Synology Announces the RT1900ac Router

[btarunr]

Synology Inc. today announced the Synology Router RT1900ac, a high-speed wireless router featuring robust connectivity for homes and offices, advanced networking tools, rich add-on software packages, as well as a user-friendly software experience.

Synology Router RT1900ac is powered by Synology Router Manager (SRM) operating system, which boasts professional-level networking tools at a consumer-friendly price point. Application Layer QoS (Quality of Service) makes it possible to monitor and control bandwidth consumption according to not only devices, but also individual applications. Equipped with a vast database of inappropriate websites, the DNS based Web-filter and Parental Control let business owners or parents block thousands of sites and create network access schedules for connected devices with a few simple clicks.



With a rich selection of add-on software packages available on Synology's Package Center, users can download packages and transform Synology Router RT1900ac into a VPN server, RADIUS authentication server, DNS server, 24/7 download hub, and Media Server for their homes or offices.

The desktop-like interface provides a fluid and intuitive way for users to manage network and wireless settings. Plus, the beautifully designed DS router app for Android and iOS devices makes it possible to monitor and change settings on Synology Router RT1900ac from anywhere.

"Router is a critical element for any modern network, and yet it remains often complicated to use. By leveraging our expertise in network-attached storage and maximizing user experience, Synology aims at providing a pleasant, efficient and advanced solution to enthusiastic and professional users," said Derren Lu, CEO of Synology Inc.

In addition to the standard four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, Synology Router RT1900ac is equipped with three adjustable long-range antennas and the latest 802.11ac wireless technology, allowing for combined transfer speeds up to 1900 Mbps. Synology Router RT1900ac also comes with a dual-core 1.0 GHz processor for smooth performance, even when multiple clients are connected. USB 3.0 port and SD (SDXC) slot can be used to attach external storage devices, allowing users to connect and share digital content with others, transforming Synology Router RT1900ac into a NAS. Support for 3G/4G USB modems lets users in regions with less available wired network infrastructure create a fully-featured wireless hotspot.

Availability
Synology Router RT1900ac is available now in select countries and coming soon to more.

For more information, visit the product page.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Rhyseh]

I'd be interested to see how well this thing works. I've been very happy with my Syno NAS, some of the App and routing/security features could be really handy in a nice pre-bundled unit.

 

[Chaitanya]

Price and the security features are going to be very important. Netgear has been skimping on a lot of security features one of the most important for me being disabling remote management over Wifi. I would like to see some reviews of this unit. It looks very promising.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Price and the security features are going to be very important. Netgear has been skimping on a lot of security features one of the most important for me being disabling remote management over Wifi. I would like to see some reviews of this unit. It looks very promising.

Apparently it's supposed to cost under €150 in Europe, so €149.99?

 

[Solidstate89]

According to the specs page, it only supports MIMO, not MU-MIMO. Which means it is most assuredly not using the latest 802.11ac standard.

Edit: But apparently their product overview states it supports beamforming to multiple devices, so it does support MU-MIMO? They could be a bit more clear if that were the case, then their specs page is incorrect.

 

[Octavean]

About time,......

I've been waiting on this one for a while, although, it looks like I'll have to wait a bit longer since their availability page cites "Early 2016" for the USA.

I did see that their iOS / Android app "DS Router" was available for download last night so it made sense that they went live with sales / availability in at least some regions.

This won't be the fastest router but its definitely the one I want or at least the one I want to try out the most.

Edit:

Synology Router RT1900ac demo:

 

[TheLostSwede]

According to the specs page, it only supports MIMO, not MU-MIMO. Which means it is most assuredly not using the latest 802.11ac standard.

Edit: But apparently their product overview states it supports beamforming to multiple devices, so it does support MU-MIMO? They could be a bit more clear if that were the case, then their specs page is incorrect.

Beamforming and MU-MIMO aren't mutually exclusive. you can do beamforming without doing MU-MIMO, but not the other way around afaik. Routers have supported beamforming for quite some time, but it has only been transmission beamforming which isn't nearly as useful as MU-MIMO beamforming.

So far, MU-MIMO is pretty useless, as the client device needs to support it as well and so far the support is only in the very latest devices, if even that. It also appears that Broadcom works with Broadcom, QCA with QCA etc. so it's not as cross compatible as it ought to be. It's simply a feature I wouldn't worry about today, as there isn't broad enough support out there, regardless the promised improvements.

 

[Solidstate89]

Beamforming and MU-MIMO aren't mutually exclusive. you can do beamforming without doing MU-MIMO, but not the other way around afaik. Routers have supported beamforming for quite some time, but it has only been transmission beamforming which isn't nearly as useful as MU-MIMO beamforming.

So far, MU-MIMO is pretty useless, as the client device needs to support it as well and so far the support is only in the very latest devices, if even that. It also appears that Broadcom works with Broadcom, QCA with QCA etc. so it's not as cross compatible as it ought to be. It's simply a feature I wouldn't worry about today, as there isn't broad enough support out there, regardless the promised improvements.

Beamforming to multiple clients is what MU-MIMO is. Otherwise it's just to a single client. There's implicit beamforming for legacy clients, but I'm hesitant to even call that real multi-user beamforming to begin with, because it's basically a hack job to get it "working."

 

[remixedcat]

There has been very little chipset info about this and there's only the fact it uses broadcom (if said source is correct) and that's it.

 

[Chaitanya]

Apparently it's supposed to cost under €150 in Europe, so €149.99?

For the features offered it seems reasonable, I just would like to see what kind of security features are put in place and how they work. It looks like a workhorse of a router rather than some UFO or dead bug.

 

[remixedcat]

Synology Router RT1900ac enables deep packet analysis with the Synology Router Manager web-based user interface that allows you to select and manage apps being used on devices, for example block facebook or youtube or throlle bandwidth available for each device and for each app. RT1900ac supports 802.11b/g/n/ac and dual-band 2.4 and 5 GHz wireless connectivity for a combined data transfer speeds up to 1.9 Gbps, on a 1GHz dual-core Broadcom CPU, 4GB of internal flash storage, Beamforming, Wake-on-LAN, and remote access with QuickConnect.

https://armdevices.net/2015/06/07/s...ds715-and-ds215-with-fast-encryption-support/

 

[Octavean]

It would be really great if the Synology RT1900ac router using the new SRM 1.0 would be able to pair up with a Synology NAS running DSM 5.2 (or upcoming 6.0) in a "High Availability" group / cluster. So if for example you have ~9TB of storage on your NAS (Synology Hybrid RAID 3x3x3x3TB with one drive redundancy), the use of a USB 4 bay external enclosure connected to the RT1900ac would allow that data to be replicated and served should the active device become compromised.

This wouldn't work for a number of reasons but it would be nice if some of the obstacles could be worked out so that it would.

 

[Octavean]

TechPowerUP will be doing a review of this product I hope,...