Networking
Networking news — Wi-Fi 7, routers, homelab gear, and infrastructure.
Xsight Labs Boots Vanilla Ubuntu on an 800G DPU, and That Matters More Than the Spec Sheet
ServeTheHome installed stock Ubuntu LTS on Xsight Labs' 64-core E1 DPU, then upgraded it to Ubuntu 26.04 without vendor drama. For infrastructure people, that is the difference between owning your network edge and renting mercy from a firmware pipeline.
UniFi OS 5.1.11: Built-In Ad Blocking, IPv6 WireGuard, and Auto Let's Encrypt Finally Land
Ubiquiti's UniFi OS 5.1.11 ships three features homelabbers have been running workarounds for since day one: built-in network-wide ad blocking via policy-based routing, native IPv6 WireGuard VPN client support, and automatic Let's Encrypt certificate management.
The FCC Just Banned Your Next Router — Foreign-Made Wi-Fi 7 Gear Is on the Clock
The FCC quietly added every foreign-manufactured consumer router to its Covered List on March 23, freezing new equipment authorizations for the entire Wi-Fi 7 generation. Homelab buyers have months — not years — before the inventory dries up, and the approval process the government built to replace it has a brutal track record.
Cisco Built a Quantum Switch That Runs Over Standard Telecom Fiber at Room Temperature
Cisco unveiled the Universal Quantum Switch on April 23 — a working prototype that routes qubits across standard telecom fiber at room temperature, with under 4% fidelity loss. The networking layer of quantum computing is finally starting to look like, well, networking.
UniFi 'Beast' Surfaces at NAB 2026 — 25G Routing, 100G Uplinks, and NVR Bays in One Box
Ubiquiti quietly parked four unannounced rackmount monsters at NAB 2026: the UDM Beast with 25G + integrated NVR storage, the Fortress Gateway Core with 100G QSFP28, an Enterprise 100G aggregation switch, and an Enterprise S PoE+++ access switch. None are officially launched. All of them rewrite the homelab calculus.
MikroTik Finally Ships Wi-Fi 7 — The hAP be3 Media Lands at $179 With RouterOS, Thread, and 5x 2.5G
MikroTik's first Wi-Fi 7 router ships late April for $179, packing tri-band 802.11be, five 2.5G ports, a built-in Thread radio for Matter, and RouterOS v7 with full container support. The homelab crowd just got the cheapest serious Wi-Fi 7 router with a real CLI behind it.
Sub-$200 10GbE Switches Are Flooding the Market — Homelab Networking Just Changed
A wave of ultra-cheap 10GbE switches from brands like XikeStor, Sodola, and YuanLey is pushing 10-gigabit networking below $200. The homelab game just changed permanently.