Crowds can slow WiFi to a crawl, but not Portal. Stream ultraHD videos without buffering and play Internet games without lagging.
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$631,559
pledged of $160,000 goal
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Crowds can slow WiFi to a crawl, but not Portal. Stream ultraHD videos without buffering and play Internet games without lagging.
About this project
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WiFi has become a victim of its own popularity. Over the past 5 years, WiFi data usage has increased 100x, and the technology behind it is struggling to keep up. While router manufacturers have increased their maximum speed limits, they have not addressed the primary cause of poor performance: traffic and congestion.
Billions of WiFi devices now compete for the limited radio airwaves we all share, causing invisible traffic jams and congestion, making WiFi slower and more unreliable than ever.
Portal is the first and only router specifically engineered to cut through and avoid congestion, delivering consistent, high-performance WiFi with greater coverage throughout your home.
Its proprietary spectrum turbocharger technology provides access to 300% more of the radio airwaves than any other router, improving performance by as much as 300x, and range and coverage by as much as 2x in crowded settings, such as city homes and multi-unit apartments.
Spectrum is a beautiful thing. Spectrum is at the heart of how wireless works. The more of it you have, the faster and more reliable your Internet experience.
Why your WiFi sucks... the problem of crowds. Think of spectrum like the lanes of highway. Most home WiFi routers today operate on just one shared WiFi lane; maybe two if you're lucky. If you live in a city or apartment, your WiFi network could be competing with 35 or more neighboring WiFi networks. And the problem isn’t just the number of neighboring WiFi networks, it's also what they’re doing. A single neighbor running a bit torrent, or simply folks all streaming HD video at 8pm every night can consume most of the spectrum you all share. This is called congestion, and it's like being stuck in rush hour traffic all the time.
Spectrum Turbocharger. Portal’s unique FCC-certified technology (FastLanes™) enables your WiFi network to operate in a special protected portion of the 5GHz radio spectrum that was originally reserved for weather radar systems. This is a huge swathe of spectrum, about 3x wider than the spectrum conventional WiFi uses today, and it's relatively uncrowded which enables your WiFi data to speed past your neighbor's WiFi data that is stuck in congested traffic.
FastLanes™ is like having your own private highway to the internet!
And Portal has other unique and super-cool technologies, like SmartLanes™ which actively monitors for congestion and intelligently changes WiFi lanes steer around network congestion to give you a reliable, uninterrupted and hassle-free Internet experience.
SmartLanes™ is like driving that private highway in a super agile sports car.
And best of all, Portal works seamlessly with all the WiFi connected devices you already have.
Did you know that congestion also saps your coverage?
Ever wonder why Netflix and Youtube work great from your bedroom in the afternoon, but at 8pm it slows to a crawl everywhere except in the same room as your router? Don't blame your internet, it's probably your WiFi.
Rate versus Range. WiFi coverage is like a waterfall, the taller the waterfall the stronger the flow of water further away, meaning that a strong router will allow you to enjoy your streaming video or gaming experience at the furthest corners of your house. This is called rate versus range, and yes the actual measurements do look like a waterfall.
Bigger and more antennas certainly help, but in congested environments like city homes and multi-unit apartments, even big antennas can't cope with effects of congestion. Think of congestion like a big wall that blocks your data flow, leaving you only a trickle of internet goodness that now reaches only half the distance it did before your neighbors all came home and started watching "Game of Thrones".
More Speed and More Range! Portal's ability to operate in uncrowded spectrum that is virtually empty of congestion, together with nine (9) powerful antennas, enables your network to reach every corner of your home with no dead zones consistently any time of day or night, even in the most crowded environments.
Enjoy greater speed, greater coverage, and lower latency than your neighbors.
Stop waiting and start enjoying your media or gaming the way it was meant to be experienced.
Say goodbye to unsightly antennas. Can a powerful router be sexy? Absolutely. You don’t need ugly “dead bug antennas” to achieve range and coverage. Portal cleverly folds nine (9) powerful and very specialized antennas into a smooth aerodynamic body for a clean elegant design. Together with ten (10) state-of-the-art radios and advanced technologies like MU-MIMO Beamforming, Portal achieves amazing range and coverage rivaling any "dead bug" external antenna router today.
A single Portal can offer complete coverage for a home of approximately 2500 sq. ft. And two Portals can be daisy-chained together using our proprietary enterprise-grade mesh technology to extend your network range up to 200 ft or more; more than enough to cover large or multi-story homes up to 5000 sq.ft.
Power and Beauty with no compromises. You'll never have to hide your router again.
Simple one-touch smartphone setup, secure dynamic guest networks, real-time notifications and remote management enable frustration-free setup and effortless management of your network, because we believe that your router shouldn’t get in the way of an awesome Internet experience.
