Home//PC Pro/July 2020/In This Issue
PC Pro|July 2020Will we ever look back at the 2020s with nostalgia?WHEN I SET up a quick poll on Twitter to settle, for the final time, which was the best decade out of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, PC Pro reader Michael Dear tweeted back (tongue in cheek, I suspect) to suggest that all I was asking was which decade people grew up in. Perhaps. And while the poll ended in a dead heat between the 1980s and 1990s, I’m going to cast the deciding vote for the decade of my own youth: the 1980s.As Michael points out, I’m biased. But, come on, does any other decade really compare? I’m not just talking about the music, the films and the creation of Countdown here: I’m talking about the computers. Who can gaze back at the Spectrum, the Commodore 64 and…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020UnveiledreMarkable 2In a world of black mirrors, the reMarkable 2 stands out as something different: a 4.7mm-thick notepad with an E Ink display designed to replace pen and paper.The first reMarkable launched in 2017 to mixed reviews, partly due to under-specced hardware. The company appears to have addressed some of these issues, with an improved dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM processor for example.It has also upgraded the textured 10.3in monochrome display with a 1,404 x 1,872 resolution and the stylus is designed so that inputs feel tactile, like pencil on paper. Written notes can be converted into text and the E Ink helps maintain battery life, with reMarkable claiming two weeks of normal use without a charge.Other new features include a web clipper extension for Chrome that downloads web content to…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020Who gets to see the app data?If trackers and apps are optional, as currently legislated in the UK, how many people download them remains to be seen. Much will depend on the level of trust officials can build in the service.On top of the Apple/Google project, the government is exploring how to link these tools to sources of identifiable data, such as electronic medical records, to allow researchers to study the effects of factors such as geography, existing health conditions or ethnicity on outcomes. However, this risks breaching the public trust that’s critical to such a scheme’s success.“These secondary uses may have value, but it’s incumbent upon the government to be honest with the public about the aims of all this data gathering, and who else stands to benefit, such as companies or researchers with a…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Information shouldn’t want to be free after allDick Pountain is editorial fellow of PC Pro. He hopes he’s had it, rather than “had it”.Stewart Brand’s famous aphorism “information wants to be free” has been much repeated in the past three decades, but few of us remember that it wasn’t an isolated phrase. If you listen carefully, Brand actually said “information almost wants to be free”. It was part of a reply to Steve Wozniak at the first Hackers Conference in 1984 (pcpro.link/309brand), where Brand also stated that “the right information in the right place just changes your life”. During our current nightmare, we’re learning that here in the world of matter many things want to be free that shouldn’t, including serial killers, mosquitoes and viruses, and that controlling information about them has become critical.Across the world, governments…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Star letterI’ve just read your piece on the Cubot Kingkong Mini phone (see issue 308, p70). I was surprised to read this as I assumed you’d be aware of the concerns that have been raised regarding possible malware baked into the OS of (some) Cubot phones. I’ve owned two Cubot phones, the last one being the Cheetah 2. The hardware was good value for money, but the problems with self-installing apps and pop-ups meant I was in a constant battle to lock down and remove apps. As a result, I was never confident enough in the phones’ security to use them for banking or payment apps. Incidentally, I bought the second phone, the Cheetah 2, as I thought the company might have gone mainstream and sorted out the problems with the…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Videoconferencingthe right wayThe impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the way we work has been dramatic. As the UK waved goodbye to the office and tried to work from home, the lockdown didn’t so much accelerate the adoption of remote working as light a rocket under it. We simply weren’t prepared for the rise of videoconferencing, switching sit-down meetings and daily huddles for hours mugging into webcams, trying to look engaged whilst gawping at our colleagues’ home decor.Here’s the big secret: hardly anyone is good at videoconferencing. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, big corporations with expensive conferencing solutions still found it tricky. A recent survey by Shure of 400 US businesses discovered that while seven out of ten used some form of virtual meeting, 96% said they were frustrated with the quality…11 min
PC Pro|July 2020CAN I BECOME A CODER?It worked. I couldn’t believe it, but it actually worked.Stephen French and I had just spent all afternoon tapping code from a textbook into our computers – me into my Commodore 64, him into his Spectrum. It was probably no more than 20 lines of BASIC code, but once we’d typed it all out, run it, fixed the inevitable typos, finally got it to work and then saved it to tape, it had taken us all afternoon.Being good programmers, we tested the code. He slipped a note through my letterbox, I ran upstairs, loaded my program and typed in the cryptic, handwritten jumble of letters. “Meet you at my house after The A-Team,” Frenchy’s message read, having been decoded by the Commodore 64. We were officially spies.Admittedly, this basic, schoolboy…12 min
PC Pro|July 2020TURN YOURRASPBERRYPI INTO AN AIRCRAFT TRACKERThe Raspberry Pi is compact, cheap, and silent-which makes it ideal for the sort of always-on background jobs that wouldn’t usually justify the space or electricity consumed by a full-sized computer. Popular roles range from Wi-Fi hotspot to home surveillance centre, but a possibility you may not have considered is using the Pi to track nearby aircraft.That might sound like a job that requires expensive specialist hardware, but it can be achieved using an inexpensive USB TV receiver, and the software is free. That means the entire package will set you back around £30, including a Pi Zero W. If you already have a Raspberry Pi knocking about, most models will be powerful enough to receive and analyse transmissions.1 CHOOSING YOUR PIIf you don’t have a Raspberry Pi, we recommend…10 min
PC Pro|July 2020Which games come with the Next and how can you play the classics?As you’ll see from the list below, the Spectrum Next comes with a good crop of games that you can play straight from the supplied microSD card. However, it’s likely your favourite won’t be there.So how can you play Chuckie Egg on your ZX Spectrum Next? Or Back To Skool, Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy… the list goes on. The answer is to head to a site such as worldofspectrum.org/games, search for a game and download the TAP or DSK image. You can then pop it onto the microSD card and load it from the browser.Not all games are available, but you don’t need to worry about breaking the law: World of Spectrum actively seeks permission from the games’ original publishers when sharing the images.What games come with the Next?…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020HTC Vive CosmosPRICE £583 (£699 inc VAT) from vive.comThe HTC Vive Cosmos marks a turning point for HTC’s VR division. Like the excellent Oculus Rift S (pcpro.link/309rift), the Vive Cosmos requires no base stations for tracking, and has a neat trick up its sleeve: a snap-on front plate that allows users to alter the number of built-in cameras.In reality, virtual or otherwise, few people will bother buying other front plates and stick with what comes with whichever Vive Cosmos configuration they choose. The Cosmos Play is the simplest (and cheapest) model, with only four tracking cameras – and isn’t on sale yet. The standard Vive Cosmos on test here has six tracking cameras. And the £899 Cosmos Elite has four, which is because it also ships with external tracking base stations and…7 min
