Net Work
Alan Winstanley
This month we check out a whole-home mesh wireless system that’s at a bargain basement
price. Was it too good to be true? We also look at the latest email clients for desktop users
and there’s exciting news about a forthcoming satellite launch; the first ever from British soil.
A
s regular readers know,
since the days of dial-up Internet,
Net Work has described various
options allowing users to access the
Internet at home. I still rely on hardwired Ethernet cables for a few network
connections, but Wi-Fi is increasingly
used by most devices such as laptops
and Chromebooks, printers, smart
speakers, TV dongles, internet radios,
security cameras, tablets, phones... the
list is endless. I still use a number of
Devolo adaptors to provide a network
powerline connection (PLC) through
the electrical ring mains, to areas where
Wi-Fi or Ethernet can’t reach. PLC
adaptors can be handy for providing
Internet access to devices that have
Ethernet ports but no Wi-Fi, such as
some smart TVs and personal video
recorders. PLC networking is especially
useful in older homes with thick walls
or metallised insulation that block
wireless signals (a problem also faced
by smart meter installers), but PLC
‘broadband-through-the-mains’ requires
‘clean’ electrical circuits for best
performance. Plug-in Wi-Fi extenders
and repeaters are commonplace, but
they’re just another thing to set up,
tweak and worry about and they also
take up a useful electrical socket.
Another fine mesh
In my case, Wi-Fi coverage is a bit patchy
around the home, which can cause problems especially with my smartphone.
The Wi-Fi connection to the router may
drop altogether as I move around, and
sometimes the phone falls back to 4G
mobile data, or I have to manually switch
the phone to another SSID (Service Set
IDentifier). As demand for reliable Wi-Fi
increases, the trend is gradually moving
towards always-on ‘whole-home mesh’
networking which provides totally seamless coverage as you move around the
property, without worrying about changing wireless SSIDs.
The concept of mesh Wi-Fi originated
in around 2015 by a tech start-up called
Eero that piloted the idea in a handful
of homes in the San Francisco Bay area.
Eero then rushed to ramp up production to meet pre-orders from consumers
eager to upgrade their Wi-Fi. Eero is
now owned by Amazon, who recently
also bought iRobot, the name behind
Roomba vacuum cleaners. (Privacy
experts are alarmed by the prospect of
Amazon getting to know
the layout of your house
and targeting expanded
sales at homeowners as
a result.)
More background on
both Devolo and mesh
networking was covered in Net Work, June
2019, when whole-home
mesh Wi-Fi networking was in its relative
infancy. Key IT brands
of Wi-Fi mesh products
include TP-Link, Tenda,
Huawei, Netgear and
Linksys, with products
available through the
usual retail channels.
The UK’s BT (British
Telecom) sells a range of
whole-home ‘discs’ that
works with any broadband supplier, they say.
Devolo PLC adaptors can provide Wi-Fi and Ethernet to
An online survey can
locations where a router’s Wi-Fi might not be able to reach.
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help you choose the best BT solution,
see: https://shop.bt.com/brands/bt/
whole-home-wi-fi
The obvious solution to my Wi-Fi
problems would be to upgrade my
home network. Whole-home Wi-Fi
systems offer 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi and
often have Ethernet ports (maybe only
10/100Mbps), which is important to
some users. Depending on specifications, whole-home Wi-Fi can be
relatively pricey to install from scratch,
and typical prices for a starter kit
might be £100-£250 or more. A ‘Tri
Band’ system will cope better with
more demanding use such as gaming
or streaming video. When checking
through the tech specs, note that terms
such as ‘AC1200’ relate to the total
traffic throughput of the router or hub,
not the speed; ‘AC’ implies Wi-Fi 5 or
5GHz frequency (802.11ac), but Wi-Fi
hubs will offer 2.4GHz as well. So,
the ‘1200’ signifies the total capacity
or bandwidth (1200 Mbps) over both
radio frequencies. Don’t be fooled by
any sales-speak: a higher number like
‘AC5400’ doesn’t mean it’s faster than
AC1200, but it can handle a total of
up to 5400 Mbps for more demanding applications. A typical AC1200
hub might carry 300Mbps on 2.4GHz
and 867Mbps on 5GHz, for example.
