Western Digital My Net N900 HD Dual-Band Wireless Router Review

Western Digital Introduces New My Net Family

Western Digital is best known for its hard drives, but the company is far from a one trick pony. Back in 2008 the company introduced the popular WD TV series of media players and successfully moved from making products for inside your computer to inside your living room. Now that WD has successfully established that brand line they are branching off again and entering the wireless networking market! WD believes that they can bring something new to the table and help spur innovation in the wireless networking market. Many might wonder how WD would be able to do this, but if you consider the companies expertise, it starts to make sense. WD certainly knows about storing and streaming data, so broadcasting it shouldn’t be that large of a hurdle. It also wouldn’t come as a shock it WD makes an all-in-one device that is a media player that stores data and also acts as a wireless router for the home.

Yesterday, WD announced the My Net brand line, which was initially launched with five dual-band wireless routers that range in price from $79.99 to $349.99 and an 8-port Gigabyte home entertainment switch for $69.99. All of these products are said to make watching online movies and playing online games a better experience for consumers.

Shown above are the five new My Net wireless routers and their general features (click to see full size). The WD My Net family includes 3 dual-band Wireless-N routers and two dual-band storage routers (1TB or 2TB). All of the My Net devices shown above are available now with the exception of the My Net N900 Central, which will be made available next quarter.

WD My Net Router Family:

• My Net N900 Central The My Net N900 Central HD dual-band storage router provides accelerated HD streaming plus integrated storage for wireless backup and remote access. With FasTrack Plus optimization technology, My Net N900 Central delivers high quality, accelerated HD entertainment that is intelligently and automatically prioritized to ensure smooth streaming. The wireless-N storage router features fast wireless performance with speeds up to 900 Mbps (450 + 450 Mbps on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands combined), as well as integrated 1 TB or 2 TB internal storage for automatic wireless backup. My Net N900 Central includes 4 LAN and 1 WLAN Gigabit Ethernet ports for up to 10/100/1000 Mbps wired speeds, 1 USB port for additional storage, printer and media share server use, and range amplifier antennas for extended range. Additionally, My Net N900 Central is Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) certified for easy detection and connection of Wi-Fi devices.

• My Net N900 The My Net N900 HD dual-band router also provides a premium entertainment experience for movies, games, video, music, video chat and more. The My Net N900 offers the ultimate performance for all connected devices in the home, even while streaming to multiple devices at the same time. The exclusive FasTrack Plus technology provides intelligent, real-time traffic prioritization for simultaneous HD and 3D media streaming and online gaming. The wireless-N router features high wireless performance with speeds up to 900 Mbps (450 + 450 Mbps on the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands combined) and also includes 7 LAN and 1 WLAN Gigabit Ethernet ports for up to 10/100/1000 Mbps wired speeds, 2 USB ports for additional storage, printer and media share server use, and range amplifier antennas for extended range. Additionally, My Net N900 is UPnP and DLNA certified.

• My Net N750 The My Net N750 HD dual-band router is optimized to deliver multiple simultaneous HD media streams on the network, delivering accelerated video to all connected wireless and wired devices. WDs exclusive FasTrack technology detects entertainment traffic and prioritizes bandwidth on the network to smoothly stream multiple HD movies, shows, games and more to connected devices. The router provides a combined data rate of up to 750 Mbps (300 + 450 Mbps) and features 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 2 USB ports.

• My Net N600 The My Net N600 HD dual-band router is ideal for simple and fast web surfing and entertainment streaming with FasTrack technology for a smooth HD viewing experience. The router provides a combined data rate of up to 600 Mbps (300 + 300 Mbps) and features 5 Fast Ethernet ports with 1 USB port.

• My Net Switch My Net Switch is an 8-Port Gigabit home entertainment switch, ideal for instantly expanding your wired connections with super fast Gigabit Ethernet up to 10/100/1000 Mbps.
  

The
device that we are focusing in on today is the Western Digital My Net
N900 which is a dual-band router specifically designed and optimized for
movies, games, video, music and other multimedia and entertainment
services. This HD dual-band router is rated at 900 Mbps Wi-Fi speed (450 + 450 Mbps) has 7 Gigabit ethernet ports, two USB ports and a retail price of $179.99. Let’s take a closer look and unbox this router on the next page.