PC Pro|July 2020OnePlus 8PRICE 128GB (black), £499 (£599 inc VAT) from oneplus.comWhile we love the OnePlus 8 Pro, not everyone wants to spend £899 on a phone. The OnePlus 8 is here to help, with the 8GB/128GB Onyx Black model costing £599 while the Glacial Green unit includes 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM for £699.What do you lose compared to the Pro? The screen is a fraction smaller and drops from 120Hz to 90Hz, while there’s no wireless charging, no IP68-rated protection (the OnePlus 8 is merely “water resistant”) and no quad-camera setup with its super-zoom lens or “colour filter” camera.What it does provide, however, is the same internal hardware. These are the first OnePlus phones to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 chip and they all come with 5G support…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Acer ET241YPRICE £82 (£98 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309acerThe Acer ET241Y is typical of the budget monitor genre. It sacrifices luxuries such as height and rotational adjustment to hit a low price, but that doesn’t mean it’s a low-quality product. In fact, if you’re simply looking for a compact second screen – and are happy with the combination of a 24in diagonal and Full HD resolution – I’ll save you time and tell you to buy it right now. And that time could be crucial, as low-cost screens are being snapped up at the moment.The monitor arrives in two parts, with a simple desk stand that you attach to the screen itself when you take it all out of the box. It’s a simple setup that takes a few minutes. This back-to-basics…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Canon Pixma TS6350PRICE £75 (£90 inc VAT) from argos.co.ukAs the successor to the A-Listed TS6250 (see issue 298, p83), I expected a lot from this uppermid range inkjet MFP. And this is no light refresh: gone is its predecessor’s full-width, tiltable control panel, replaced by a small OLED display and a scattering of buttons. It also supports fewer advanced services: while you can print with Google Cloud Print, for example, you can’t scan directly to an online service such as Dropbox.Happily, its core specs remain strong. The base holds a cassette for up to 100 sheets of A4 paper, while the rear tray can take another 100, or up to 20 sheets of photo paper. Cleverly, the printer uses the rear tray’s paper guide position to guess which paper size you’ve loaded.…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Amazfit Verge and Verge LitePRICE Verge, £106 (£127 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309vergePRICE Verge Lite, £63 (£75 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309liteNothing to do with Amazon, the Amazfit brand comes from Huami, a subsidiary of Chinese giant Xiaomi. Its pair of new smartwatches, the Amazfit Verge and Verge Lite, look almost identical and offer an astonishing amount for the cash: 1.3in AMOLED displays, GPS, heart-rate monitoring, ambient light sensors and IP68 waterproofing.Both also include 390mAh batteries, which is confusing given the first key difference: battery life. Amazfit claims that the Verge will last five days with typical usage, while the Verge Lite can manage 20 days.This, I assume, is down to the mix of features, internals and OS. Huami unhelpfully doesn’t provide the core specifications of the Lite but we know that the regular Verge comes…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020BUYER’S GUIDE TOMESH EXTENDERSWhat is a mesh system?Simply put, a mesh system is a set of Wi-Fi access points that broadcast a wireless network all around your home. Normally, one unit (or “node”) takes the place of your old router, while a second is located in a nearby room and rebroadcasts the wireless signal, so it can reach further than a single transmitter would be able to do.This may sound familiar, because standalone Wi-Fi repeaters work on the same principle. However, many mesh systems can hit speeds a regular repeater can’t match, and what specifically defines mesh systems is that you can add a third node beyond the second one to expand your network even further.In this way, a mesh system can give you wireless coverage over a far greater area than an…9 min
PC Pro|July 2020Netgear Orbi RBK50PRICE Two-node kit, £208 (£250 inc VAT)from pcpro.link/309orb1Netgear offers a whole family of Orbi mesh systems, as you’ll see on subsequent pages, and this original model (product number RBK50) has been out for more than three years now. Despite its age, though, it remains in our view the best of the bunch – at least for those who don’t need next-generation 802.11ax, also known as Wi-Fi 6.That’s partly down to its excellent performance. The Orbi’s tri-band design ensures that communications between the two stations don’t slow down the client connection, and the backhaul radio runs at a lightning-fast 1,733Mbits/sec with 4x4 MIMO, making it speedier than any rival this month – save for the Asus and BT systems we’ve already looked at.That being the case, it was no surprise to…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020D-Link Covr C1203PRICE Three-node kit, £98 (£117 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/308dlink1With their funky Reuleaux-triangle casing and copper-coloured trim, D-Link’s Covr C1203 mesh units are cute little things. And if the design fails to catch your eye, the price surely will: at £117 for a three-node pack, the Covr C1203 is one of the cheapest mesh systems on the market.That hasn’t been achieved by excessive corner-cutting, either. While this is predictably a dual-band system, the 5GHz radio claims the same 867Mbits/sec throughput as most competing products, and each unit supports 2x3 MU-MIMO.Nor does the software feel conspicuously stripped down. You can manage your Covr network from either D-Link’s smartphone app or a web browser, and while you don’t get fancy features such as Alexa integration or a built-in VPN, there’s support for IPv6,…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Linksys VelopPRICE Three-node kit, £215 (£258 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309vel1The Velop was one of the first mesh extender systems to hit the market – we originally laid eyes on it at the start of 2017 – but its age doesn’t hold it back. That’s because Linksys didn’t skimp on the hardware: it’s a full tri-band system, with 2x2 MU-MIMO and a peak throughput of 867Mbits/sec on both 5GHz radios. Meanwhile, a looming modernist design affords space for a decently sized set of antennae.Thanks to all of this, the Velop’s performance still stands up very creditably. The system didn’t quite make it onto the winners’ podium in our tests, but – as our graphs on p90 illustrate – it placed convincingly within the top performance tier.Nor has the software side of things…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Netgear Orbi RBK20PRICE Two-node kit, £167 (£200 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309orb3If you like the look of the Lab-swinning Netgear Orbi RBK50 on p80, but don’t have quite that much cash to spend, one option is to go for the cut-down Orbi Dual-Band (see above). If that’s not quite nippy enough for your needs, however, Netgear also offers a product that neatly occupies the middle ground: the RBK20.If you’re wondering why it doesn’t have a catchy name, that may be because it’s a little tricky to explain exactly what it is. The RBK20 doesn’t ditch the high-speed backhaul radio like the Dual-Band model does, but it does downgrade it to run at the same maximum speed of 867Mbits/sec as the client connection.This puts the RBK20’s hardware on a par with the distinctly pricier…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020TP-Link Deco M5PRICE Three-node kit, £136 (£163 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309deco1The Deco M5 system proudly bears our Recommended logo on the outside of the box, and when we originally reviewed it in mid-2017 we were impressed. The discs may look like smoke detectors, but each contains a 5GHz radio rated at 867Mbits/sec, along with 2.4GHz services at up to 400Mbits/sec. There’s MU-MIMO support too, although TP-Link doesn’t reveal the precise MIMO specifications.Sadly, that’s not enough to stand out now. The Deco M5 delivered a decent 16.4MB/sec in the bathroom, but download speeds were slower in our other test locations; overall, it couldn’t keep pace with the D-Link Covr-2202, nor dual-band contenders from Linksys and Netgear.What remains good about the Deco M5 is the software. Management is largely carried out through the smartphone…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Ubiquiti AmpliFi HDPRICE Three-node kit, £267 (£320 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309ubiMost mesh systems are made up of interchangeable nodes, but Ubiquiti’s AmpliFi HD takes a different tack. The main unit is a futuristic-looking cube equipped with a circular touchscreen, while the remote mesh points are of a much smaller and simpler design. We have to say, there’s a certain logic to that.Ubiquiti also distinguishes itself by employing some of the fastest Wi-Fi hardware on the market. Although the AmpliFi HD is only a dual-band system, its 5GHz radio is rated at a whopping 1,300Mbits/sec, making it 50% faster than most rivals. 3x3 MIMO support means there’s plenty of parallelism too, although MU-MIMO isn’t supported.With such upmarket hardware on hand, we were expecting great things – but sadly the system lagged behind many…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020How we testThe mesh systems in this month’s Labs are all designed for domestic use, so we’ve tested them in a real-world home – a three-bedroom terraced maisonette with a total floor area of around 90m2. For two-node systems, the main router unit is located in the living room, while the other node is placed in the utility room at the rear of the house. If there are three nodes, the third is placed in the kitchen, halfway between the other two stations.We then take a test laptop to four locations: the outdoor terrace at the back of the building, the utility room, the upstairs bathroom and the master bedroom – and connect to the mesh network over 802.11ac. In each location, we measure the average transfer speed when downloading a series…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020PICK THE PERFECTNAS applianceCloud storage might be all the rage, but local storage still has definite benefits. For a start, while buying a NAS appliance is a higher initial investment, many SMBs are finding that their cloud costs become a drain as their requirements grow. By contrast, once you have bought and populated your NAS, your ongoing costs for the next few years will be negligible.Another benefit is speed. If you want to have large amounts of data available for quick reference, NAS is the perfect choice: all business-class models support Gigabit speeds, and many support 10-Gigabit connections. That means you can get at your files orders of magnitude more quickly than waiting for them to download over an internet connection.Clearly, the NAS market still has plenty to offer – and there’s a…5 min
