Custom PC - UK (2020-07)

Letters

What a mesh
For the first time in years I’m
looking at routers (as OpenReach
has announced that FTTP will be in
my area soon), and your article on
the Netgear Orbi (see Issue 201, p30)
raised a few questions.
Firstly, how much?! Secondly,
mesh seems to be the norm these
days. My current 802.11n setup
uses range extenders, but would
you recommend mesh routers
over separate range extenders?
Thirdly, do all these modern mesh
routers support FTTP and have
the connections needed for fibre,
or would I need some sort of fibre
modem that’s networked to a mesh
router to get Wi-Fi?
ANDREW LEVICK

Ben: I would absolutely recommend a
mesh setup over using range extenders,
if that’s your current setup. Having a
mesh system means you don’t have to
keep connecting to different extenders
if you move your phone/tablet/laptop
around your house, and they also offer
much faster and more consistent
speeds. I know some range extenders
allow you to keep the same SSID as your

router,soyoudon’thavetoreconnect,but

a meshsystemwillgenerallybemuch

fasterandmorereliable.

Andyes,thenewWi-Fi6 Orbi’spriceis

ridiculous.I’mnotentirelysurehowmuch

moneyNetgearthinkspeoplehaveto

spendona router,butthecurrentprice

makesit a prettynicheproductatthe

moment,andthat’sa shamebecause

Netgear’solder802.11acRBK50Orbi

kitsofferedprettydecentvalueforthe

speedonoffer.Anyway,youdon’tneed

tospendsillymoneyontheOrbitogeta

decentsetup– theAsusAiMeshAX

kitis aroundhalfthepriceandwonour

Wi-Fi6 routerroundupfromIssue196.

Toansweryourthirdquestion,yourISP

shouldprovideyouwitha separateFTTP

modem,whichyoucanplugintothe

WANportonyourmeshrouter’smaster

unit– youdon’tneedtobuya specific

routerforFTTPbroadband.

Please send us your feedback and correspondence to

[email protected]

FEEDBACK

JUNE

Issue 203^7

on sale on Thursday, 11 June

When’s the next issue out? Crunching for a vaccine

I know you’re already well aware of

the distributedcomputing efforts

of BOINC and Folding@home, and

the global pandemic is impossible to

miss at the moment.

However, I thought I’d point out

to your readers that Rosetta@home

on BOINC (boinc.bakerlab.org) is

doing work towards COVID-19, as is

Folding@home. 

If readers have CPU cycles going

idle, please consider signing up for

Rosetta@home, while pointing your

GPUs at Folding@home. Let’s show

the world that working together is

what humanity does best. Good luck

and stay safe.

STEVEN CAMPBELL

Ben: We are indeed aware of the

work of both Rosetta@home and

Folding@home, and you’ll also find a

feature about the latter on p82 in this

issue, where we talk to the project’s

director Greg Bowman about COVID-

research. We haven’t covered much

about Rosetta@home in the past, as we

have a top 20 Folding@home team and

that’s historically been our focus, but it’s

definitely a similarly worthy endeavour.

It’s worth using your CPU for Folding@

home too. It doesn’t get you many

points, but it can still contribute to vital

research, some of which can’t be done

on GPUs, as you’ll read in our feature.

Whether you use Rosetta@home

and/or Folding@home, and whichever

team you’re on, I love the fact that

PC hobbyists are able to make a real

difference here. Sometimes we forget

just how much raw computing power

we have at our disposal, and it’s brilliant

that so many of us are grouping our

resources together for a common good.

The Orbi AX6000 is

amazing, but we’re

not quite sure how

Netgear came up

with the price

Both Rosetta@home

and Folding@home

(pictured) enable

you to use your

spare clock cycles for

COVID-19 research