Just AXing
The latest standard to be released is
802.11ax or Wi-Fi 6. Hence a new crop
of ‘AX’ Whole-Home Wi-Fi products is
coming onto the scene, but they’re not
cheap: one pair of AX5300 hubs can
cost £250, and a higher-spec. Wi-Fi 6E
(6GHz) system with built-in Zigbee and
gigabit Ethernet is listed by Amazon
at £799 for a three-pack. This would
suit the most demanding (or affluent)
Wi-Fi users looking to upgrade or future-proof their Wi-Fi network. They
are backwards compatible with 2.4 and
5GHz, and Netgear publishes an excellent guide at: https://bit.ly/pe-oct22-netg
Whole-home wireless mesh routers
are marketed as replacements for an
existing Wi-Fi router, but upgrading
an entire Wi-Fi system for whole-home
mesh networking can throw up all sorts
Practical Electronics | October | 2022
of problems with some devices. Before
migrating onto a new wireless mesh
system it’s well worth re-appraising an
existing home network first.
Many network gadgets, including
Amazon Fire TV sticks, Chromecast dongles, smart speakers and some security
cameras are easy enough to switch to
a new wireless network, assuming you
still have all those logins somewhere.
However, certain wireless IP cameras,
for example, might need to be hooked
to the router using an Ethernet cable
to be set up again – a nuisance if the
camera is installed halfway up a wall
somewhere. In some cases there can be
issues with Network Address Translation
(NAT), port forwarding or Double NAT,
complexities that go beyond the scope
of this article, but Google offers plenty
of resources. In short, a bit of hair-pulling and frustration can be expected with
some network devices before everything
is working smoothly again.
I soon realised that installing a new
wireless mesh network from scratch
wouldn’t be trivial, so how about adding
an inexpensive whole-home Wi-Fi network alongside my existing network
instead? Although technically not very
elegant, it could be a worthwhile stopgap for the time being, and it might cure
the pesky problem of Wi-Fi dropouts
as I moved around the house.
At about the same time, I was tipped
off about a whole-home wireless mesh
brand that I was previously unaware of.
A budget product line sold under the
Mercusys brand promised a whole home
mesh Wi-Fi system for just £20! The
Mercusys Halo S12 is the cheapest in
their line-up and the tech specs seemed
sound enough: a set of two basic AC1200
units offering 2.4 and 5GHz bands in a
single SSID would cover a typical home
of up to 2800 square feet, they claimed.
At such a low price, I thought it was
worth a punt, so I bought four!
These duly arrived, complete with
UK mains adapters and a single Ethernet cable to connect one of them to a
router. As my main Billion 7800 router
had no spare Ethernet ports, I hooked a
spare 5-port TP-Link switch (needing
yet another mains adaptor) to it and
connected a Mercusys unit to that, to
become the ‘main’ mesh router.
It turned out that Mercusys is a
sub-brand owned by none other than
TP-Link and, in keeping with its cut
price, the Mercusys Halo S12 is as nofrills as you can get. The impenetrable
plastic cubes are attractive enough but
very lightweight and could almost be
empty. Each unit carried two 10/100
Ethernet ports, but the only other feature seen is a push-button to ‘Pair’ it
and a multicolour status LED. I added
Practical Electronics | October | 2022
some Bumpon stick-on
feet underneath to stop
the featherweight housings from flailing around.
A meshy setup
The included Quick Installation Guide is in 22
languages, but instructions
consist of just a couple of
paragraphs. I was very
pleasantly surprised by the
ease of setup: after hooking
the ‘main’ unit to my switch
and letting it settle down for
a minute, I could log into
a configuration web page
using my tablet or phone
(no need for an app here)
where I created the SSID
and password for the new The Mercusys Halo S12 is an entry-grade wholewhole-home mesh network home wireless mesh system at a rock-bottom price.
without a problem. I also The author found it works surprisingly well.
I connected it through a TP-Link switch to the router.
found that the Halo offers
parental controls and a guest network. USB-C adaptor produced by TP-Link
It was simple to add more Halo units worked well enough when tested on
using the Pair buttons (though a power a Devolo PLC Ethernet port, although
reboot on each one helped the process network speeds were quite limited.
along), giving me four units in total,
For just £40 for all four units, the Merdotted around the house. A number cusys Halo S12 system is ridiculously
of smartphone apps are available that cheap, but it’s proving to be a low-cost
monitor available SSIDs, and I found way of adding Whole-home Wi-Fi to a
the coverage was satisfactory, though domestic network for non-demanding
one unit was reported as ‘out of range’ applications. Both my smartphone and
and had to be relocated a few yards tablet now enjoy reliable connectivicloser. In fact, I found setup astonish- ty using the new mesh network, and
ingly easy and there was nothing not I have not noticed any problems with
to like, especially for this kind of price.