PC Pro|July 2020Qsan XCubeNAS XN7008RPRICE Diskless, £2,269 exc VAT from span.comSome NAS vendors strive to make their products as versatile as possible, but Qsan’s primary focus is on enterprise-class data security. That starts with the software: its QSM platform is based on a ZoL (ZFS on Linux) architecture and offers a wealth of data-protection features, including ZFS copy-on-write for fast snapshots, AES 256-bit encryption, support for self-encrypting drives and WORM (write once, read many) support to ensure that data can’t be modified or deleted.The XCubeNAS hardware is equally well specified. It’s a 2U appliance offering eight LFF drive bays at the front, and hidden at the rear there’s an additional cage with room for six SFF drives. The last two of these support NVMe U.2 SSDs, for use as fast storage, as a performance-boosting…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020Brother X-Series MFC-J6947DWPRICE £412 exc VAT from printerbase.co.ukBrother’s X-Series MFC-J6947DW is a multifunction printer that thinks big. It combines large-format printing with an A3 colour flatbed scanner, a duplex automatic document feeder, integrated fax and three A3-sized 250-page trays.Connection options abound: both Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi are built in – although you can’t use both together – along with USB 2, Wi-Fi Direct and AirPrint. An NFC reader is ready for tap-to–print manoeuvres, and Brother’s mobile apps extend print and scan functions to a variety of cloud storage providers.There’s one aspect of the MFC-J6947DW that’s small, however, and that’s the price. At £412, the hardware is eminently affordable and it comes with high-yield ink cartridges, rather than the half-empty starters supplied by certain vendors. Even better, once you have exhausted these, you…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020What is NoOps?NoOps? What does that mean?Well, you’ve heard of DevOps: development and operational teams working together to ensure you end up with software that does what’s needed, and staff who know how to work it effectively. The NoOps approach is more radical: instead of blurring the boundaries, the aim is to create software that doesn’t require an operational team at all by automating everything to the maximum extent possible. So it’s a way of slashing headcount?In theory, perhaps. Realistically, you’re still going to need humans to operate your applications – even Forrester, the research company that originally coined the term NoOps, admitted that some “ops” would likely remain. However, if your apps are designed according to NoOps principles, staff can spend less time on mundane tasks and more focusing on things…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020JON HONEYBALL“Nothing quite beats getting back into your own trusted space of a home or office network”Jon extols the virtues of VPNs for everyone, before getting hands-on with pfSense and explaining why he’s invested in the new iPad Pro with LidarA fter last month’s move from the lab’s Meraki firewall/router to pfSense software running on Netgate XG7100 hardware, it was time to get the VPN facility up and running. VPNs are incredibly useful things and every house should have at least one.Is that pushing things too far? To expect every home to have a VPN end point? I don’t think so: if you treat your home as your proverbial castle, getting back into a trusted network before reaching out to the internet is a very good idea.So what’s stopping you? Historically,…12 min
PC Pro|July 2020PETER JONES“Some healthcare professionals even expressed a desire to not go back as video calls are so efficient”Advanced nurse practitioner Peter Jones reports his experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic – and the tech challenges it has generatedWhile my day job is as an advanced nurse practitioner in a general practice in Worcestershire, I also do a little agency work. Recently, this has included working in a dedicated coronavirus pod and on a coronavirus ward. I happened to mention this whilst listening live to the PC Pro podcast on Mixlr (mixlr.com/pcpro): “Worked on a corona ward. Interesting. From an IT perspective, my biggest problem is having my PC separate from where I treat patients. But it’s a necessity.”As a result, PC Pro invited me to write this column on my experience of…8 min
PC Pro|July 2020Buy Windows 10 Pro for just £39.99Here’s an offer you won’t find in the shops: you can buy a one-PC, unlimited-lifetime licence of Windows 10 Pro for just £39.99 direct from the PC Pro store. The normal price is £219.99, meaning this is a truly staggering saving.This is a full version, but it’s also easy to upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Pro “in place”. Simply enter the provided code and let Windows 10 do the rest.To buy Windows 10 Pro, visit pcpro.link/windows10 and click the red Buy Now button. We will then provide you with the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool, which you can use to upgrade from 7 OR create a fresh install using a DVD or USB stick.If you prefer, you can buy Windows 10 Home for £29.99, a £90 saving on its…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020PayPal under fire over response to hacked accountsPAYPAL HAS BEEN blasted by customers who have fallen victim to hack attacks and say that they’v been unable to contact the firm to secure breached accounts.The issue came to light after a reader contacted PC Pro to report that his account had been hacked, with five transactions made without his consent, and PayPal unwilling to refund the money. “My PayPal account was hacked on or before 10 March and, between then and 15 March, five fraudulent transactions were made, purchasing tickets from Trainline,” Guy Meakin told us.“Notifications for none of these transactions were emailed to me, which would have been normal so there’s clearly an issue,” he said. “I initially complained to PayPal and they rejected my claims because the ‘payments were not unauthorised’, but PayPal seems to have…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020How will the coronavirus contact-tracing apps work?Governments globally are turning to technology to fight Covid-19, but experts fear the apps designed to counter the virus could bring serious problems of their own.The UK, like many other countries, has set up a taskforce to build a contact-tracing app that identifies when a known Covid-19 carrier comes into contact with someone else. The app flags contact points and allows potentially newly infected patients to seek medical advice or to self-isolate.Singapore, for example, released its app in March and European countries are working on their own systems, due for release in the coming weeks, but all will face the same problems of balancing efficacy against the constraints of technology and privacy.According to Claudia Pagliari, director of global eHealth at the University of Edinburgh, the ethical dilemmas such apps bring…5 min
PC Pro|July 2020ScrabbleGo is everything that’s wrong with appsNicole Kobie is PC Pro’s Futures editor. Please don’t try to add her on Scrabble Go, she’d rather not deal with the shame of losing to you all.@njkobieDuring lockdown, we need ways to take a minute and have a break from reality. This is especially true for those home-schooling three children or working multiple jobs from their kitchen table, although they may have fewer minutes to cram those breaks into.I have been taking such breaks from reality in Scrabble Go, the new app for the classic board game. Rather than scrolling Twitter, which is full of terrible news during these strange times, I stare at the digital board and come up with high-scoring words. Well, I try to: I’ve been playing PC Pro editor-in-chief Tim Danton and he’s murdered me…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Readers’ commentsThe Twilight ZoneI had been cryogenically frozen and woke up just a few days ago after what seems to have been an evacuation from the lab; in fact, the whole town seems to have gone missing – it’s kind of strange. So, having nothing else to do, I unpacked my brand-new Apple IIe and have a few pertinent questions I would like to have resolved, if you could kindly help me.Will my Apple II Communications Card and acoustic coupler be sufficient to run on this “internet” thing you keep banging on about? Will one of those nifty Pixma boxes work better than the ImageWriter printer that keeps knocking my coffee off the table when it prints? Is there a colour slide or something I can place over my green screen…5 min
