The Intel Ethernet i226-V onboard 2.5 GbE controller appears to have a design flaw that causes the Ethernet connection to drop at random times for a few seconds. The I226-V is the latest version of Intel's cost-effective 2.5 Gbps Ethernet networking chips meant for PC motherboards with chipsets that have integrated MACs (i.e. Intel chipsets). It succeeds the I225-V, which was Intel's first consumer 2.5 GbE PHY. The I225-V was plagued by various issues that caused it to be unstable at 2.5 Gbps (but could be worked around by forcing 1 GbE mode). Many premium Intel 700-series chipset Socket LGA1700 motherboards integrate the new I226-V, which is the I225's successor, as their default onboard 2.5 GbE controller. Some enthusiast-segment motherboards have a second Ethernet controller that's either of a different brand (such as Realtek or Marvell), or a different kind of wired Ethernet (such as 10 GbE).

Since mid-December, users of Intel 700-series chipset motherboards (which debut the I226-V), have been reporting random connections drops to Intel's Support Community, Microsoft, ASUS and Reddit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. These drops are momentary, last a few seconds, and you'll mostly not notice it; however for applications that need an uninterrupted connection (such as online gaming, video conferencing, VPN, Remote Desktop etc.), such a link drop will be noticeable. You can check if you are affected by opening Windows Event Viewer, navigate to "Windows Logs," "System" and search for "e2fnexpress," in particular Event 27 "Intel Ethernet Controller I226-V, Network link is disconnected." and Event 32 "Intel Ethernet Controller I226-V. Network link has been established at 1 Gbps full duplex." We've experienced the issue in our labs. We tried updating to the latest 27.8 drivers from Intel, and used the latest motherboard BIOS, at 1 Gbps speed, but the issue couldn't be fixed reliably. In the end, we just switched over to the motherboard's second network interface, which is not an Intel NIC, and the issue went away. Another option could be to buy a cheap PCI-Express network card or use the board's integrated Wi-Fi. Still, such issues aren't acceptable, especially not from a world-leading manufacturer like Intel, who once was reputed for the quality of its networking equipment. Intel and its motherboard partners need to get on top of this issue.Update Mar 1st: Intel has issued a Windows workaround and patch for these issues. Let us know if this fixes it for you.

Update Mar 4th: User @lovingbenji reports that on his system this new driver version does not fix the disconnect issue.

For those that don't remember the early days of ASRock, the company started out making some rather unusual motherboards, often with some wild and wacky upgrade paths, such as both a slot and a socket for a CPU or both AGP and PCIe graphics card slots. Since then, ASRock has become a much more mainstream motherboard maker, but the company appears to have gone back to its roots with what the company calls the X670 Xpansion Kit. Right now, the expansion card appears to be working with the B650 LiveMixer motherboard and it's unknown if it's compatible with other models from ASRock. It seems to be limited to ASRock motherboards only, due to the fact that the add-in card requires not only a x4 PCIe slot with all lanes attached, on the motherboard, but also a custom cable that is most likely for "low-speed" I/O's such as I2C, SPI and so on.

As the name suggests, the X670 Xpansion Kit allows B650 motherboards to be turned into X670 motherboards, more or less. The card is home to a second chipset, which enables not only two additional M.2 slots for PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, but it also features two SATA ports, a 10 Gbps USB-C port, three USB-A ports and—maybe most interestingly—a 10 Gbps Ethernet interface. It's unclear if this will be a retail product, but the card provided to Level1Techs doesn't appear to be an engineer unit, but a full retail ready product. It's definitely an interesting upgrade path for those that have invested in a B650 motherboard and there's no real reason why this shouldn't work as well as having the second chipset on the motherboard, especially as ASRock appears to have fitted a signal re-driver on the add-in card to make sure the PCIe signals are handled properly.

