Google is making a Wi-Fi router as part the company ia trying to provide better Internet connections that make it easier for people to access its digital services and see more of its online advertising. Pre-orders for the $199 'OnHub' wireless router can be made beginning Tuesday at Google's online store, Amazon.com and Walmart.com. The device will go on sale in stores in the U.S. and Canada in late August or early September.

Google is promising its wireless router will be sleeker, more reliable, more secure and easier to use than other long-established alternatives made by the other hardware specialists. Google teamed up with networking device maker TP-Link to build OnHub.

OnHub will be regularly updated to unlock new features, according to Trond Wuellner, a Google product manager. The concept is similar to the automatic software upgrades the company makes to its Chrome browser and personal computers running on its Chrome operating system.

Wuellner expects most people will be able to set up OnHub in three minutes or less. The router is designed to be managed with a mobile app called Google On that will work on Apple's iPhone, as well as devices running on Google's Android software.

Google is trying to make it easier for people to be online.

Besides dispatching Internet-beaming balloons and drones to parts of the world without much online access, Google also has been trying to lower the cost and accelerate the speeds of the connections in more advanced countries such as the U.S. The goal has already hatched Google Fiber, an ultra-fast Internet service that is already available in a few U.S. cities and is coming to more than 20 others. Google is also preparing to offer a wireless subscription plan for smartphones running on the company's Android software.

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