PC Pro|July 2020BARRY’S PYTHON TOOLBOXATOM ATOM.10As recommended by Dr Chuck on the Coursera course, Atom has become my default code editor – at least for the time being. Previously I used Notepad++ on Windows, but it’s Windows-only. One of Atom’s great strengths is that it has identical versions for Windows, Mac and Linux, so no matter which platform you’re coding on at the time, you’ll get a consistent editor. Atom has beginner-friendly features such as autocomplete and colour coding, helping to avoid using reserved words as variables and so forth. GitHub integration should help going forward, too.PY – LEARN TO CODE iOS APP STOREPy is perfect for when you find yourself with a spare ten minutes and want to brush up on your Python skills. It’s broken down into different topics (Booleans, Lists, Dictionary…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020LOCK DOWN YOUR PC WITH AVGBONUS SOFTWARE CLAIM YOUR COPY OF AVG INTERNET SECURITY SUITE See p66 detailsAVG is perhaps best known for its free antivirus software (see issue 306, p88), but its paid-for Internet Security suite is a very different beast. As well as providing AI-enhanced protection for your PC, it’s a great choice for navigating potentially treacherous online territory. Best of all, a full single-user licence for AVG Internet Security Suite, which usually costs £50 per year, is free for subscribers and all readers who bought the Bonus Software edition of this month’s PC Pro (see p66).Over the next two pages, we’ll show how to make the most of AVG Internet Security’s headline elements.Sharpened scanningOnce you’ve installed AVG Internet Security and completed an initial scan, you can choose from six “Other scans”, each…5 min
PC Pro|July 2020How we testLaptops and PCsWe run our own benchmarks on every Windows and macOS system we test. These are based around image editing, video editing and multitasking (where we run the video-editing benchmark while simultaneously playing back a 4K video). At the bottom of each laptop and PC review, you’ll find the system’s score in each of these tests, plus an overall score.If a laptop scores 70, say, then it’s 30% slower than our reference system – a PC with a Core i7-4670K and 8GB of RAM. If it scores 160, then it’s 60% faster.We test laptop battery life by playing back a full-screen video until the battery runs out. We set the screen brightness to 170cd/m2, or as close as we can get using its settings, and switch to Flight mode.Screen…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020OnePlus 8 ProPRICE 256GB (green), £749 (£899 inc VAT) from oneplus.comThis phone is another step along the road to the mainstream for a company that started life as an upstart. It seems impossibly long ago that OnePlus burst onto the scene with its innovative, invite-only approach to marketing that generated a passionate community that’s still going today.Over the past few years, however, OnePlus has transformed itself into a regular smartphone company. In doing so it’s left behind the incredibly good value handsets of the past, which were often rough around the edges, and moved into the rarefied air of the polished, premium smartphone. The OnePlus 8 Pro represents the pinnacle of its achievements so far.Key changeNot that this is obvious at first glance. Probably the most visible change to the OnePlus design…9 min
PC Pro|July 2020Huawei P40 ProPRICE £750 (£900 inc VAT) from consumer.huawei.comThere are three reasons why people should consider buying the Huawei P40 Pro. The first is that they’re devoted to photography, and demand that their phone is the best-in-category (which, as we’ll see, the P40 Pro is). The second: they really hate Google. And the third reason is that they love to tinker with their phones to make things work.As anyone who hasn’t spent the past year contemplating their navel knows, the driving force behind those final two reasons is that Huawei and Google are no longer friends. Or at least, they are, but they can’t be seen together in public due to the ban on Huawei/US-company relations. So while the P40 Pro still runs Android 10, it’s using the open-source code with its…8 min
PC Pro|July 2020NEW INSTRUCTIONSHow to claim your bonus software1 download site at Visit the PC Pro pcprodownload.co.uk. You’ll need to enter the coupon code printed on the spine of the cover, along with your email address. We’ll send you an email to confirm that your code has been registered. On subsequent visits, you can access the download area by entering only your email address.2 Once you’re into the download area, you can access this month’s bonus software by navigating to the relevant product page and clicking the red Install button. For trial software, freeware and other downloads, click the Install button below the product description, or follow the onscreen instructions (please read these carefully).3 If the software needs registering, click the purple Register button, or follow the instructions on the left of the…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020Epson WorkForce WF-110WPRICE £168 (£202 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309epsonYou can’t expect many features in a portable colour inkjet the size of a box of chocolates, and here there’s no scanner, no automatic duplex printing, nor even an output tray. Instead, the WF-110W is focused on quick and easy printing away from the office. For a start, there’s a built-in battery, good for a claimed 50 colour or 100 black pages. You can directly power and recharge the printer from its supplied AC adapter, or simply use a USB connection.It supports wireless networking, so you could even use the WF-110W in an ad hoc partnership with your laptop.And if you have to borrow a PC with no internet access, you can install a Windows print driver via a USB connection to the printer…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Fitbit Charge 4PRICE £108 (£129 inc VAT) from johnlewis.comFitbit was the company that transformed step tracking from a niche pursuit into a global obsession, a metric that underpins the success of the fitness technology industry today. But in the face of an avalanche of cheap rivals from China, should you stick with the brand?One reason to do so is a first for Fitbit fitness bands: built-in GPS. Albeit not the most accurate. I used it to monitor several runs and walks, and noticed that the track plotted on the map was consistently wobbly. It didn’t hug corners well and compared poorly with the ageing Garmin Forerunner 630 I had on my other wrist. This, on average, led to slightly longer distances being recorded. Then again, the Fitbit Charge 4 is a fitness…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Asus ZenWiFi ACPRICE Two-node kit, £233 (£280 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309zenThe ZenWiFi AC is an exceptional mesh system in several ways. The one you might notice first of all is the price: it’s one of the most expensive products on test, and it doesn’t have a snazzy touchscreen or next-generation 802.11ax support to explain the cost.Any doubts over what you’re paying for, though, are instantly dispelled by a glance at our 802.11ac performance graphs on p90. Of our 19 contenders this month, the ZenWiFi AC proved the fastest in all four of our test locations, topping a massive 30MB/sec every time. It’s a hugely impressive clean sweep, representing enough bandwidth to saturate a 240Mbits/sec internet connection.Looking at the specs, the ZenWiFi’s stunning performance is perhaps not too surprising. It claims a regular…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020NO MESH PLEASE, WE’RE BRITISHA mesh system is the most powerful way to expand your home network, but it’s not the only one. If you don’t need all the bells and whistles of a mesh, there are several cheaper options to consider. Powerline extenderSome homes aren’t amenable to wireless connections, perhaps due to thick walls or long distances between rooms. Powerline networking takes a different tack, sending data around the mains cabling in your home. Ordinarily, a powerline extender system will consist of a base station, which you connect to your router via an Ethernet cable, and a separate access point that plugs in somewhere else to rebroadcast the wireless network.Powerline networking is neat and convenient, but performance is hard to predict. As with Wi-Fi, the manufacturer’s advertised data rates convey some sense of…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020D-Link Covr-2202PRICE Two-node kit, £123 (£148 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309dlink2There’s a family resemblance between D-Link’s mesh systems: the Covr-2202 echoes the triangular C1203, and the trim around the bottom matches its sibling’s colouring. The discreet WPS button remains too, as do the two Ethernet ports hidden in the base.At the same time, there’s much that’s different – and we’re not just talking about the weirdly inconsistent formatting of the names. The 2202 uses larger, tower-style stations, and while there’s only two of them they evidently incorporate bigger, better internal aerials, as the claimed coverage is rather larger than the C1203’s at 550m2 versus 465m2.The