SUS IoT, the global AIoT solution provider, today announced PE3000G—the industry's first edge AI system to support Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM) GPUs from both NVIDIA and Intel. Specifically, the all-new industrial PC works seamlessly with NVIDIA Ampere/Turing or Intel Arc A-series MXM GPUs. Powered by a 12th Gen Intel Core processor and up to 64 GB of DDR5 4800 MHz memory, and combining a proven power design, guaranteed and fanless thermal performance, and superior physical and mechanical ruggedness, PE3000G brings unprecedented longevity, computing power, flexibility and reliability to AI computing at the edge—making it an ideal option for scenarios where resilience, longevity and both CPU and GPU scalability are paramount.

"PE3000G is ASUS IoT's response to the burgeoning demand for accelerating AI inference and extreme deployment in industrial settings," commented KuoWei Chao, General Manager of the ASUS IoT business unit. "With robust power, thermal and mechanical design, it pushes versatile edge-AI-inference applications to business-critical applications. PE3000G is an ideal fit to accelerate edge AI inference in SWaP-constrained applications, such as machine vision in factory automation, outdoor surveillance system and AI-inference systems for autonomous vehicles."

ViewSonic Corp, a leading global provider of visual solutions, announces the launch of the VG56V Series, a collection of premium webcam-docking monitors that elevates the video conferencing experience. Crafted to be versatile and functional for the home and office, the VG2456V and VG2756V-2K displays deliver next-level video conferencing capabilities with a pop-up webcam that features built-in LED fill lights and a two-way AI noise reduction function for both input and output audios.

"As more of us move towards a hybrid mode of working and collaborating across different regions, online video conferences will increasingly become more universal for working professionals. That's why we focused on designing our latest VG56V series with cutting-edge video conferencing features," said Oscar Lin, General Manager of the Monitor Business Unit at ViewSonic. "With an intuitive design and simple set-up, these user-centric monitors are the perfect tool to escalate the video conferencing experience."

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking, and storage solutions innovator, today released the Half-width Rackmount QSW-M2106R-2S2T 10-port Layer 2 Web managed Switch. Supporting 2.5GbE, 10GbE and practical Layer 2 management functions, the QSW-M2106R-2S2T satisfies high-bandwidth requirements of servers and LAN infrastructure for SMBs. With its half-width design, the QSW-M2106R-2S2T is an ideal networking solution for server rooms in small businesses and organizations.

"Compared with the previous QSW-M2108R-2C, the QNAP QSW-M2106R-2S2T includes two 10GbE SFP+ and two 10GbE RJ45 ports," said Ricky Ho, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "the half-width rackmount design also allows IT administrator to make efficient space utilization of server racks and cabinets, fulfilling high-bandwidth applications at a cost-optimized price."

For those of you that find a 4K monitor to lack in resolution, but 8K being a bit too pricey, Dell announced a 6K option at CES in the shape of the 32-inch U3224KB monitor. The IPS Black panel features a 6144 x 3456 pixel resolution with 178 degree viewing angles, a contrast ratio of 2000:1 and it's also VESA DisplayHDR 600 certified. As this is a professional monitor, it offers a colour gamut that meets 99 percent of the DCI-P3 colour space, as well as 100 percent of the sRGB and Rec. 709 standards.

On the connectivity side, it supports Thunderbolt 4, with one input and one throughput, which includes 140 W power delivery, the highest we've seen to date from a monitor. It also has a pair of additional pop-out front facing USB-C ports, which can deliver 15 W of power, as well as a USB-A port, all of which are able to deliver data speeds of up to 10 Gbps and four rear mounted USB-A ports. Display inputs consist of one HDMI 2.1, one mini DP 2.1, one USB-C with unknown DisplayPort standard support, as well as one of the Thunderbolt 4 ports. Finally the U3224KB also features an RJ45 jack for Ethernet connectivity.

This year has seen the arrival of a lot of Thunderbolt connected monitors and Samsung is joining the fray with a new model, the ViewFinity S8UT. The 27-inch 4K IPS monitor is very much an office model, as it only has a 60 Hz refresh rate with a 5 ms response time (GtG). The panel is edge lit and has a typical brightness of 350 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of 1000:1. The monitor supports Picture-by-Picture and Picture-in-Picture, courtesy of multiple inputs.