WhatsApp video calls or music streamThen came the job of moving some ing. It might be that this AC1200 product
devices onto the new mesh network, line is being ‘run out’ cheaply onto
which was a chore but largely une- the consumer market to make way for
ventful. Interestingly, one of my three faster products. Looking at some online
Amazon Fire TV Sticks connected to reviews, it seems that not everyone
the mesh on the less crowded 5GHz fre- managed to use this range successfulquency, but the other Fire sticks didn’t. ly and they sought a refund. My own
However, I decided to retain my Devolo view is that if you’re looking to update
PLC network to connect a wireless IP your home Wi-Fi, TP-Link’s Mercusys
camera over the Devolo’s Wi-Fi, as it Whole-Home solution is worth a try at
records video nicely on the Synology these prices and represents a low-cost
NAS sitting on my router’s LAN. I also entry into wireless mesh networking.
retained my router’s Wi-Fi for my wire- Shop around carefully, and search eBay
less network printer located nearby.
and Amazon for any deals.
One hurdle is my Samsung smart TV,
which lacks Wi-Fi but has an Ethernet Time to revisit email
port. As the TV accesses video and music The obvious benefit of whole-home
files hosted on the same Synology NAS, mesh Wi-Fi is that, wherever they are,
I’ve kept the TV on the same Devolo devices like tablets or laptops can hop
network as well, hooking an Ethernet from one node to another without the
cable to a Devolo Wi-Fi adaptor which user even knowing it. This always-on
also connects the IP camera wirelessly ‘mesh’ reminded me of a typical email
a few yards away. Migrating everything setup and various ways of handling
onto a mesh system is a future project, email traffic. Many Internet users have a
but I see little point in changing some- Gmail account which is cloud-based so
thing that works satisfactorily already. you can check the mail from anywhere
Another device on my network shop- with net access, whether on a desktop
ping list was a USB-to-Ethernet adaptor computer, laptop or smartphone. Users
which would let me use my laptop at are given 15GB of free disk space to
times when Wi-Fi was inaccessible. A store mail, files and photos. (By visiting
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https://takeout.google.com you can fetch
all your data that Google holds in your
various accounts – the results might
surprise you.)
All that most users need to know is
that their emails are ‘out there’ in the
cloud somewhere, and Google takes
care of all the hosting and archiving.
No-one knows where the servers actually are. One alternative to Gmail
is of course Microsoft’s Outlook, or
there’s GMX Mail from Germany or the
secure ProtonMail from Switzerland.
ProtonMail used to claim that it was
encrypted and they did not log user
activity, but this claim unravelled in
2021 when it was shown that they’d
handed over some sensitive user data
to the French authorities.
Increasingly, IMAP is used for email,
as the Internet Message Access Protocol
acts like an ‘always on mesh’ of mail that
you can access from any location. Many
users, including the author, still prefer
to use traditional POP3 email instead,
though. This allows me to download
mail, attachments and all, from the mail
server onto a client machine where I
can deal with it, archive it or delete it.
If needed, mail can be ‘previewed’ by
downloading the first kilobyte or two
before deciding to fetch the rest. Messages can automatically be deleted from
the server once they’ve been downloaded, or after so many days have elapsed.
Although POP3 isn’t designed as an
‘always-on everywhere’ system like
IMAP, it’s easy enough to use it across
multiple devices (laptops, smartphones
and so on), simply configuring client
software to leave mail on the server
until you finally fetch it in toto using
your main email client software. You
can choose IMAP or POP3 in Gmail
account settings: after logging in, go to
Settings (gearwheel icon) then select
Forwarding and POP/IMAP.
Thunderbirds are go
This brings me to the topic of email
client programs currently available
for desktop users. The popularity of
cloud-based computing means that
there’s less choice for mainstream Windows, Mac or Linux users but there is
plenty of life yet in email software, especially if you prefer to manage email
yourself rather than relying on a third
party. Among the most popular email
clients is Thunderbird, which is a free
open-source program funded by donations and the Mozilla Foundation.
After a long spell in the doldrums,
this venerable email program recently
had a major update and the latest version V.102 has a clean new look and
better integration with your Mail, Address Book, Calendar, Tasks and Chat
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Stunning first images from the James Webb Space Telescope show a star
nursery called the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina nebula, 7,600 light-years away. The
‘mountains’ are seven-light-years tall. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI)
windows. Thunderbird 102 is one of the
best all-round email clients out there
and it handles POP3 and IMAP mail.
