OnHub is one of the best routers I've ever owned. I've been buying custom router hardware for years -- I even went as far as building my own OpenBSD / PFsense router way back when, but nothing I've ever built (or bought!) has given me the same reliability / stability / speed as the OnHub.
I'm seriously impressed with it.
Also: the OnHub management app for mobile is AMAZING. It is so cool.
Awesome product. Really great to see them put more effort into it and support integrations with IFTTT :D
Single data point on custom router build reliability:
I've been using IPFire/pfSense on a little passively cooled Celeron box for a couple years. It reliably hits the theoretical gigabit limit ~800Mb/s and has never once failed even while running intrusion detection. Coupled with a ~$150 wireless router-turned-access point, I have never had a single reliability issue.
I have an Apple Airport thing and had a similar experience - years of buying cheap routers then suddenly I had one that "just works". To the point that I haven't had to open/use the administration panel in an absolute age.
Same here.. Long string of custom built routers, pfsense with wifi, OpenWRT, etc... even at one point a very expensive Cisco industrial-class 2.4/5 AP.
Now I have an Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite as my "core" router, and the OnHub acting as just-an-AP in bridge mode. It Just Works, and works better than any piece of wireless gear I've had before.
My only "complaint" would be that I'm forced to use a mobile app for configuration - although in the OnHub subreddit, it was said a while back that a basic web UI was in development.
Interesting. I was running pfsense since 2006 on a P4 box with PCI Intel pro NICs + WRT54G on DD-WRT, then on an AMD Geode-based HP thin client with an expansion board to give it PCI-E to use a Pro1000/MT card + Cisco Aironet 1200 from eBay that someone flashed LWAP FW onto and couldn't fix so they sold it as parts/not working ($50 IIRC, had to track down the right firmware, took a day of messing with it), and finally now an ERLite + Airport Express + Ubiquiti AP AC Pro.
Power usage on the P4 sucked (>100w idle). The eBay thin clients did much better, usually around 20-40w, and the ERLite is lowest (and it's fanless). I ran a Cisco 2651XM for a while before any of this, but it maxed out doing NAT slower than my home connection was. Honestly though, I was just super excited to get something off-the-shelf for $100 that was stable, supported, low-power, and didn't require much administration. Messing with this stuff was a fun hobby and I learned a lot, but now I don't have as much time and it just needs to work.
What bothers me about this device is the necessity to have a live Google account, which takes in everything I surf in real time. I have serious reservations about this.
Have you ever tried using an Apple AirPort Extreme? That's the router we're running with at home and it's been damn amazing. I haven't had to touch the thing since I bought it 1.5 years ago, and it's only been off three times during the time I've had it (all due to power outages). It's also ridiculously fast; I get almost all of my allocated throughput over Wi-Fi. It's amazing.
Can you explain this further? I'm running pfsense now and it's rock solid. Always has been. So, in that case are you saying that onhub is faster somehow?
Until they discontinue support and turn the service off in a 18 months. It's hard to put any faith in google products anymore, especially with the new alphabet revenue strategy put into place.
The opinions stated here are my own, not necessarily those of Google.
If you are referring to Revolv, Nest/Revolv stopped selling the device the day Nest acquired them (Oct 2014), and they are also issuing refunds to anyone that contacts them[0]. The other major hardware cancel I know about was the Nexus Q which Google also provided a full refund for anyone that contacts them.
Sure, Google could cancel it, but they seem to only do that with something if it was a total flop, and they then do what they can to fully refund whoever was effected.
Absolutely this! I roll with Pfsense hardware because the software is open source. Even if CMB and crew sell or make it proprietary I know that with such a large community some of the contributors will just fork it.
Too many ways for this Google gadget to be made a brick because they don't care about their customers.
I tried OnHub, but unfortunately it didn't have the option to force 5Ghz over 2.4Ghz for devices without going through some hacks. Where I live, 2.4Ghz wireless has 10% packet loss on average, no matter which router I use.
I'm happy that routers are finally getting the UX treatment they deserve, and their target market isn't for people who know the difference between the two, but OnHub should keep the nitty-gritty details accessible to power users if they so wish. I eventually had to return the router and go back to forcing 5Ghz on my old one.
I just wish more of these companies would add support for a locally runnable IFTTT equivalent, or at least something like MQTT support so you can bake your own.
The gratuitous negativity of this article is entirely uncalled for.
I would much rather that a device integrate with IFTTT and thus gain connectivity with the hundreds of services which IFTTT supports than for it to attempt to hand-roll integrations with a much smaller subset of services.
In case anyone disputes my claim of gratuitous negativity:
> Some smart home features finally come to OnHub, but using a non-Google ecosystem.
> Its only real differentiators were the funky design, easy setup, and the promise of future updates.
> Now with the IFTTT update, the OnHub finally supports some smart home features—but it's using someone else's ecosystem.