The interesting part of this monitor is the Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, as the main port can output 90 W for charging a connected laptop, while the secondary port can deliver 15 W. The monitor supports Thunderbolt daisy chaining, which isn't a common feature on monitors. The S8UT also sports an HDMI 2.0 port, a three port USB 3.0 hub, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a 3.5 mm headphone socket, as well as a pair of integrated stereo speakers. The stand supports pivot, swivel, tilt and height adjustment. The S8UT comes with a three year warranty, but there's currently no word on pricing.

The number of devices, such as WiFi 6 access points and NAS, with multi-gig capabilities and speed is increasing. Also, the use of modern applications, increasing prevalence of BYOD and usage of more and more video requires companies to have more bandwidth to ensure smooth network traffic that just can't be handled by Gigabit connectivity anymore. Even the smallest firms are doing big business when it comes to the sheer volume of data that their networks are expected to handle, and this load will continue to grow as applications become more advanced.

To help businesses cost-effectively expand their networks with multi-gigabit speeds, we've introduced a couple of new 5-port Multi-Gigabit Unmanaged Switches, MS105 and MS305. The MS105 and MS305 Multi-Gigabit Ethernet switches come with five 2.5G ports in a metal case that can be placed on a desk or mounted on a wall. These switches are energy efficient, built to last, and rigorously tested to provide the reliability businesses need.

TP-Link, a leading global provider of consumer and business networking products, today held an epochal WiFi 7 product launch to announce its WiFi 7 networking solution.

As the world's first vendor to release a full home and enterprise WiFi 7 product line, TP-Link launched new WiFi 7 routers, Deco products, Omada EAPs, and Aginet products for ISP markets to cover all usage scenarios. Additionally, TP-Link's new HomeShield 3.0 provides more reliable and smarter network solutions.

Leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, proudly announces its new ASRock Z790 PG SONIC, an officially licensed motherboard featuring SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog. A 16-bit spinning ring emblazons the rear IO cover, while on the rear side you'll even catch a glimpse of Sonic mid-run. The ASRock motherboard is co-launched to celebrate the release of SEGA's new Sonic Frontiers game.

"Designed to bring back epic memories of catching rings in Green Hill Zone, the motherboard echoes Sonic's lightning speed with its fast blue and silver shards and Sonic silhouette, besides the motherboard outlook is designed around the Sonic the Hedgehog theme, the ASRock Z790 PG SONIC also features a SONIC-inspired UEFI BIOS interface", Said Chris Lee, Vice President of ASRock motherboard & gaming monitor business unit.

Durabook, the global rugged mobile solutions brand owned by Twinhead International Corporation, announced significant updates to its R11L rugged tablet today. The updated R11L is a competitively-priced 11" fully rugged tablet featuring the latest 12th Gen Intel Pentium Gold processor and architectural innovations to elevate the user experience, making it ideal for those working across industrial sectors, such as warehousing, utilities and logistics, and transportation.

"Durabook devices are designed to meet the demanding needs of workers who rely on rugged technology to streamline workflows and improve productivity in even the harshest environments," said Twinhead CEO Fred Kao. "With its upgrade to Intel's 12th Gen CPU, this latest R11L model is 300% faster than its predecessor, offering more computing power for budget-minded professionals."

Acer today debuts its first Chromebook optimized for Cloud gaming - the Acer Chromebook 516 GE. With it, customers can enjoy a top-tier gaming experience with instant access to full PC and console games powered by the cloud. The new Acer Chromebook 516 GE is powered by the latest technology and features that matter most to gamers - 12th Gen Intel Core processors, a fast 120 Hz display, an RGB keyboard with anti-ghosting technology, advanced DTS audio, and most importantly, support for leading cloud gaming platforms including the highest performance tier of NVIDIA's GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta), and Amazon Luna.