Enterprise-grade Security. We made Portal secure with enterprise-grade security technologies to protect your network and your family’s Internet experience 24/7.
- Proprietary “Rolling Code” dynamic secure Guest Networks, easy smartphone setup
- Continuous Intrusion Monitoring and remote alerts to smartphone
- Ultra-secure Web GUI interface with proprietary 2-factor authentication for (optional) 'old school' control by super users. Other Functions
- VPN for secure remote access
- WiFi Protected Access® (WPA/WPA2—PSK)
- Parental Controls to manage web filtering and accessibility
- Double firewall protection (SPI and NAT)
Don't just take our word for it, let us show you Portal in action. Head-to-head versus the best router's available today, Portal consistently performs above and beyond in speed, simplicity, and latency with virtually no buffering or lag.
(The details: Portal versus Netgear R7800, two Apple iPad Air 2, measured at distance of 33 feet plus 2 walls, Ookla Speed Test, Netflix HD ("Marseille") and ultraHD-4K ("Moving Art: Forests") video streaming, two Xbox One (PC Streaming) + Gears of War)
We've worked hard to produce the highest quality WiFi experience that technology can offer. Portal integrates new, advanced technologies to seamlessly provide the latest in WiFi advancement. We believe a router should look great and work well without compromise.
Quad-Stream Wave-2 IEEE 802.11ac
- AC2400, Dual-concurrent architecture allow for simultaneous operation in 2 Bands (5GHz and 2.4GHz).
- Multi-User MIMO for simultaneous streaming and gaming on multiple devices
- Active Beam Steering delivers maximum speeds at range and coverage
Seven (7) Operating Bands
- Band I: 5.150 – 5.250 GHz (5G, UNII-1)
- Band II: 5.250 – 5.350 GHz (5G, UNII-2, DFS
- Band III - V: 5.470 – 5.725 GHz (5G, UNII-2e-i, ii and iii, DFS)
- Band VI: 5.725 – 5.825 GHz (5G, UNII-3)
- Band VII: 2.400 – 2.4835 Ghz (2.4G ISM)
Advanced Radios
- 5GHz: Quad (4x4) high-powered agile wide-band, IEEE 802.11ac/a/n, Wave-2 Multi-User (MU) Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO).
- 2.4GHz: Three (3x3) high-powered, IEEE 802.11b/g/n, supporting legacy devices
- Bluetooth Smart: 4.2 Low-Energy supporting smartphones, tablets and IoT devices
- Dual super-wideband radar detector + traffic monitor
Adaptive Smart Mesh
- For larger homes (multi-story and greater than 3000 sq. ft.), daisy-chain 2 or more Portals for super extended range out to 200 ft plus.
- Enterprise-grade Mesh with dynamic layer-2 routing.
- Near Zero-Interference, Auto-Detect, Easy one-touch setup
Ethernet and USB Ports
Other Functions
- QoS prioritizes network traffic by application and device
- DLNA® server to find and play your media on TVs and game consoles
We've all been there: Buffering, loading, pulling our hair out, waiting for the Internet to let us be productive or have fun. Our team is made up of people, like you, who know how frustrating WiFi has become. That's why we decided it was time to make it better.
As engineers, we're passionate about technology and beautiful design. We’ve been together for nearly a decade building WiFi and Bluetooth solutions for some of the most iconic names in consumer electronics.
We became frustrated that the industry wasn't solving the real problems that were making WiFi networks slower, less reliable and overly complicated. With billions of WiFi devices competing for bandwidth, WiFi has slowed to a crawl. So we started our own company to fix this problem—and Portal is our solution.
With your help, Portal will begin its journey from our team to your home, where it can dramatically improve your WiFi and your life. Here are some of the key events that will happen once we've reached our Kickstarter goal.
Risks and challenges
We have taken the time to get nearly everything in place before launching this campaign. We wanted to reduce the risk to our backers by delaying the launch of this campaign until the core technologies were proven in the real world. Our engineering team has worked together for many years and is highly experienced. There are few risks in the team and we expect to resolve any unforeseen technical issues with resolve and determination to meet our commitments.
We have developed partnerships with top-tier manufacturers in Taiwan, and we have already sourced all of Portal’s major components from the top suppliers around the world. We currently are in testing of our 2nd generation Portal prototype. During the production process, we expect to make minor changes to optimize the design for mass production and regional requirements. On the logistics side, we have established partnerships with a US fulfillment house and international shippers to deliver your Portal quickly and safely.
We pledge to keep our backers informed in a timely manner throughout the entire production process and do everything we can to deliver Portal to you as committed.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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The US and Canada, followed by Europe. Portal is required to be certified for each country by their regional regulatory authorities.
