC is not suitable for the type of NAS functions that QNAP usually offers in their QTS units. The IPQ8072A may already be oversubscribed with handling 2x 10GBASE-T ports in addition to VPN duties and other routing functions.
Ok, yes, plugging a wireless card into a NAS would be close to what I want, but it's still not ideal - I don't need a large expensive NAS box, I just want a couple of NVMe sticks in a slim enclosure, not six mechanical drives.
I couldn't find a single consumer level network security appliance that supported gigabit LAN, wifi-6, and WPA3 so just last night I ordered a protectli 2 port appliance with plans on purchasing a capable AP later. I wish that this article was published yesterday I may have waited for this product to be released.
Any word on if this product will support gigabit VPN connections? This would have been far cheaper than a seperate AP and network security device.
Any wifi router capable of running OpenWRT can do WPA3 and wifi-6 is easy to find these days and they all come with Gigabit Lan. But I'm guessing you want these features on the manufacturers immediately abandoned custom firmware.
Although this router is unique in having 10G-BaseT capability I'm not sure I see the point in a wifi router honestly. Even Wifi-6 still can't sustain the 125MB/s transfers that simple 1G Lan can. But I suppose with the multi-client improvements on Wifi-6 that with multiple clients it might finally be able to exceed that as long as multiple clients are active.
I have personally obtained 150MBps+ *practical* throughput when transferring large-sized files using Wi-Fi 6 - single wired client to single wireless client. In iPerf tests, numbers are consistent at around 1.3 Gbps peak [ https://www.anandtech.com/show/16236/asrock-4x4-bo... ]
The key is to use 160MHz channels - but that may not be possible if you are in an area with frequent radar usage.
Not the best timing to release or buy a WiFi 6 router if WiFi 6E is just around the corner. We should see the first models with the new frequencies in January. This is one of the biggest updates for WiFi routers in years. Intel is already selling WiFi 6E cards.
Does this router support Entware? If so then the firmware shortcomings are not that big of a deal since you can add features.
Every 10GBase-T interface I've seen runs stupidly hot at full speed - is this thing actively cooled or is there some new "magic sauce" at play to keep temps down? Until there's a review I'd be wary!
It’s too bad that 10Gb Ethernet is remarkable, still, in 2020. But what’s way worse is that the rest of the ports are 1Gb. Not even the cheapest bargain-basement router should still be shipping with 1000baseT at this point. Entry level consumer routers should have 2.5 Gb, mid-range 5Gb, and high-end 10Gb. I remember the PowerMac G4 my dad bought in 1999 had a Gigabit Ethernet port, and 20 years ago it was pretty cutting edge. Not so much now, but somehow manufacturers still market routers with 1000baseT with no shame.
A very nice looking router that you do not have to try to hide. It looks stylish and can be placed in a book shelf, table top or office in plain sight!
I have a 10Gig home network and I'm glad to see this, especially that it uses 10GBase-T and not 10GBase-SR with SFP+ requiring transceiver modules. Modules are expensive and you cannot run DAC Twin ax through your walls in any affordable way. CAT 6a/7 is cheap, and currently there is no cost difference between 10GBase-T Nics and 10GBase-SR-Cu NICs.
Only thing is, since I prefer wired connections, there's no device really connecting to my wifi that would need that much throughput, unless somehow there are several WiFi 6 devices all connected at once and accessing my Server/NAS
Just a PSA for others: this router does NOT support Jumbo Frames (MTU =9000)
There is no way to change the MTU on the 10gbe ports.
I assumed this device would support Jumbo Frames as they are necessary to utilize the full bandwidth of 10gbe.
I painfully realized this device does not, through trial-and-error. When I enable Jumbo Frames on my Synology NAS (1621xs+), I completely lose the connection to the NAS. I tried two different 10gbe adaptors for my Macbook (both with jumbo frames enabled) and couldn’t figure out what was going on. I thought the NAS had crashed. I had to reinstalled the OS (or so I thought, see below)
After weeks of troubleshooting, I then connected to a 1gbe port instead of the 10gbe port on the NAS and was able to connect!
I then direct-connected to the NAS, bypassing this router. And I was able to connect to the NAS, AND I was getting much faster speeds over 10gbe. (I was finally maxing out the connection over RAID 5, something I was never able to do over the router)
My return window has now closed, so I am stuck with either using this router that bottlenecks my NAS…or using an awkward setup where only one computer can direct-connect to the NAS over 10gbe. I thought a WiFi 6 router with 10gbe x2 at this price seemed to be too good to be true, sadly it seems I was right. Hopefully this saves others some pain!