"The Acer Chromebook 516 GE sets the stage for a new era of Chromebooks with the focus squarely on gaming; it combines the ideal collection of gaming hardware, game-streaming support for NVIDIA GeForce NOW's top tier and easy access to popular game titles from the leading cloud gaming platforms," said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, IT Products Business, Acer Inc. "Chromebooks have secured their position as an indispensable tool for education, work, entertainment and personal productivity, so now it's time to have more fun."

NETGEAR, Inc., the leading provider of award-winning connected products designed to simplify and improve people's lives, today launched a new addition to its Orbi line. The Orbi 860 Series builds on the award-winning Orbi 850 Series by future-proofing the best seller with a 10Gb Ethernet port, supporting multi-gig internet connections; upgraded antenna design for greater WiFi performance and a bundled year of NETGEAR Armor, providing homes with an automatic shield of security against internet threats across every connected device.

Following on the tremendous success of the Orbi 850 Series (WiFi 6 AX6000 Mesh System RBK853), the Orbi 860 Series joins NETGEAR's industry-leading WiFi 6 Whole Home Mesh WiFi portfolio. The past few years have seen huge changes to internet usage spurred by the pandemic, including a dramatic increase in just about everything from home-- working, shopping, learning, and socializing. As Internet Service Providers enable faster multi-gig internet speeds, up to 10 Gigabits per second, and hackers create new sophisticated cyber-attacks, high-performance and secure WiFi become imperative.

Electronics brand JSAUX just announced the release of their docking station 7-in-1 for Steam Deck, also named 'HB0702', which is the enhanced version of their previous model 'HB0603'. As a new highlight, this portable device includes for the first time ever a DisplayPort 1.2 connector, highly-demanded by their user community, and three USB-A 3.2 ports. It features a classic HDMI 2.0 port, an Ethernet input and an additional USB-C port too. The accessory is now available on their web store at a retail price of $59.99, with no extra shipping cost.

Starting this summer, JSAUX docking stations have turned out into essential accessories to make the most of Valve's handheld console in screens with up to 4K resolution. Although they were designed specifically for Steam Deck, users can also dock smartphones and tablets as well. This flexibility makes it a very complete home entertainment system. Its classy and small casing, made of polished aluminium, makes it perfect for any kind of space or decoration style.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance, the international community of more than 550 technology companies committed to open standards for the Internet of Things, announced today the release of the Matter 1.0 specification and the opening of the Matter certification program. Member companies who make up all facets of the IoT now have a complete program for bringing the next generation of interoperable products that work across brands and platforms to market with greater privacy, security, and simplicity for consumers.

As part of the Matter 1.0 release, authorized test labs are open for product certification, the test harnesses and tools are available, and the open-source reference design software development kit (SDK) is complete - all to bring new, innovative products to market. Further, Alliance members with devices already deployed and with plans to update their products to support Matter can now do so, once their products are certified.

NETGEAR, Inc., the leading provider of award-winning connected products designed to simplify and improve people's lives, today launched a powerful addition to its unlocked 5G mobile hotspot lineup. At a time when access to fast, secure and reliable internet is more important than ever, the NETGEAR Nighthawk M6 Mobile Hotspot Router (MR6150) raises the mobile broadband experience to new heights by upping the maximum 5G speed that can be supported and adding 160 MHz capability to connect with the latest WiFi 6 client devices.

NETGEAR launched the world's first unlocked 5G hotspot in 2021 with the award-winning Nighthawk M5. Now the company is building on that achievement with the M6, which is 20 percent faster than the M5 at 2.5 Gbps over 5G and has the capacity to hit a maximum combined WiFi speed of up to 3.6 Gbps when connecting to 160 MHz WiFi 6 devices. Additionally, the M6 comes with a first of its kind new In-Home Performance Mode which boosts WiFi coverage up to 2,000 square-feet when the device is plugged in, and the battery is removed.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, and storage solutions innovator, today released the QSW-M2106 Series Desktop 10-port Layer 2 Web managed Switches, including the QSW-M2106-4C and QSW-M2106-4S. Supporting 2.5 GbE, 10 GbE and practical Layer 2 management functions, the QSW-M2106 series satisfies high-bandwidth requirements of servers and LAN infrastructure for SMBs.

