| At a glance | |
| Product | Western Digital My Net N900 HD Dual-Band Router (WDBWVK0000NSL-HESN) [Website] |
| Summary | Ubicom-based "N900" router with Atheros radios, seven Gigabit LAN ports, USB printer and file sharing. |
| Pros | - High routing throughput - Produced the highest wireless throughput seen yet - 20+ MB/s NTFS filecopy write/read |
| Cons | - Better wireless throughput uplink vs. down |
Typical Price: $69 Buy From Amazon |
Overview
Updated 10/15/2012 - Added link to 5 GHz retest and updated related commentary
WD has bravely entered the highly competitive consumer router arena, with its four-member My Net HD Dual-Band router family. WD sent the penultimate member of the new lineup, the N900, in for review, so let's get started.
One of the N900's key competitive differentiations is the seven switched Gigabit Ethernet ports arrayed across its rather broad rear panel as shown in the graphic below. Note too, the dual USB 2.0 ports for storage and printer sharing. The latter, however, requires installation of Windows-only WD Print Share software.
My Net N900 rear panel
The front panel contains a WPS button and handy status/activity LEDs.
My Net N900 front panel
Inside
I covered the internals of the the N900 in this Inside Story article, which I've updated with corrected component information. I also took the RF shields off after testing and snapped the photo below, which clearly shows a Ubicom IP8260U processor.
WD My Net N900 inside
For quick reference, here is the updated table, with comparison to the similarly-designed D-Link DIR-857.
| WD My Net N900 | DIR-857 | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Ubicom IP8260U | Ubicom IP8000AU |
| Switch | Atheros AR8327N (x2) | Atheros AR8327N |
| RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Flash | 16 MB | 16 MB |
| 2.4 GHz Radio | - Atheros AR9381 single-band 3-stream 11n SoC - 6976691A205 (manufacturer unknown) 2.4 GHz power amps (x3) |
- Atheros AR9380 dual-band 3-stream 11n SoC - Unidentified manf. power amp (x3) |
| 5 GHz radio | - Atheros AR9380 dual-band 3-stream 11n SoC - Skyworks/SiGe SE2595L Dual Band 802.11n Wireless LAN Front End (x3) |
- Atheros AR9380 dual-band 3-stream 11n SoC - Unidentified manf. power amp (x3) |
Table 1: WD My Net N900 component summary
Buy This Product From AmazonRelated Articles
-
WD My Net N900 5 GHz Retest
- CES 2012: Belkin Joins The N900 Club
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› ‹ - CES 2012: Belkin Joins The N900 Club