Wi-Fi hardware has been upgraded too. While MIMO provision drops from 2x3 to a more quotidian 2x2, the Covr-2202 adds a dedicated 5GHz backhaul radio, giving it…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Linksys Velop Dual-BandPRICE Three-node kit, £125 (£150 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309vel2The full-fat Linksys Velop, as reviewed above, is a powerful mesh system – but its price reflects that. For those whose budgets won’t stretch quite so far, Linksys offers this cheaper variant. What’s the difference? Well, the clue is in the name.And to be clear, the reduction from three radios to two is more or less the only technical distinction between the two Velop platforms. The radios themselves keep the same bandwidth ratings – 400Mbits/sec on the 2.4GHz band and 867Mbits/sec at 5GHz – along with 2x2 MU-MIMO capabilities.The dual-band units run more or less the same software too, meaning most of the plus and minus points of the original Velop still apply. That means it’s a yes to web or app-based…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Netgear Orbi WiFi 6PRICE Two-node kit, £583 (£700 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/308orb4Your eyes do not deceive you: the Orbi WiFi 6 costs a whopping £700. But then this is a cutting-edge product – the first mesh extender with support for 802.11ax. The new standard (known to its friends as Wi-Fi 6) is faster and more efficient than 802.11ac, theoretically allowing it to transfer data back and forth at twice the speed.As the figures above show, we didn’t see quite that much of a benefit in our tests, but the Orbi certainly raced past current-generation hardware. Over an 802.11ax connection, it proved around 25% faster than the otherwise unbeaten ZenWiFi AC.The catch is that, to get those speeds, you need to connect from a compatible device. The technology is gradually filtering into new laptops…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020TP-Link Deco P9PRICE Three-node kit, £142 (£170 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309deco3While TP-Link’s other Deco systems look a lot alike, the P9 takes a different tack, with a tower design that’s reminiscent of a smart speaker. It’s striking, but not very practical: bafflingly, the status LED is recessed into the top, so you won’t see there’s an error unless you stand over one of the nodes.That’s not the only thing that sets it apart. The Deco P9 operates as a conventional dual-band mesh system, but also boasts built-in powerline networking capabilities – a trick that allows it to expand backhaul capacity by routing traffic over your home’s mains cabling.That’s the pitch, anyway. In practice, we couldn’t empirically confirm that the powerline component did any good at all. There are no statistics or routing…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Zyxel Multy UPRICE Three-node kit, £149 (£179 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309zyx1The Multy U is Zyxel’s smaller, cheaper alternative to the premium Multy X below. Like Netgear’s Orbi RBK20, it doesn’t ditch the backhaul radio, but it trims the budget by reducing its theoretical speed from 1,733Mbits/sec to a more ordinary 867Mbits/sec.The case design has also been revamped. While the Multy X sits flat on a shelf, the Multy U units are designed to perch upright, just like BT’s Whole Home Wi-Fi discs. In this case, though, the stand isn’t attached into the case, and merely slots into a hole at the bottom of the Multy U unit. It’s a flimsy design that’s far too easy to knock over – and if you want to lie the units flat you’re out of luck,…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020VIEW FROM THE LABSLong-term mesh fans will notice that there aren’t a lot of new names in this month’s Labs. There was a time when networking manufacturers were eagerly churning out new 802.11ac mesh systems, but that’s largely dried up; today’s market largely consists of products originally launched a year or more ago.Does this indicate that 802.11ac is on its last legs, while 802.11ax – also known as Wi-Fi 6 – waits in the wings to replace it? Based on this month’s test results, I’d suggest the truth is almost the opposite: the technology has reached a point of maturity where further innovation isn’t necessary.To be clear, the tests themselves – as detailed opposite – are the same as they were in our last roundup of mesh systems back in 2018. However, to…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Asustor Lockerstor 8 AS6508TPRICE Diskless, £832 exc VAT from span.comWhen it comes to network storage, Asus makes performance a priority. Its Nimbustor gaming NAS appliances were the first to offer dual 2.5GbE ports, and the Lockerstor models extend that attitude into the business space, presenting not one but a pair of embedded 10Gbase-T ports, as well as twin 2.5GbE sockets.We tested the Lockerstor 8, also known as the AS6508T. It’s an eight-bay desktop appliance powered by a 2.1GHz Intel Atom C3538 CPU. It comes with a generous 8GB of DDR4 memory, which should allow you to run a good few apps, and the two SODIMM slots can be easily accessed if you need more, allowing you to upgrade it to a maximum of 32GB.With the lid off you’ll also notice two M.2 slots…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Synology Rack Station RS1619xs+PRICE Diskless, £1,632 exc VAT from broadbandbuyer.comIf you’re looking for a NAS that can handle more than just everyday storage duties, the RS1619xs+ could be just the thing. It’s Synology’s flagship 1U rack NAS appliance, and inside its modestly sized chassis it features a quad-core 2.2GHz Intel Xeon D-1527 CPU, along with 8GB of server-grade DDR4 ECC memory (upgradable to a maximum of 64GB). It sports a pair of internal M.2 slots too, which will accept both NVMe and SATA SSDs for caching duties.Connections are also well covered: although the four built-in Ethernet ports are only of the Gigabit type, the PCIe slot can support a wide range of industry-standard adapters, so you’ll have no problem moving up to 10GbE. And while there are only four internal drive bays, a…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020How smaller businesses can work together, remotelyPresenteeism is so last year. A relic of 1BC–before corona – it was all but outlawed by the Coronavirus Act 2020, which gave the government “the necessary powers to enable ministers to restrict or prohibit gatherings or events and to close premises during the coronavirus outbreak period”. Companies that have long resisted calls from staff to permit homeworking suddenly find themselves compelled by force of law to reconsider their position.Online meeting and collaboration services were largely the preserve of SME to enterprise-level organisations until a few weeks ago, but are now being considered by smaller setups, looking to keep staff in virtual contact until the restrictions are lifted. We looked at Slack and Teams from the perspective of an end user last month, but this time we ask: which is…8 min
PC Pro|July 2020What comes after NoOps?For the majority of businesses, NoOps is only ever going to really mean “ABitLessOps”. But if things keep moving in the direction of ever greater automation, the question arises: what comes next?One possibility that’s gaining traction is the idea of IntOps – short for intelligent ops, in which the day-to-day running of your software is taken care of by AI-trained machines. This might sound like a recipe for disaster, but given the advances in machine learning that we’ve already seen, it’s not so far fetched. This is, after all, technology that’s perfectly suited to repetitive tasks, and understanding failures by analysing error patterns – and there are entire categories of human error that machines won’t make.Of course, people will still be required to supervise, and to provide the initial data…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020PAUL OCKENDEN“Some firms will have a dedicated linefora fax machine, although it probably last rang in 1998”Regular readers will know that I’ve often written about working away from the office – hopefully some of that insight might have been useful over the past few turbulent weeks.Truth be told, it’s easy to do most IT stuff remotely: email, VPNs, remote desktop for business apps or accessing remote file storage all tends to be a piece of cake these days, and cloud-based apps and storage make things easier still. However, the big issue that people still struggle with is telephony: when everyone is working from home, who answers the office phone line?If you’re already using IP-based telephony, you won’t have a problem, but many SMEs still have one or more traditional landlines supporting…11 min
PC Pro|July 2020DAVEY WINDER“The criminals behind the attacks are no less than cyberscum. My contempt is off the scale”Covid-19 doesn’t just bring health threats but virtual ones too, with health workers being targeted by cybercriminals. Davey explains how to stay safeThis month’s column is brought to you from my hastily put together office in the “art room” at home – and no, my partner, the sculptor, isn’t happy about that. I initally wrote this column at the end of March, at which point the Covid-19 pandemic became very real indeed as my elderly mother was tested positive and in hospital. “Hopefully, by the time you read this she will have fully recovered,” I wrote in the first version of this article. “I’m keeping as positive an outlook as I can on that.” I’m…9 min