"Compared with the previous QSW-M2108 series, the QNAP QSW-M2106 switch series includes up to four 10 GbE SFP+ ports or SFP+/RJ45 combo ports," said Ricky Ho, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "the QSW-M2106 series can be connected to not only the 10 GbE backbone network, but also more 10 GbE network devices and workstations for optimized bandwidth utilization and connection quality."

Amazon today announced upgrades to its industry-leading Fire TV family, including the next generation Fire TV Cube—Fire TV's most powerful streaming media player yet—and Alexa Voice Remote Pro, a premium remote with an all-new Remote Finder and customizable buttons.

"The all-new Fire TV Cube is a big step forward for Fire TV—it's the fastest, most powerful, and most versatile streaming media player we've ever made," said Daniel Rausch, vice president of Amazon Entertainment Devices and Services. "This Fire TV Cube's powerful processing and Wi-Fi 6E support deliver an incredibly smooth streaming experience, and HDMI input means you can instantly extend the simplicity of Fire TV and hands-free Alexa control to your home entertainment system. With Alexa Voice Remote Pro, we're making it easy to find a misplaced remote and get to the apps and content you love."

eero, an Amazon company, today introduced a new range of solutions for professional installers and businesses. The eero PoE 6 and eero PoE Gateway are Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) devices that can be easily installed and use wired infrastructure to deliver fast, reliable wifi throughout homes and businesses. Additionally, eero for Pro Installers and eero for Business, two new services, simplify wifi installation, set up, and management for professional installers and small businesses.

"At eero, we started with a vision of bringing simple, reliable, and fast wifi to customers across the globe, and now our wifi solutions are in millions of homes around the world," said Nick Weaver, co-founder and CEO of eero. "As we look for ways to continue to solve challenges for new types of customers, we're thrilled to expand our offerings to professional installers and small businesses with these new PoE products and services."

Video game accessories company iVoler today announced a Pro version of its Steam Deck docking station. Compatible with Valve Steam Deck handheld gaming device, the dock provides an immediate solution for users who have been shut out by Valve indefinitely delaying their own proprietary docking station due to production issues. This Steam Deck dock pro will be available on September 5 in 7 Amazon marketplaces; US, CA, UK, DE, FR, IT, and ES with prime shipping service. iVoler also provides a 15% discount for social media pre-order.

iVoler Steam Deck Dock Pro is a 6-in-1 docking station that is specifically designed to work with Valve's handheld device. It also features three USB 3.0 ports with up to 5 Gbps data transmission, and one angled USB-C cable fitting angled connection for the Steam Deck device. Priced at $49.99, iVoler's dock is also a budget-friendly 6-in-1 docking station option that combines a USB hub and kickstand together.

MediaTek today announced the latest addition to its 5G portfolio, the T830 platform for 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) routers and mobile hotspot customer-premise equipment (CPE). The T830 is built with MediaTek's M80 modem which supports advanced Release 16 capabilities for sub-6 GHz band operations, making the platform ideal for 5G networks around the globe.

For device manufacturers, the T830's highly integrated, compact design provides big power savings and reduces development time and costs. The T830 makes it possible for operators to deliver 5G speeds up to 7 Gbps right out of the box using sub-6 GHz cellular infrastructure to avoid the costs of wireline technologies such as cable or fiber. Additionally, consumers can enjoy super-fast internet services from a small device that they can self-install, avoiding the hassles of lengthy installation times for fixed line broadband.