> IFTTT is now the gateway for controlling other things in your house via the OnHub rather than using some kind of Google communication standard like we expected.
> This is all still happening over Wi-Fi, too, so the OnHub is still not using any of the smart-home antennas it shipped with.
It's negativity, but I'm not convinced on the "gratuitous". They clearly mention the (IMHO reasonable) expectations compared to which this is negative.
I cannot understand why anyone would buy hardware from Google. Chromecast for $35 a pop is as much as I'd be willing to pay from something that they could arbitrarily shut down.
The "can be shutoff at any moment" problem is a huge problem for just about all hardware startups these days. Such huge reliances on cloud services. It's ridiculous.
Shucks. I just bought eero over OnHub because the former seems to answer the multi- floor wireless solution than OnHub.
I'm in a 4-story town home with PoE between floors, which works great, but Apple's AirPort Extreme + Express CONSISTENTLY stops resolving DNS while the wired connections are fine.
Looks like I have another alternative if eero doesn't work...
The remote update "feature" means this has a built-in backdoor into your local network. So you don't want to install this in a law office, anywhere that has to be HIPAA compliant, or any environment requiring security.
Why would you put this in a business? I suppose the same argument holds for space stations prisons but we haven't brought that up.
The lack of remote updates for any router probably also means that it has a back door. There's a pretty extensive list of home router vulns out there already.
Being HIPAA compliant is not generally an indication of a well secured network.
So many of these sorts of products do, and it is infuriating. It makes them utterly inapplicable for many environments. I'm building a home in a school bus. There will most certainly be times when I don't have a good (or any) internet connection, but I still want local and customizable automation.
My plan is to just roll my own with Raspberry PIs.
I'm willing to bet that you represent a very small segment of the population and are thus not a target for this product.
A product can't do everything and be the solution for everyone, each product has a target market and since you're in a niche, most products won't solve your problems.
Every time I read a story about IFTTT support, I want to shout "Please look at Zapier, it's so much better!"
Really, it's so much better.
Zapier = AWS Lambda with hundreds of pre-built integrations, webhooks for the rest, multi-step jobs, arbitrary code execution (JS and Python) ... all in a UI with monitoring that makes all the trouble go away.
Is there a beginner guide for modern, home-use or pro-sumer quality, networking hardware in general, or device specific purchase recommendations for otherwise technically savvy people? Could someone please share a link? I've only ever used the hardware that comes for free with the contract from my cable operator, and I guess it works most of the time... but recently blind spots and and slow-speed-spots have been a nuisance.
> To create Recipes for things you would like to happen automatically, just register and login at IFTTT.com (it’s free) and connect to the OnHub channel. Then start cooking up the Recipes that serve you best. Because OnHub on IFTTT works with so many products and services, there are lots of options for Recipes you can create.
And why this needs to be cloud service? Instead of locally running demon on a raspberry pi?
1. Home IoT controller
2. Public-facing webserver
3. At friend's house where my 3d printers are
And they are all connected together via Tor for networking. Hidden Services are awesome, as they can semantically be treated as a huge ethernet hub (topologically speaking). And Node-Red can command and control other Node-Reds via other plugins.
Edit: There's 474 different Nodes that Node-Red can use. And one node is node-red-contrib-npm, which exposes any npm module as a node to Node-Red. Which sums that up to about 250,000 nodes. http://flows.nodered.org/
[+] [-] rdegges|10 years ago|reply
I'm seriously impressed with it.
Also: the OnHub management app for mobile is AMAZING. It is so cool.
Awesome product. Really great to see them put more effort into it and support integrations with IFTTT :D
[+] [-] dan_quixote|10 years ago|reply
I've been using IPFire/pfSense on a little passively cooled Celeron box for a couple years. It reliably hits the theoretical gigabit limit ~800Mb/s and has never once failed even while running intrusion detection. Coupled with a ~$150 wireless router-turned-access point, I have never had a single reliability issue.
[+] [-] untog|10 years ago|reply
I have an Apple Airport thing and had a similar experience - years of buying cheap routers then suddenly I had one that "just works". To the point that I haven't had to open/use the administration panel in an absolute age.
[+] [-] thrownaway2424|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrbill|10 years ago|reply
Now I have an Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite as my "core" router, and the OnHub acting as just-an-AP in bridge mode. It Just Works, and works better than any piece of wireless gear I've had before.
My only "complaint" would be that I'm forced to use a mobile app for configuration - although in the OnHub subreddit, it was said a while back that a basic web UI was in development.
[+] [-] seanp2k2|10 years ago|reply
Power usage on the P4 sucked (>100w idle). The eBay thin clients did much better, usually around 20-40w, and the ERLite is lowest (and it's fanless). I ran a Cisco 2651XM for a while before any of this, but it maxed out doing NAT slower than my home connection was. Honestly though, I was just super excited to get something off-the-shelf for $100 that was stable, supported, low-power, and didn't require much administration. Messing with this stuff was a fun hobby and I learned a lot, but now I don't have as much time and it just needs to work.