PC Pro|July 2020The future tech helping battle the pandemicFuture tech is often a solution in search of a problem. Right now, though, the world has plenty of problems. Here are six ways that future tech has been used – well and not so well – to help address the challenges raised by Covid-19. 3D printersThe technology we hoped would revolutionise manufacturing has proven a damp squib in some ways: while 3D printing continues to evolve and add new materials, leading companies have shut up shop as the revolution in home manufacturing failed to take hold.But, as the pandemic made it clear hospitals around the world lacked the necessary ventilators to treat the most dangerously ill patients, 3D-printing companies and their customers stepped in. 3D-printable designs for medical equipment have been made available, letting companies get to work filling…6 min
PC Pro|July 2020The slow and then sudden rise of working from homeAnyone who can work from home now is, but remote working had been slowly gaining converts before the novel coronavirus disrupted our lives. “We believe the future is remote,” said Aron Brand, CTO at CTERA, “Even before the coronavirus hit, the trend of remote work was emerging.”Data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) bears this out. In 2019, 1.7 million Brits worked from home most of the time; that’s about 5% of the working population, up from about 4% five years ago – a significant increase. Of course, that number has now shot up due to the lockdown. What happens to those figures when the restrictions end will be intriguing to see.But many more Brits already work from home on a more irregular basis. According to the ONS, there’s…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020Five stories not to miss1 Concern as police seek doorbell dataSurveillance critics have raised alarm over plans by Swindon Borough Council and Wiltshire Police to create a database of homes in the area with doorbell cameras, such as Amazon’s Ring devices. Amazon already works with police in the US, but the project, which asks camera owners to inform the police that they can provide footage for particular locations, is believed to be a UK first.2 Conspiracy activists hamper 5G rolloutThe UK’s tentative rollout of 5G mobile networks faced mounting challenges from protesters as conspiracy theories over health risks continued to drown out science. The protests against 5G radio signals have moved from peaceful to violent, with activists setting fire to masts and crippling services in their local area.3 Researchers uncover backdoors in Android appsGoogle…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020RIP Jack SchofieldALL OF US at PC Pro were saddened to hear of the death of Jack Schofield, the veteran technology journalist who had written for this magazine many times over the years.Jack started writing about technology before many of today’s journalists were even born, most famously for The Guardian where he penned the Ask Jack column. That column was indicative of Jack’s personality: scrupulously thorough, knowledgeable and ever-genial.Jack was the closest thing British tech journalism had to a father figure. He’d occasionally pop into the PC Pro office, pull up a chair and dispense a titbit of tech gossip or a word of advice. At breaks in press conferences, you could look for the plume of smoke rising from Jack’s pipe, pop over and ask what Jack had made of the…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020The A-ListPREMIUM LAPTOPSApple MacBook Pro16inPowerhouse laptop with price to match, from £2,3 from apple.com/ukIf you know you’ll take advantage of what the 16in MacBook Pro offers, you won’t regret buying it. The only question is where you draw the line, with options right up to 8TB SSDs and 64GB of RAM. Whichever version you choose, you’ll benefit from an improved keyboard, spectacular screen and the very best audio setup on a laptop. REVIEW Issue 305, p52ALTERNATIVESLenovo ThinkPad T490sLenovo updates its T series with this thin yet powerful laptop. With a battery life of over 11 hours in our tests, it’s truly business class. From £1,190 from lenovo.com REVIEW Issue 301, p46Razer Blade 15 Mercury WhiteA beautiful gaming laptop with Max-Q RTX 2070 graphics, a Core i7 chip, 16GB of RAM and…15 min
PC Pro|July 2020We could all do with some long-term supportBarry Collins is PC Pro’s features editor and the co-founder of bigtechquestion.com. He’s been on long-term support for decades.@bazzacollinsLast month’s excellent Labs roundup (see issue 308, p78) made only a passing mention of what I think is the killer feature of the award-winning Linux distro, Ubuntu: long-term support (LTS) releases. In fact (insert your own Kevin Keegan impression here), I’d love it, love it, love it, if Android, Windows and macOS offered the same.For those who are unfamiliar with the ways of Ubuntu, every two years the company releases an LTS version of the operating system. It comes with two big commitments: it will be supported for three years from the date of release, and it won’t get any major new feature updates that might disrupt your system. Want the…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Readers’ poll8% My company will continue homeworking for all or most staff3% Not relevant! My company hasn’t made any changes to working arrangements17% I already worked from home, so no change whatsoever33% All of my colleagues and I will be back in the office full time39% My company will reduce the number of days people have to come into the officeOur poll shows that many firms are embracing the homeworking concept – as are readers. “It’s quieter and less stressful, and not having to commute is wonderful. 8.59am get out of bed, working at 9am, what heavenly bliss is this!” wrote Richard Taylor.Lindsay Scott was similarly positive: “People have realised they don’t have to commute to an office to get their jobs done.” As you can probably tell, the lack of…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Conference catastrophesFilters gone wildBackgrounds and filters can be great fun, but not when you can’t turn them off in the middle of a call. Lizet Ocampo, political director for US advocacy group People for the American Way, downloaded some funny filters on a Sunday night for a community hour, including one that turned her face into a potato. But when Monday morning rolled around she couldn’t switch the filter off, leaving her stuck as a Maris Piper for the duration of her team’s catch-up call. The video quickly went viral on YouTube.Calls of natureYou might have to drop out of a conference to attend a call of nature, but for Pete’s sake, never, ever take your videoconferencing device with you. Sadly, that’s exactly what the unfortunate Jennifer did somewhere in North…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020VIRTUALISE Windows 7 UNDER Windows10By now you surely know that support for Windows 7 ended back in January. But there are reasons why you might not yet have upgraded an older PC to Windows 10. Perhaps you have applications that won’t run under the newer operating system, or maybe you would rather invest in a brand-new Windows 10 system and leave your old Windows 7installation untouched, so you can dip back into it if need be.Even in those scenarios, we’d still warn against using Windows 7 as your primary OS. What you can do, however, is create an image of your existing Windows 7 installation and run it inside a virtual machine (VM). When you access the OS in this manner, it’s much less exposed to potential online threats. Your host PC will continue…6 min
PC Pro|July 2020ZX Spectrum NextPRICE Advanced, £275 (£330 inc VAT) from specnext.comLaunched in 1982, Sinclair Research’s ZX Spectrum became an icon. Selling five million units during its ten-year official lifespan, despite a low-cost rubber keyboard semi-affectionately known as “dead flesh”, the ZX Spectrum launched many careers – and earned Clive Sinclair a knighthood to boot.There have been many attempts to cash in on the nostalgia surrounding the ZX Spectrum, including a handheld emulator that launched to great interest on crowdfunding site Indiegogo – and then failed to deliver more than a handful of barely functional prototypes. The long-delayed ZX Spectrum Next is by far the most impressive.What’s Next?The crowdfunding campaign for the ZX Spectrum Next launched in April 2017, promising something far removed from the world of ARM-based emulators such as the Nintendo NES…8 min
PC Pro|July 2020Huawei MateBook X Pro (2020)PRICE Core i7, €1,666 (€1,999 inc VAT) from huawei.comIt hasn’t been making laptops for long, but Huawei’s MateBook X Pro is already among the best ultraportables you can lay your hands on. The MateBook X Pro (2020) is the latest model, with upgraded internal hardware over last year’s laptop and it remains a fine choice. Especially as, unlike the company’s smartphones, the laptop division has avoided being slapped with a ban on using its core software: Windows 10.As with previous versions, the 2020 MateBook X Pro has a fabulous 3:2 aspect-ratio 14in display, it’s slim and light, and has one of the nicest laptop keyboards I’ve used. In fact, physically, the MateBook X Pro hasn’t changed a jot. It’s inside where all of the changes have been made, with Huawei…7 min