Interestingly, an Android version of
Thunderbird is promised, which could
be the ideal replacement for low-grade
programs bundled with smartphones.
Thunderbird V102 is freely available
from: www.thunderbird.net
If you want a modern, private alternative to Thunderbird and your
web browser then consider the Vivaldi browser, which is available for
Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.
Oslo-based Vivaldi places a strong emphasis on user privacy and anti-tracking,
and the Vivaldi web browser now has
a built-in email client called Vivaldi Mail 1.0 which manages multiple
email accounts with ease. More details
at: https://youtu.be/bNU8cZbqDGU or
you can visit: https://bit.ly/pe-oct22-viv
Other worthy email clients include
well-respected The Bat! by Ritlabs,
which is described as a secure desktop
client for Windows. It costs £45.95 for
the Home version, and £57.95 for the
Pro edition which also includes a portable version called Bat Voyager that can
run from a USB stick. A trial is available
from: https://bit.ly/pe-oct22-bat
Readers may be surprised to learn that
the writer still uses arguably one of the
best email client programs ever made –
Eudora. Originally sold by Qualcomm,
Eudora has many productive functions
that are hard to beat, including a fast
database search, templates and unmatched mail filtering features, useful
as I have a massive email database covering business and personal use. It is
miraculous that an old program born
in 1988 and last released in 2006 operates at all under current versions of
Windows, but operate it does, even if
installation does need a little initial
juggling. Many dyed-in-the-wool email
users still swear by Eudora, and it was
a major blow to learn that support for
Eudora 7.1 was cast adrift when the
program was finally shelved in 2006.
Today, the beloved email program has
just a few glaring problems, including
poor handling of HTML email and an
inability to deal with UTF-8 character
encoding used by many modern email
programs. I’m used to seeing garbled
punctuation like – ‘good’ – instead of curly quotes. The colourful
history of Eudora is in an excellent article at: https://bit.ly/pe-oct22-eud
In 2018 Eudora’s source code (freely
donated by Qualcomm) was picked
up by a Canadian called Nick Werner-Matavka. For legal reasons Eudora
was renamed, and ‘HERMES Mail’ was
born as a Kickstarter project. The current version, which is basically Eudora
7.1, can be fetched from https://bit.ly/
pe-oct22-her along with a patch for
OpenSSL. Since then, a total rewrite
of Eudora has been stuck in the mud
as an unfulfilled crowdfunding project, its developer frustrated by Covid
lockdowns, legal issues and cash flow...
until now.
I’d given up on ever seeing a new release of Eudora, but the good news is
that after a five-year gestation period,
HERMES Mail 8.0, codenamed ‘Aurora’,
is finally entering beta testing and has
been slated for launch later this year.
It’s possible that Aurora will be the final
name, and it sounds like the Windows
version is almost in the bag. A new
indiegogo campaign for a risky Mac-compatible version is now under way (as
Eudora was initially a Mac program),
and readers will find up-to-date news
at: https://bit.ly/pe-oct22-her8
I hope to get an early look at HERMES
Mail 8.0 as I feel it’s a hugely significant alternative to Gmail, Outlook and
Thunderbird. I’ll continue tracking developments, so watch this space!
Space news
Talking of space, in mid-July the first
images from the new James Webb Space
Telescope were released by NASA and
they observed previously unseen stellar nurseries and obscured stars. The
Practical Electronics | October | 2022
‘mountains’ in the image show a star
nursery in the Carina Nebula called
the Cosmic Cliffs. A striking composite image was released of the Cartwheel
Galaxy, which formed some 400 million
years ago after a large ‘spiral’ galaxy
collided with a smaller one. Many previously uncharted sights and breath-taking
images await us as the Webb Space Telescope peers into the universe further than
any human has ever done before. Many
online resources are available at: https://
webbtelescope.org/resource-gallery
Low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite operator OneWeb was bailed out two years
ago by the UK Government and India’s Bharti Global, and the feeling at
the time was that the Government had
bought itself a satellite business but
didn’t quite know what to do with it.
There were early suggestions, quickly dismissed, that maybe the OneWeb
network could be re-purposed as Britain’s satellite navigation network, after
the UK was unceremoniously kicked
out of the EU Galileo program following the Brexit vote; the EU pocketed
Britain’s expertise and investment in
Galileo though.