[+] [-] daurnimator|10 years ago|reply
You need to be rather technical to use it IMO, but they're such a step above the rest you'd be mad not to buy one.
e.g. model to get at the moment for home use: hAP ac. it's a 5 gigabit port router with ac wifi.
[+] [-] hiddennetwork|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nunez|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deelowe|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cmrdporcupine|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wmf|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ProAm|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyrra|10 years ago|reply
If you are referring to Revolv, Nest/Revolv stopped selling the device the day Nest acquired them (Oct 2014), and they are also issuing refunds to anyone that contacts them[0]. The other major hardware cancel I know about was the Nexus Q which Google also provided a full refund for anyone that contacts them.
Sure, Google could cancel it, but they seem to only do that with something if it was a total flop, and they then do what they can to fully refund whoever was effected.
http://revolv.com/
[+] [-] godzillabrennus|10 years ago|reply
Too many ways for this Google gadget to be made a brick because they don't care about their customers.
[+] [-] some-guy|10 years ago|reply
I'm happy that routers are finally getting the UX treatment they deserve, and their target market isn't for people who know the difference between the two, but OnHub should keep the nitty-gritty details accessible to power users if they so wish. I eventually had to return the router and go back to forcing 5Ghz on my old one.
[+] [-] kruipen|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stsp|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jethro_tell|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zyxley|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] morgante|10 years ago|reply
I would much rather that a device integrate with IFTTT and thus gain connectivity with the hundreds of services which IFTTT supports than for it to attempt to hand-roll integrations with a much smaller subset of services.
In case anyone disputes my claim of gratuitous negativity:
> Some smart home features finally come to OnHub, but using a non-Google ecosystem.
> Its only real differentiators were the funky design, easy setup, and the promise of future updates.
> Now with the IFTTT update, the OnHub finally supports some smart home features—but it's using someone else's ecosystem.
> IFTTT is now the gateway for controlling other things in your house via the OnHub rather than using some kind of Google communication standard like we expected.
> This is all still happening over Wi-Fi, too, so the OnHub is still not using any of the smart-home antennas it shipped with.
[+] [-] detaro|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] deprave|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] awesomerobot|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guyzero|10 years ago|reply
$35 is about the right amount of money a smart TV enabler.
[+] [-] mankyd|10 years ago|reply
Certainly, they could turn cloud based features such as this off, but the router itself?
[+] [-] ericclemmons|10 years ago|reply
I'm in a 4-story town home with PoE between floors, which works great, but Apple's AirPort Extreme + Express CONSISTENTLY stops resolving DNS while the wired connections are fine.
Looks like I have another alternative if eero doesn't work...
[+] [-] Animats|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jethro_tell|10 years ago|reply
The lack of remote updates for any router probably also means that it has a back door. There's a pretty extensive list of home router vulns out there already.
Being HIPAA compliant is not generally an indication of a well secured network.
[+] [-] copperx|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikecb|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dimino|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davidu|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jMyles|10 years ago|reply
So many of these sorts of products do, and it is infuriating. It makes them utterly inapplicable for many environments. I'm building a home in a school bus. There will most certainly be times when I don't have a good (or any) internet connection, but I still want local and customizable automation.
My plan is to just roll my own with Raspberry PIs.
[+] [-] olegious|10 years ago|reply
A product can't do everything and be the solution for everyone, each product has a target market and since you're in a niche, most products won't solve your problems.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] robbiemitchell|10 years ago|reply
Really, it's so much better.
Zapier = AWS Lambda with hundreds of pre-built integrations, webhooks for the rest, multi-step jobs, arbitrary code execution (JS and Python) ... all in a UI with monitoring that makes all the trouble go away.
[+] [-] Oletros|10 years ago|reply
Right now, I have 25 recipes on IFTTT, if I would have the same number on Zapier I would have to pay $49/month.
[+] [-] PerfectElement|10 years ago|reply
It seems pretty obvious to me and more useful than most recipes I've seen there.
[+] [-] rocky1138|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matt_wulfeck|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xd1936|10 years ago|reply
http://blog.ifttt.com/post/143084444158/onhub-on-ifttt
[+] [-] alexkavon|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] djhn|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Matthias247|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DonHopkins|10 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyBEUyEtxQo
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] venomsnake|10 years ago|reply
And why this needs to be cloud service? Instead of locally running demon on a raspberry pi?
[+] [-] kefka|10 years ago|reply
Edit: There's 474 different Nodes that Node-Red can use. And one node is node-red-contrib-npm, which exposes any npm module as a node to Node-Red. Which sums that up to about 250,000 nodes. http://flows.nodered.org/
[+] [-] dannyr|10 years ago|reply