PC Pro|July 2020PHOTO GALLERY1 min
PC Pro|July 2020BenQ GL2780PRICE £108 (£130 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309benqThe BenQ GL2780 is an unusual 27in monitor in that it doesn’t sacrifice much to hit a low price… if you can catch it at the right time. High levels of demand are pushing up the prices of monitors, so treat the £130 here as a guide. We’ve seen it rocket up to £192 at times.Rather than an IPS panel, the BenQ employs TN technology. This means that viewing angles aren’t as good as IPS, with colours shifting as you look at it from the side or above. If you’re only going to sit directly in front of it, however, it’s one of the best budget TN monitors I’ve tested.First of all, it’s bright – I pushed it all the way up to 326cd/m²,…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Your bonus softwareAVG Internet Security 2020 One-year licence for one PC worth £50 avg.comAVG INTERNET SECURITY gives you all-round protection, including a smart, cloud-based file scanner to protect against zero-day malware attacks. An online shield blocks malicious links and websites, keeping you safer online, while a new Secure DNS feature prevent redirections to fake sites.You can take advantage of all of these features even if you’re already using a different security suite, thanks to AVG’s new default “Passive Mode”, which avoids conflicts when running multiple security products together.Or you can run the program on its own and enjoy all the malware detection and blocking features of previous editions, with a revamped interface that’s easier to explore and use. The new Software Updater tool also checks for updates to installed software, either recommends…3 min
PC Pro|July 2020EXCLUSIVE OFFER: BitdefenderFamily Pack 2020STORE.PCPRO.CO.UK2YR/15 LICENCESTHANKS TO BITDEFENDER, keeping all the computers and mobiles in your home secure just became a lot easier. The aptly titled Bitdefender Family Pack 2020 includes 15 licences, providing protection for you and your loved ones’ devices – and we’ve got a great deal that will give you two years of protection for just £29.99, saving £120 on the current RRP!This deal – available for a limited period only – isn’t made at the expense of security either. Bitdefender is a renowned security product that won the 2019 AV Comparatives “Product of the Year Award” and the recent PC Pro Labs (see issue 306, p76).What sets Bitdefender Family Pack 2020 apart is its flexibility in allocating slots to different users. You set yourself up as the master account holder,…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020THEWORLD’S BEST WI-FIWireless networking is no longer a luxury. From Netflix in bed to Zoom in the office, we expect our phones and computers to work anywhere. Our lives are filling up with smart devices that all need to be online too.Unfortunately, no matter how fast your internet connection may be, many routers will struggle to project a good signal to the furthest reaches of your property. A mesh extender system could be the answer, allowing you to distribute multiple access points to ensure that, wherever you happen to be, you can get a strong and stable connection.The idea’s such a good one that the market has exploded in the past few years: this month, we put no fewer than 19 different models to the test. However, while they all do the…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020BT Whole Home Wi-FiPRICE Three-node kit, £133 (£159 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309btMost mesh systems are designed to replace your old router, but, uniquely among this month’s products, BT’s Whole Home Wi-Fi kit works alongside it. You simply hook up one of the three nodes to your current router via Ethernet, then position the others around your home, and they’ll work together as a mesh of wireless access points for your existing network.This approach means there are some things the Whole Home Wi-Fi kit doesn’t need to do. It doesn’t assign or reserve IP addresses, it doesn’t deal with port forwarding and it has no connection to any VPN services you may want to use: all of that continues to be handled by your original router.As a result, getting set up is a breeze.…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Amazon EeroPRICE Three-node kit, £208 (£249 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309eeroThe Eero brand is owned by retail king Amazon – so it’s quite surprising that the price isn’t more competitive. At £249 for a three-node pack, the Eero is one of this month’s most expensive mesh solutions. Note that this is for the dual-band model too: there’s also a tri-band variant called the Eero Pro that will set you back £300.It’s not as if you’re paying for peak performance, either. Even by the standards of dual-band mesh systems, the Eero’s download speeds were unremarkable, averaging around 16MB/sec. Frankly, that’s no surprise as the units, while tasteful and unobtrusive, are too small to benefit from big antennae.The Eero system feels lightweight in other ways too. Management can only be carried out through the…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Google Nest WifiPRICE Two-node kit, £199 (£239 inc VAT) from store.google.comMost mesh systems can work with Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant to some extent; the Nest Wifi is the only one that actually functions as a smart speaker itself. The satellite node may look featureless, but it incorporates 360° microphones and a loudspeaker with touch-sensitive volume controls, allowing it to play music, control smart home devices and work like any other Google Home device.On paper, it’s a neat idea, and in use I found that the microphones picked up voices with almost spooky accuracy. Music doesn’t sound bad either, with a warmer, louder sound than you might expect from a speaker of this size.We’ve two caveats, though. First, if you’re already invested in the Alexa ecosystem, bringing a second voice-control platform…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Netgear Orbi Dual-BandJust as Linksys offers its flagship mesh system in both regular and dual-band flavours, so too does Netgear. Unlike the Velop, however, Orbi’s Dual-Band looks nothing like the parent product, instead adopting a squat, square-ish design with geometric bumps on the top. It’s not unpleasant to look at, but we miss the natty illuminated ring around the top, which is here replaced by a small shining dot on the front.Look to the rear and you’ll see that the complement of Ethernet ports has also been slashed. Where before there were four sockets on each node, there are now just two on the router, and none at all on the two satellites.The other big change is the number of radios. This is a bigger deal than it may seem: the original…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Tenda Nova MW3PRICE Three-node kit, £55 (£66 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309novaIf you’re reeling from the price of the Orbi WiFi 6 above, the antidote could be the Tenda Nova MW3 – a three-node, dual-band mesh extender system for the absurdly low price of just £66.It’s not just cheap but straightforward too. The Tenda smartphone app guides you through the setup process, but there’s very little to do as the units come-ready paired. Browse through the settings menu and you’ll find that all the important features are covered: you can reserve IP addresses and forward incoming connections to specific clients, enable a guest network and access simple parental controls. These controls don’t support filtering, but they do allow you to block internet access for specified clients according to a schedule.Advanced features don’t get…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020TP-Link Deco M9 PlusPRICE Two-node kit, £196 (£235 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309decoM9The Deco M9 Plus units look much like the Deco M5 ones, but there are a few differences. For a start, the discs are physically larger (with a diameter of 144mm, compared to 120mm), and there’s only two of them in the kit on test.Each M9 Plus node also has a USB 2 connector at the rear – although these aren’t currently functional. TP-Link explains that it plans to enable a file-sharing function at a future point, but there’s no word on when that will actually arrive.Perhaps the most important difference is that these larger discs additionally contain a dedicated backhaul radio. This raised the performance dramatically in the areas where the Deco M5 struggled most: downloads were 40% faster out on…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Zyxel Multy XPRICE Two-node kit, £208 (£250 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/309zyx2We originally reviewed the Multy X way back at the start of 2018, after which it spent more than a year at the top of its section in PC Pro’s A-List. That was chiefly down to its superb performance, and the hardware still impresses today: in this month’s tests, it repeatedly delivered download speeds of around 30MB/sec, sealing its place in the premier league of mesh extenders.But that isn’t too surprising because the Multy X’s internal specifications are formidable. Just like the Asus ZenWiFi and Netgear Orbi systems, it’s a tri-band system that partners an 867Mbits/sec client network with a dedicated backhaul radio rated at 1,733Mbits/sec. With 2x2 MU-MIMO support on the main network and 4x4 MIMO for node-to-node traffic, there’s plenty…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020GET MORE FROM MESH1 Check you’re on the right bandAlmost all of this month’s systems broadcast 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks under the same name – so if a device is seeing a weak signal over 5GHz, it could latch onto the slower band instead. On Windows, check this by opening the Wi-Fi menu and clicking on Properties for the connected network. Scroll to the bottom of the Settings window that appears to see which band you’re on.If your mesh router supports band splitting, you can avoid the issue by giving the 5GHz network a different name to the 2.4GHz one. Alternatively, you can navigate to the Windows Device Manager, open up the Properties dialog for your network controller and check the Advanced tab: the driver might give you an option to always use…2 min