A revitalised OneWeb has had a good
run since then, as previously described
in Net Work, but in July OneWeb struck
a deal with geostationary-earth orbit
operator Eutelsat that will see the two
merge to become a LEO/GEO super-operator. Eutelsat has precisely 36 GEO
satellites against OneWeb’s 428. ‘The
UK Government will retain the special share and its exclusive rights over
OneWeb – securing the company’s
future at the centre of the combined
group’s global LEO business, national
security controls over the network, and
first-preference rights over domestic
industrial opportunities’ said the UK
Government. The deal is subject to final
regulatory approval. Despite the Brexit
fissure, both Britain and Europe have a
history of working successfully together
on major projects in the past, including
Concorde, the Channel Tunnel, Airbus
and military technology, and it’s hoped
the merger will create ‘a single, powerful global player in connectivity’, says
the UK Government.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX continues to lob 54 Starlink satellites at a
time into LEO. My computer colleague
has installed several Starlink satellite
systems for UK clients and he’s been
amazed at the extremely slick setup
and installation each time. Starlink in
the UK costs £89 per month with £529
setup – see: www.starlink.com/map
Britain’s first space launch
Britain’s first active spaceport in Cornwall, south-west England, will see the
Practical Electronics | October | 2022
A LauncherOne space vehicle carried by Virgin Orbit’s 747 Cosmic Girl can take
off from an ordinary runway and propel satellites into orbit. A maiden flight from
Cornwall Spaceport is due this year.
maiden flight of Virgin Orbit’s UK launch
later this year. The 747-based launch
will carry six satellites including the
‘DOVER’ pathfinder satellite in an underslung rocket launcher. DOVER will
transmit an ‘innovative new signal to
provide data from space that can be
used on the ground to obtain a position or an accurate time’, it’s claimed
– the precursor to Britain building its
own independent space-based navigation network using Positioning,
Navigation and Timing (PNT) techniques instead of beaming GPS (or
Galileo) data earthwards.
‘When it comes to getting off the
ground, we contribute to the work of
others rather than taking the lead ourselves’ wrote Britain’s Boris Johnson
in the 2021 National Space Strategy,
so a successful launch later this year
would make the UK the first country in
Europe to launch satellites into space
from home soil, one of the Government’s key ambitions. The UK is fast
positioning to become the key European satellite launcher.
The maiden flight from Cornwall will
carry the first satellite constructed in
Wales, and Boris Johnson also reminded us that ‘Neil Armstrong’s journey [to
the moon] would never have happened
without the engineering know-how of a
chap from Anglesey [in Wales] named
Tecwyn Roberts – we have for too long
failed to properly embrace the opportunities that the space industry offers.’ You
can read about the Welsh space flight
engineer at: https://bit.ly/pe-oct22-tec
Other news
Following a spate of truck fires in Lincolnshire, England, involving refuse
vehicles, householders are being warned
of the dangers of discarding rechargeable
batteries, or gadgets containing them, in
their domestic waste. Several garbage
trucks caught fire and suffered thousands
of pounds’ worth of damage when rechargeable batteries were crushed by
the compactors, and battery fires also
occurred back at the waste depot when
batteries set fire to piles of waste. Lincoln is not alone, similar problems
have been reported in Australia – for
example, see the 7News report at:
https://youtu.be/nNBTE-XzzYU
Amazon is increasing the price of its
Amazon Prime subscriptions by 12.5%
to £8.99 a month or 20% to £95 a year
if paid annually, across Europe and the
US. First launched in the US in 2005
at $79 a year, the latest Prime increase
is the first in eight years after it rose to
$99 in 2014.
At a time when YouTube is increasingly corrupted by adverts nagging
visitors to sign up for ad-free YouTube
Premium, it’s claimed that half of British
consumers are unwilling to pay extra
to avoid adverts on streaming services
like these. When I checked, YouTube
offered its ad-free Premium YouTube
and Music package on a one-month trial
for $11.99/month, cancel any time, see:
www.youtube.com/premium
If you fancy a quick break from
desktop drudgery, you might consider some of the casual games offered by
Big Fish Games. They are graphically rich, clean fun for family use and
not too demanding to play, so there is
likely to be something for people of all
age groups. Games typically cost $9.99
and are downloaded for running directly on all major platforms. I found
some old Big Fish titles from 2006 and
installed them in Windows 10 and,
remarkably, they worked perfectly 16
years later. Free trials are available from:
www.bigfishgames.com
That’s all for this month’s column –
see you next month for more Net Work.
The author can be reached at:
alan<at>epemag.net
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