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No. Portal works with all client devices 802.11/a/b/g/n/ac. Some older devices (802.11/a/b/g and some 802.11n) cannot take advantage of the additional spectrum that Portal provides with FastLanes™. However, Portal is still able to dynamically assign channels to these older devices to help reduce the congestion in the normal operational channels at 2.4GHz and 5GHz.
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The Portal App works with iOS 8 or higher and Android 5 or higher. Portal can also be managed by any web browser using a powerful, but less intuitive interface.
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DFS is Dynamic Frequency Selection. It’s the name of the capability that allows WiFi to share the airwaves with radar. Even the most expensive enterprise-class routers are only able to provide access to ONE channel that can be shared with radar. This channel is picked when the router is reset and never changes. If radar is detected, the traffic moves back to the crowded normal channels and stays there until the router is reset. Portal is able to provide access to ALL of the channels that can be shared with radar. Channels are monitored for WiFi and LTE traffic, as well as radar, and can move back and forth to avoid radar and interference whenever necessary.
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No. Portal does not have the capabilities to do this and is designed to protect your security and privacy. Portal only looks at the amount of traffic and congestion. It does not look at where packets are going or what they contain.
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No. Portal does not collect or send personal information or passwords over WiFi by Portal. When pairing with a smartphone or other mobile device, credentials and passwords are sent over Bluetooth with a very limited range.
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No. Portal needs an Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) connection to the Internet to operate. The modem provides the Ethernet connection from the broadband service that you have from your ISP.
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Yes. Portal can be added by attaching to your modem’s Ethernet port (IEEE 802.3), or by adding it to the Ethernet ports on your existing WiFi router. Portal’s automatic configuration ensures that it plays nicely with your existing equipment.
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You never need to give out your network password, and your guests never need to remember it. Granting Guest Access is done using the Portal App, which uses Facebook credentials or email addresses. Guest Access is time and distance controlled, making it very secure. Whenever a device that has been granted Guest Access is within range of your network, Portal automatically creates a guest network with random SSID and credentials. This information is securely exchanged over Bluetooth. When the guest device leaves your network, Portal deletes the guest network and credentials.
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For best results, Portal should be placed horizontally as close to the center of your home and as high as possible. This helps the 9 internal antennas avoid furniture that can reduce the propagation of the radio waves.
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Yes. Portal supports wireless and wired extensions and mesh topologies.
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We are available at www.getportal.io and via email: support@getportal.io
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Portal won't replace your FioS gateway, but it can add to it. You'll still need the FioS modem to access your TV/Internet/Phone services. Portal simply connects to one of your available ethernet ports and becomes an extension of your existing WiFi network. This is the simplest and fastest way to install Portal, and you'll still retain your old WiFi with it's SSID, etc... Portal will look like a new network with new SSID, etc...
Alternatively you can disable your old WiFi and use Portal as your sole network; There are good internet forums and even some youtube videos that show you how to do this. Here's an old one for actiontec gateway and netgear router, but the concept is similar for any brand gateway and Portal:http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/23977/~/will-my-netgear-router-work-with-verizon-fios%3F
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It's always difficult to recommend a mesh solution without knowing more details about your environment. We've been conducting some field testing and will be releasing comparison information shortly that may help. Portal has exceptionally good range and coverage because of it's large antenna arrays and separate power amplifiers. We are seeing that a pair of Portals has been enough for all of our test cases, even where three of the other mesh solutions are needed.
Our mesh will include Ethernet back haul, if you can run the cables (the best approach). But most people want a complete wireless solution. We use a layer 2 approach that helps minimize over the air communications. We recommend that you start with two Portals. You can add the third later if necessary.
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Let's say you have a dedicated router and it's been handling your traffic like a champ, but you just need Portal as an access point. Can Portal support this? Yes, it can.
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Portal contains two brackets on the bottom for easy wall mounting. The internal antenna arrays are engineered to work with either a horizontal or vertical alignment.
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Portal is based on OpenWRT and we will offer an SDK for Portal, the Cloud controller, and iOS and Android apps development.
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Portal can be configured as an AP and it does support VLAN tagging. To configure Portal for these features you will need to use the web browser interface.
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If you are replacing an existing WiFi router, the Portal mobile app will clone your current router and automatic configure Portal using short range Bluetooth to ensure security.
By using the Portal mobile app you can perform a new setup and configuration with the touch of a single button by using your Facebook credentials. If you do not wish to use Facebook, you simply type in an email address and password.
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I don't want any usage, location, etc info being sent anywhere. Can I turn off cloud based features?
Portal does not capture or provide personal information, or internet usage information. It protects your privacy and security.
Portal will operate as a Wireless Local Area Network even if the broadband connection fails. When the broadband connection is active, Portal will communicate with the Cloud to provide intelligent traffic management and additional security features.