PC Pro|July 2020Qnap TVS-972XUPRICE Diskless, £1,630 exc VAT from broadbandbuyer.comQnap’s TVS-972XU may look like an everyday rackmount NAS appliance, but it’s uncommonly versatile when it comes to local storage options: in addition to its four LFF hot-swap front bays, there’s also a row of five SFF drive bays tucked away underneath the lid. This gives you the option of dedicating the front bays to high-capacity LFF drives while fitting SSDs into the internal ones for high-speed storage, a read/write cache or as a performance tier for Qnap’s Qtier 2 data-migration feature. If that’s not enough, round the back you’ll also find a whopping six USB 3.2 ports, so you can connect a huge amount of high-speed external storage.That’s not the only welcome sight on the backplate: alongside a pair of 10GbE SFP+ and…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020BackupVault Cloud BackupPRICE 50GB, £24 exc VAT per month from backupvault.co.ukThere’s no shortage of online backup solutions for SMBs to choose from, but BackupVault stands out thanks to its simple pricing scheme. The price is based solely on how much data you want backed up to the cloud, so you pay a predictable monthly fee with no nasty surprises.Don’t confuse this with competing services that charge according to how much storage your data takes up once compressed. That can be good value, but compression ratios are dependent on the type of data you’re working with, and the provider is under no obligation to use the most efficient algorithms – so your outgoings could fluctuate significantly from month to month as your backup needs evolve.Prices for BackupVault start at £24 per month for…4 min
PC Pro|July 2020Optimise yourbusiness websiteWhat does it mean to optimise your website? Some people will tell you it means making it load faster; others will focus on keeping visitors coming back, or getting them to stay for longer. In reality, it could be any of these things – or none of them. Why? Because a website is only truly optimised when it contributes to the overarching purpose of your organisation.For almost all businesses, that means the website needs to help you make money. There may be a few exceptions, such as lobby groups and political parties, but even these often have commercial interests. So let’s take a look at how your company’s website might be tweaked and updated to help drive revenue.Define your funnelSuccessful websites drive visitors through a “funnel” – a journey that…9 min
PC Pro|July 2020SUBSCRIBE NOW!Subscribe to PC Pro on the single issue price., today and saveEach issue of PC Prowill be delivered directly to your device each month.SEE NEXT PAGE FOR SET-UP INSTRUCTIONSHOW TO SUBSCRIBE…… on an iPad or iPhoneSTEP 1 Return to the PC Pro librarySTEP 2 Choose your subscription term and tap twice on the 'price ' boxSTEP 3 Choose whether to create an optional PixelMags accountSTEP 4 Enter your Apple ID password to confirm… Windows 8STEP 1 Return to the PC Pro librarySTEP 2 Choose a subscription term from the bottom left menu and click/tap the corresponding 'Purchase' buttonSTEP 3 Click buy on the popup barSTEP 4 Enter your Microsoft account details to confirm… on an Android deviceSTEP 1 Open the Google Play Store homepage and navigate to the Newsstand section…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020LEE GRANT“Many third-party repair agents have improved, but they’re still capable of breathtaking acts of in competence”Lee relives chilling experiences of dealing with third-party repair firms and explains how to persuade a manufacturer that it should fix your kitThere are very good reasons why a £200 computer is a different beast to one that costs £1,000 or more. The build, speed and technology are directly related to the quantity of money pushed over the counter, but no amount of cash will buy longevity. An opinion that many customers hold is that expensive machines last longer than cheaper ones. Let me disabuse you of this myth.What is true is that all new products come with some form of manufacturer’s warranty. Recently, I’ve had a few warranty cases to deal with and thought…9 min
PC Pro|July 2020STEVE CASSIDY“Working fromhomecan make or break thewhole of yourworkforce’s ability tostay safe”As we temporarily shift away from life in the office, Steve explains what remote working architectures are and why they matterWhen Boris told us all to stay at home for that initial three weeks, I imagined that my phone would be ringing off the hook with new consultancy work. Surely all my clients would come calling, asking me to implement secure, reliable homeworking setups for their employees? After all, it’s not as if they had put systems in place already. But no such luck. Having been “doing” remote access since before 2000, I was fondly imagining the new Covid-19 economy might be as eager for apparently older technologies as the allegedly newer. I was wrong.Perhaps, though, I just need to…12 min
PC Pro|July 2020The startup surge to solve coronavirusStartups have lots of ideas and energy, and they’re turning those assets to the Covid-19 crisis. While there’s only so much tech can do to help, there are ways that entrepreneurs and innovators can support the fight against the pandemic.First, there’s a host of hackathons (all held virtually, of course). The Open Data Institute Leeds held a hackathon via Zoom with NHS Digital and Beautiful Information about how to build tools to communicate with local people, helping to share public information more easily. For details, visit pcpro.link/309leeds.The World Health Organization teamed up with Facebook, AWS, Microsoft and more for a virtual hackathon coordinated over Slack, dubbed #BuildforCovid19, looking to offer support for developers building software to drive social impact. In particular, around supporting front-line health workers, helping vulnerable populations and…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020The future of work in a post-coronavirus worldIt was the press conference that launched working from home: prime minister Boris Johnson announced a UK-wide lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19, ordering anyone to stay home who could. That sent companies scrambling – those that hadn’t been paying attention to Italy – with staff waking up the next morning to life as a remote worker.And as we all sat down at our kitchen tables with laptops to log on, daytime internet traffic on Virgin Media’s network shot up by 90%. Microsoft has seen a 775% increase in Teams’ calls and monthly users in Italy where lockdowns are in place. The use of VPNs leapt by a fifth globally, according to ExpressVPN. Downloads of Zoom and other business apps skyrocketed. Systems largely held up, although IT admins surely…5 min
PC Pro|July 2020Next month’s issueDENNISMAGS.CO.UK/PCPROOn sale Thursday 11 JuneLABSPrinters Buy a printer in haste, repent at leisure. Far better to take a cool, analytical look at quality, running costs and features – as we do in next month’s Labs.Subscribe todayStart your subscription today and claim your very own 26-piece PC repair kit. You can read PC Pro in print, on your iPad, iPhone or Android device. See p106 for details.FEATURESEscape from social mediaFeeling anti-social? Discover how to safely untangle yourself and your data from social media sites – including some you might have forgotten you belong to.Whatever happened to the coding heroes?We find out what happened to the programming legends who transformed computing and what they’re doing now.Run your own web serverAs part of our series of practical projects, we explain how to put…1 min
PC Pro|July 2020One last thing…Writing this in late April, we’re still in lockdown. Like you, I’m going mildly stir-crazy being cooped up at home. I don’t mind working from here, and indeed do quite a lot of it, but I’ve come to really appreciate the former freedom of being to go out whenever I liked – even just for a trundle on a motorbike to clear the head, without worrying about the justifiable need for the trip.Working from home has seen significant changes to my use of media, both social and “unsocial”. By that I mean TV: I like having the TV chattering away in the background, and have to remember to mute it whenever I have a Zoom or Teams video call with clients or with the team at work. So far, I’m…4 min