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antonkochubey - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Oh hey, a home / SMB router that doesn't look like a hideous spider. What a welcome design decision.DanNeely - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
I'm curious how well those tiny antennas will perform. I know there are things you can do to make shorter antennas perform similarly to dipoles that are the same size as the wavelength (the standard wifi router antenna is sized for 2.4ghz signals); but they add to the cost (a basic dipole is stupidly cheap).PeachNCream - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
The feature set on this router is more than I could use in my home, but yes I agree that its fantastic to see a router without a plethora of external antennas jutting out of every edge.Chaitanya - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Apparently Hora in swedish translates to prostitute. So other than unfortunate naming scheme it really looks like a good product for small enterprises.bananaforscale - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Also:Hora, plural Horae, in Greco-Roman mythology, any one of the personifications of the seasons and goddesses of natural order
or simply "hour" in Greek.
abufrejoval - Friday, December 18, 2020 - link
Funny, you do the Latin declination just right at the start and then make that Greek (not that it's that different as ώρα).Harry_Wild - Tuesday, December 8, 2020 - link
One way or another, are we not prostitutes to something or someone?ruthan - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
"Apparently Hora in swedish translates to prostitute. "I dont thing that is bad one.. it could provide connection for lots of clients :)
LiKenun - Thursday, December 3, 2020 - link
Interestingly, there’s a term called “promiscuous mode” in networking…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promiscuous_mode
Valantar - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
At reading "affordable WiFi 6 router with dual 10GbE ports" I though I had made a mistake getting a TP-Link Archer AX50 a few weeks ago. Then I saw that "affordable" in this context apparently still means $329. Thanks, but no thanks.jabber - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Well for reviewers, when you are given stuff all the time, it's affordable. Like when phone reviewers class a $600 phone as budget.ganeshts - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
The 'affordable' qualifier is for the whole feature set : Wi-Fi 6 + 2x 10GBASE-TA single-port 10GBASE-T expansion card comes in @ $200, and a dual port one at $260. Here, QNAP is giving 2x 10GBASE-T ports + a full-fledged Wi-Fi 6 router for $320 - if that doesn't mean 'affordable 10GBASE-T', I don't know what does. 10GBASE-T adds significantly to BOM cost, and I stand by the lead-up to this piece that this is an affordable piece of networking equipment given its feature set.
Mr Perfect - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Yes, it certainty qualifies as affordable in my book. Thanks for posting it.Is this something AT would consider reviewing?
p1esk - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
How could they possibly not include an option to install a couple of NVMe SSDs into this thing? Mind boggling...ganeshts - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Not sure what purpose it would serve.. The WiSoC PCIe lanes are Gen 2 only, and frankly there is no use-case for a NVMe SSD here (most storage-intensive tasks related to Wi-Fi routers can be handled by a USB 3.0 external drive - thumb drive if compactness is required, or a regular external 2.5" drive enclosure)p1esk - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Purpose? Pretty much everyone who buys a NAS for their home use owns a wireless router. QNAP is a NAS company, so this would be a perfect opportunity for them to stand out when entering the wifi router market. I would never consider a standalone QNAP wireless device (not their area of expertise), but a QNAP NAS + wifi router could have made me reach for my wallet.I can't believe I even have to justify this...
Regarding the external USB drive, I don't think plugging it into this router will turn it into a full-featured QNAP NAS (correct me if I'm wrong).
ganeshts - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
This unit doesn't run QTS - so you will not get a NAS by plugging in a USB drive.However, for the type of use-case that you describe, existing NAS units with PCIe expansion slots can already be used for that purpose: https://www.qnap.com/solution/wirelessap-station/e...
This particular SoC is not suitable for the type of NAS functions that QNAP usually offers in their QTS units. The IPQ8072A may already be oversubscribed with handling 2x 10GBASE-T ports in addition to VPN duties and other routing functions.
p1esk - Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - link
Ok, yes, plugging a wireless card into a NAS would be close to what I want, but it's still not ideal - I don't need a large expensive NAS box, I just want a couple of NVMe sticks in a slim enclosure, not six mechanical drives.phatboye - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
I couldn't find a single consumer level network security appliance that supported gigabit LAN, wifi-6, and WPA3 so just last night I ordered a protectli 2 port appliance with plans on purchasing a capable AP later. I wish that this article was published yesterday I may have waited for this product to be released.Any word on if this product will support gigabit VPN connections? This would have been far cheaper than a seperate AP and network security device.
rahvin - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Any wifi router capable of running OpenWRT can do WPA3 and wifi-6 is easy to find these days and they all come with Gigabit Lan. But I'm guessing you want these features on the manufacturers immediately abandoned custom firmware.Although this router is unique in having 10G-BaseT capability I'm not sure I see the point in a wifi router honestly. Even Wifi-6 still can't sustain the 125MB/s transfers that simple 1G Lan can. But I suppose with the multi-client improvements on Wifi-6 that with multiple clients it might finally be able to exceed that as long as multiple clients are active.
ganeshts - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
I have personally obtained 150MBps+ *practical* throughput when transferring large-sized files using Wi-Fi 6 - single wired client to single wireless client. In iPerf tests, numbers are consistent at around 1.3 Gbps peak [ https://www.anandtech.com/show/16236/asrock-4x4-bo... ]The key is to use 160MHz channels - but that may not be possible if you are in an area with frequent radar usage.
