Category: Google OnHub

Today’s Deal is on the pre-Google WiFi home router, Google OnHub.  Remember OnHub?  It debuted back in 2015 and was Google’s first attempt at making home networking easy.  They succeeded and made it even better with the second generation of devices that we know as Google WiFi.  The good thing is, OnHub is completely compatible with Google WiFi which makes a deal like today’s one to seriously consider.

Right now over at Amazon you can pick up the TP-Link build Google OnHub for $99.  That is a saving of $100 from the original price.

Physically the OnHub is a column-shaped device that measures 4.5″ x 7.5″ x 4.0″ and weighs in at 1.9 lbs.  In new money that 115 x 190 x 105 mm and .86 kg.  Powering the OnHub is a dual-core Qualcomm IPQ8064 with 1GB of RAM and each core running at up to 1.4 GHz and that horsepower for a Wi-Fi access point is important because of the massive antenna array in the device.  There is also 4GB of storage built into the unit. There are a total of 13 antennas in it that supports 802.11a/b/g/n/ac for wireless connectivity, a Bluetooth antenna and a Zigbee antenna. 

Today’s Deal is on the ASUS built dual-band Google OnHub router.  The OnHub router is currently down to $129 at the Google Store and eligible for free shipping.  For those who don’t know, the OnHub routers were the predecessor of what is now Google Wi-Fi.  It allows easy network management through the Google Wi-Fi app and is completely compatible with the new Wi-Fi models from Google.  This router will completely mess with the new ones, giving you complete coverage in your home.

The OnHub has high performance antennas that auto-tune to give you the best Wi-Fi experience in your home without you having to do anything.  It does this by moving your device from channel to channel to find the least crowded one on your network.

[Update] – The Google OnHub team has now sent out emails to OnHub users indicating that Google Wi-Fi will work with OnHub.  This is good news for sure as it means it isn’t a throw-away item but further development of OnHub itself is highly unlikely.

Today Google announced their newest home wireless network solution, Google Wi-Fi.  Designed to be a modular solution to cover any size home, Google Wi-Fi brings optimized networks to give you the best wireless experience in your home available.

Sound familiar?  It should because that is exactly what the company said Google OnHub would bring.  That product, after months of frustration for users by the lack of development by Google, appears to have gotten its death warrant today.

Last year, we introduced OnHub with partners TP-LINK and ASUS to create a better Wi-Fi experience, focusing on design and simplicity. Google Wifi, built on the strengths of OnHub, is our next step towards ensuring that our homes can have great Wi-Fi everywhere we need it.

This new Google Wi-Fi is built on what they learned from OnHub but as for OnHub itself, it is game over by all indications.

The Google OnHub app was updated last week and while the official release notes indicated it was primarily around performance fixes and adding support for Phillips Hue lighting, there was another small but important change made to the app.  The OnHub app has always been able to do some network testing and when I initially reviewed the router and app, this was one area that was really in need of improvement.  That improvement has come over the course of the past few updates (I have no hesitation in recommending it now) but the change made to the app last week brings some clarity to those network tests.

To begin, the testing of your Internet connection speed and your Wi-Fi speed are now two separate tests.  You can run both of them or just one of them where as before, they were all lumped in together.  To be clear however, you have to run the Internet test first, every time, to get to the stand alone Wi-Fi test.  Hopefully this will change in the future but for now, it is what it is.

Google has released an update to the OnHub app for Android that brings you historical data on your network connection testing.  The update you are looking for is version jetstream-BV10057_RC0007 for those keeping score at home & who like Google Version Naming Bingo and it is available now in the Google Play Store.  The OTA is also rolling out so you should have the update soon if not already.

If you read my review of OnHub, you know that you can do some testing of your network connectivity within the app to give you an idea of what your download and uploads speeds are through your ISP.  The idea is to see how close you are getting to what you are paying for through your provider.  This particular part of the app I was critical of in my review because the results were wildly inaccurate.  That, it seems, has been resolved in this update as well.

The user friendly Google OnHub app and wireless routers have received a significant update today, bringing with it one of the most requested features in the user forums:  Guest Networks.

To this point, when you had guests over and you wanted to give them access to your wireless network, you had to give them your main network password.  It wasn’t ideal and for many who looked at the device, it was a turn off.  With the update of both the OnHub app and the router’s firmware, you now have the option to create a guest network which you can easily control from the app.

You can read my review here of Google OnHub.