router

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Realtek WiFi 7 and WiFi 6 roadmap for routers and clients

Realtek WiFi 7 and WiFi 6 roadmap for routers and clients

Realtek Testbed WiFi 7

We’ve just written about Realtek 5 Gbps Ethernet chips, but the company also has some roadmaps for WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 router chips, and a WiFi 7 client module demonstrated at COMPUTEX 2023. The company’s roadmap include five WiFi 7 router solutions: WiFi 7 BE6500 router with a Realtek 8198DS dual Arm core processor @ 1.2 GHz with an RTL8952AR 2×2 MIMO 5 GHz and 6 GHz chip, RTL8902A 2×2 2.4 GHz chip, and an RTL8221B 2.5GbE PHY WiFi 7 BE9400 router with a Realtek 8198DS dual Arm core processor @ 1.2 GHz with an RTL8952AR 2×2 MIMO 5 GHz chip, RTL8902A 2×2 2.4 GHz chip, an RTL8934AR 4×4 MIMO 6 GHz chip, and an RTL8221B 2.5GbE PHY WiFi 7 BE3400 router with a Realtek 8198DS dual Arm core processor @ 1.2 GHz with an RTL8952AR 2×2 MIMO 5 GHz chip, and an RTL8221B 2.5GbE PHY WiFi 7 BE6400 […]

Posted on by Ian W MORRISON (Linuxium) - 26 Comments on Beelink EQ12 Review – An Intel Processor N100 mini PC tested with Windows 11, TrueNAS, pfSense, Ubuntu, and more

Beelink EQ12 Review – An Intel Processor N100 mini PC tested with Windows 11, TrueNAS, pfSense, Ubuntu, and more

Beelink EQ12 Review

Beelink’s new EQ series of mini PCs form their base product range and feature low-powered Jasper Lake and Alder Lake-N processors with relatively basic port and memory/storage configurations. Perhaps more importantly, they are also the cheapest mini PCs they offer. Having recently announced the EQ12 mini PC featuring an Intel Processor N100 ‘Alder Lake-N’ CPU with up to 16GB RAM, Beelink have now sent one for review. Whilst I’ll cover the basic Windows operation and performance, I’ll also explore how this new mini PC performs when used as an integrated router and NAS. Beelink EQ12 specifications Beelink list the EQ12 specifications as: It is worth noting that the Processor N100 processor only supports a single memory channel and that according to Intel’s specification for the processor, the maximum memory supported is only 16 GB. Intel’s specification for the number of graphical execution units (EUs) also states 24 however software such […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments on GL.iNet Spitz AX review – Part 2: a router with 5G NR, WiFi 6, 2.5GbE, failover and load balancing

GL.iNet Spitz AX review – Part 2: a router with 5G NR, WiFi 6, 2.5GbE, failover and load balancing

Gl.iNet Spitz AX review 5G failover testing

Earlier this month I introduced the GL.iNet Spitz AX (aka GL-X3000NR) router with 2.5GbE, WiFi 6, and 5G NR cellular connectivity listing the specifications, doing an unboxing, and going through the initial setup. I’ve now received a new SIM card for testing and installed it into the router to continue the review. 4G/5G cellular connectivity on Spitz AX router After powering the router, the SIM card was detected and showed a 5G connection, but quickly fell back to 4G as can be seen with the cyan icon in the screenshot below. Shortly after, I lost 4G data connectivity, and after a while, the modem was not detected at all. But after restarting the router, and clicking on the “Auto Setup” icon everything looked to be working fine and I was always on a 5G connection from “house 1”. You’ll notice an envelop icon on the top right corner of the […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 37 Comments on Lichee Pi 4A RISC-V SBC takes on Raspberry Pi 4 with TH1520 processor

Lichee Pi 4A RISC-V SBC takes on Raspberry Pi 4 with TH1520 processor

Lichee Pi 4A RISC V SBC

Lichee Pi 4A is a single board computer (SBC) powered by Alibaba T-Head TH1520 quad-core RISC-V Xuantie C910  processor @ 2.0 GHz with an Imagination GPU and a 4 TOPS NPU for AI that can compete against the Raspberry Pi 4 in terms of performance and features. We previously mentioned the Lichee Pi 4A (LPi4A) in our article about the Sipeed LM4A RISC-V system-on-module, but at the time we only had some benchmarks for the board and no photos and specifications about the SBC. Sipeed has now released photos, published detailed specifications, and is taking orders for the board. So let’s have a closer look. Lichee Pi 4A specifications against the ones for Raspberry Pi 4.   The TH1520 used to be advertised at up to 2.5 GHz, but it seems to have now come down to 2.0 GHz. Software support will include Debian, OpenWrt, and Android which should then […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on GL.iNet Spitz AX (GL-X3000NR) 5G NR WiFi 6 router review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, and first boot

GL.iNet Spitz AX (GL-X3000NR) 5G NR WiFi 6 router review – Part 1: Specs, unboxing, and first boot