ASUS today announced the MA-25 Coax-to-Ethernet MoCA Adapter, a device that uses pre-existing coaxial wiring in the home to provide wired and wireless internet connections that are fast, stable and protected. The adapter enables wiring normally set aside for cable TV to be leveraged to build a fast and reliable MoCA network in locations with thick walls and multiple floors that may affect the performance of a purely wireless network.

With the MA-25, users can enjoy up to 2.5 Gbps wired backhaul connections, with an easy band-mode switch to avoid signal interference with DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems. The MoCA Protected Setup (MPS) feature lets users securely add devices to the network with the press of one button, similarly to how WPS is used with wireless networks. Gamers may also find that a MoCA network delivers reduced latency, faster downloads and fewer lag spikes.

A bit late to the game compared to its competitors, MSI has finally published its product pages for three of its upcoming X670 and X670E motherboards. The three models are the MEG X670E ACE, the MPG X670E Carbon WiFi and the Pro X670-P WiFi. Earlier todaywe got a first hint with regards to the pricing of a couple of these boards and now we have most of the technical details with regards to the boards themselves. As with all other boardmakers, MSI hasn't revealed any information with regards to memory clocks and obviously no details about which CPUs will be supported. We already had a pretty good idea what to expect from these boards based on the details MSI released at Computex, but features like the power design weren't revealed at the time, nor did we get a very good look at the board.

The MEG X670E ACE appears to be MSI's high-end board for those that aren't interested in spending a small fortune on the Godlike board and it should cater to just about all needs. The board has a 22+2+1 phase power design and MSI is using a heatpipe as well as a stacked fin-array heatsink and a MOSFET backplate to help cool the oversized power circuitry. Other features include 10 Gbps Ethernet, although there is only one Ethernet interface, a DisplayPort 1.4 compatible USB-C 10 Gbps port (which was said to be DP 2.0 compliant at Computex), as well as two 20 Gbps USB-C ports around the back. USB4 is nowhere to be seen, but is most likely related to ASMedia being late to the game with its host controller. MSI has gone for a design where the x16 PCIe 5.0 lanes from the CPU are split between the first two PCIe x16 slots and the third slot is using four lanes of PCIe 5.0 from the CPU. The final four PCIe 5.0 lanes from the CPU are for one of the M.2 NVMe slots and the board has a further three M.2 PCIe 4.0 slots. On top of that, MSI also includes an M.2 Xpander-Z Gen5 Dual add-in card that can accept a further two PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD at the cost of eight PCIe lanes from the GPU.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the ROG Rapture GT-AX11000 Pro, a stylish gaming router that's ready to deliver ultrafast WiFi 6 and 10 Gbps Ethernet to every type of gamer.

The GT-AX11000 Pro is designed from the ground up to punch through increasingly congested wireless airwaves and maintain low-lag gaming experiences, wickedly fast download speeds and vast signal coverage. This coverage is expanded by leveraging ASUS RangeBoost Plus, and ASUS AiMesh compatibility allows users to combine AiMesh routers to create a whole-home mesh WiFi network—or instantly augment an existing one—in order to eliminate any dead spots. The second 5 GHz band includes new Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure 4 (U‑NII 4) support, which enables an extra high-speed 160 MHz channel for compatible client devices. The GT-AX11000 Pro is easy to manage via the free ASUS Router mobile app, which gives any level of user intuitive access to the router's arsenal of powerful features. There's also an easy-to-use web-based interface that additionally allows configuration of the new 10 Gbps LAN/WAN port.

The LattePanda Team launched the world's thinnest pocket-sized hackable computer - LattePanda 3 Delta with global electronic components distributors. The collaboration will ensure that the product choice for LattePanda 3 Delta is passed on to customers through quick, easy online selection via the website of global electronic components distributors and LattePanda.

"LattePanda Team is so proud to cooperate with the global electronic components distributors for this joint launch. It delivers an exciting message to our customers that they can gain fast, easy access to our high-performance and hackable LattePanda 3 Delta anywhere in the world. Our collaboration will assure even higher levels of customer service," said Sandy Zhang, CMO of LattePanda Team.