5080 - Tuesday, December 1, 2020 - link
Not the best timing to release or buy a WiFi 6 router if WiFi 6E is just around the corner. We should see the first models with the new frequencies in January. This is one of the biggest updates for WiFi routers in years. Intel is already selling WiFi 6E cards.Does this router support Entware? If so then the firmware shortcomings are not that big of a deal since you can add features.
CaptainChaos - Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - link
Every 10GBase-T interface I've seen runs stupidly hot at full speed - is this thing actively cooled or is there some new "magic sauce" at play to keep temps down? Until there's a review I'd be wary!CaptainChaos - Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - link
My bad... I just noticed the "Fanless Design" in the specs!MoGraphMan - Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - link
"10GBASE-T ports are not available in a Wi-Fi 6 router from any other vendor - so there is no direct comparison to make."Um, that's not correct.
https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RT-AX89X/
ganeshts - Wednesday, December 2, 2020 - link
Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I have added an edit to the piece with a few comments about the Asus model.codingpanic - Friday, December 4, 2020 - link
Curious if anyone has tested throughput from wired to wireless. Are you able to get speeds >1Gb from one to the other?ganeshts - Saturday, December 5, 2020 - link
On this particular model - not yet. But, in general, Wi-Fi 6 routers can deliver practical gigabit+ TCP throughput - https://www.anandtech.com/show/16236/asrock-4x4-bo...Adam-James - Sunday, December 6, 2020 - link
It’s too bad that 10Gb Ethernet is remarkable, still, in 2020. But what’s way worse is that the rest of the ports are 1Gb. Not even the cheapest bargain-basement router should still be shipping with 1000baseT at this point. Entry level consumer routers should have 2.5 Gb, mid-range 5Gb, and high-end 10Gb. I remember the PowerMac G4 my dad bought in 1999 had a Gigabit Ethernet port, and 20 years ago it was pretty cutting edge. Not so much now, but somehow manufacturers still market routers with 1000baseT with no shame.Harry_Wild - Tuesday, December 8, 2020 - link
A very nice looking router that you do not have to try to hide. It looks stylish and can be placed in a book shelf, table top or office in plain sight!AnarchoPrimitiv - Saturday, December 12, 2020 - link
I have a 10Gig home network and I'm glad to see this, especially that it uses 10GBase-T and not 10GBase-SR with SFP+ requiring transceiver modules. Modules are expensive and you cannot run DAC Twin ax through your walls in any affordable way. CAT 6a/7 is cheap, and currently there is no cost difference between 10GBase-T Nics and 10GBase-SR-Cu NICs.Only thing is, since I prefer wired connections, there's no device really connecting to my wifi that would need that much throughput, unless somehow there are several WiFi 6 devices all connected at once and accessing my Server/NAS
AKMtnr - Monday, March 1, 2021 - link
Just a PSA for others: this router does NOT support Jumbo Frames (MTU =9000)There is no way to change the MTU on the 10gbe ports.
I assumed this device would support Jumbo Frames as they are necessary to utilize the full bandwidth of 10gbe.
I painfully realized this device does not, through trial-and-error. When I enable Jumbo Frames on my Synology NAS (1621xs+), I completely lose the connection to the NAS. I tried two different 10gbe adaptors for my Macbook (both with jumbo frames enabled) and couldn’t figure out what was going on. I thought the NAS had crashed. I had to reinstalled the OS (or so I thought, see below)
After weeks of troubleshooting, I then connected to a 1gbe port instead of the 10gbe port on the NAS and was able to connect!
I then direct-connected to the NAS, bypassing this router. And I was able to connect to the NAS, AND I was getting much faster speeds over 10gbe. (I was finally maxing out the connection over RAID 5, something I was never able to do over the router)
My return window has now closed, so I am stuck with either using this router that bottlenecks my NAS…or using an awkward setup where only one computer can direct-connect to the NAS over 10gbe. I thought a WiFi 6 router with 10gbe x2 at this price seemed to be too good to be true, sadly it seems I was right. Hopefully this saves others some pain!
bottlething - Friday, April 23, 2021 - link
In QNAP’s User Guide, section 7:7. Specify an MTU value between 98 and 9000.
> remember that jumbo frames need to be enabled at all links in your network!