GL-X3000NR 5G NR WiFi 6 router review

GL.iNet Spitz AX, also known as GL-X3000NR, is a compact 5G NR WiFi 6 router running OpenWrt 21.02 on a MediaTek Filogic 820 (TM7981A) dual-core Cortex-A53 processor coupled with 512MB DDR4 and 8GB eMMC flash, as well 2.5GbE and GbE interfaces, and a USB 2.0 port. The company sent us a Spitz AX router for evaluation, and in the first part of the review, we’ll go through the specifications, and do an unboxing and a teardown, before connecting it for a first boot. GL.iNet Spitz AX router specifications SoC – MediaTek MT7981A (Filogic 820) dual-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.3 GHz System Memory – 512 MB DDR4 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash, MicroSD card slot up 1+ TB Networking 1x 2.5GbE WAN Ethernet port 1x Gigabit Ethernet LAN port Dual-band IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax WiFi 6 up to 574Mbps (2.4GHz), 2402Mbps (5GHz) RM520N-GL 5G cellular modem and 2x Nano SIM card slots […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Queclink WR300FG – A 5G industrial router with GbE, Wi-Fi 6, GNSS, RS232 and RS485 interfaces

Queclink WR300FG – A 5G industrial router with GbE, Wi-Fi 6, GNSS, RS232 and RS485 interfaces

5G industrial router

Queclink Wireless Solutions WR300FG is a dual SIM 5G industrial router with five Gigabit Ethernet ports, WiFi 6, GNSS, RS232 and RS485 interfaces designed for factory automation, smart energy infrastructure, and Internet of Vehicles (IoV). TheWR300FG is based on a Qualcomm IPQ8072 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 networking processor running OpenWrt, supports both 5G SA/NSA modes, backward-compatibility with 4G/3G, and its dual SIM features enabled automatic switchover for interrupted 5G connectivity.   WR300FG specifications: SoC – Qualcomm IPQ8072 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 @ 2.2 GHz part of Qualcomm Networking Pro 1200 Platform System Memory – TBD Storage – 1GB flash (described as “hard disk” in the press release!)  Connectivity Cellular 5G SA, 5G NSA, 4G LTE, 3G UMTS Operating bands 5G NR – n1/n2/n3/n5/n7/n8/n12/n20/n28/n38/n40/n41/n48/n66/n71/n77/n78/n79LTE-FDD: B1/B3/B5/B7/B8/B18/B19/B20/B26/B28/B32 LTE-TDD: B34/B38/39/B40/B41/B42/B43 WCDMA: B1/B2/B4/B5/B6/B8/B19 2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz Data rates 5G SA: DL 2.1Gbps; UL 900Mbps 5G NSA: DL 2.5Gbps; UL 650Mbps LTE-FDD: Max 150Mbps (DL)/Max 50Mbps (UL) […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments on NanoPi R6C review – Ubuntu 22.04, NVMe SSD, USB debug

NanoPi R6C review – Ubuntu 22.04, NVMe SSD, USB debug

NanoPi R6C Review Ubuntu 22.04

FriendlyElec has recently announced the NanoPi R6C mini PC that a variant of the Rockchip RK3588S powered NanoPi R6S mini PC and 2.5GbE router that we reviewed with FriendlyWrt/OpenWrt and Ubuntu 22.04 earlier this year, but with just one 2.5GbE and one GbE interface, a built-in M.2 NVMe SSD socket and USB-C Debug UART port for easy external access to the serial console. The company sent me a NanoPi R6C sample for review, but since we’ve already tested the similar NanoPi R6S extensively, I’ll write a single-post mini review this time around, checking out the hardware, and focusing on testing the new features such as the NVMe SSD and the USB debug port when running Ubuntu 22.04. NanoPi R6C unboxing As usual, the device came in a non-descript cardboard package with a few 3M rubber pads. The most obvious change compared to the NanoPi R6S is that all main ports […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on Getting Started with GL-S200 Thread Border Router kit

Getting Started with GL-S200 Thread Border Router kit

Getting Started GL-S200 Thread Border Router

Last week we checked out the hardware for the GL.iNet GL-S200 Thread Border Router kit with three nRF52840 Thread Dev Boards, and I’ve now had time to work with the kit, so I’ll report my getting started experience in the second part of the review. GL-S200 Initial Set Up I connected the WAN port to my Ethernet Switch itself connected to my modem router and the LAN port to my laptop, so I could access the web interface using the default IP address (192.168.8.1). The GL-S200 uses the same Admin Panel as other GL.iNet routers such as the Beryl AX router we reviewed at the beginning of the year. You’ll be greeted by a wizard to let you select the language and set a new password for the Admin Panel, and once you’re done you’ll have access to the familiar GL.iNet Admin Panel 4.x.x. After completing the wizard, the system […]

PICO-V2K4 SBC