Western Digital is expanding its scope to wireless home networking. The company has announced four Wi-Fi routers, the top model of which has an internal storage option. The company has also released a switch.
The models are part of Western Digital’s new My Net family of networking products. The company is no longer content with just providing storage solutions for home networks and is looking to gain a foothold in the wireless home networking market with its My Net family. The wired Ethernet ports are all gigabit connections.
The top model is the My Net 900 Central. This model is available in a version with a built-in 1TB HDD or a version with 2TB, and is equipped with a USB connection, four LAN ports and a WLAN connection. In addition to internal storage, the My Net 900 Central has the advantage that files from all PCs in the network can be automatically backed up to the internal hard disk, while the network hub is the only one of the four accessible via the Internet, by means of a web interface or via apps for smartphones and tablets based on Android or iOS.
The My Net 900 has no built-in storage, but has three more LAN ports and also an extra USB connection.
In order to stream HD content over the home network in the right direction, the My Net 900 Central and the My Net 900 are equipped with FasTrack Plus technology. This makes it possible to recognize the type of content being played and optimize bandwidth allocation accordingly. According to Western Digital, this prevents delays when displaying HD content. In theory, a total of 900Mbps is available for WiFi, thanks to the dual-band n technology.
The My Net 750 and My Net 600 also use dual-band n technology, but have a combined bandwidth of 750 and 600Mbps respectively for wireless communications. The two have four LAN ports and a WLAN connection, but the My Net 750 has an extra USB port.
For consumers who only need a switch, Western Digital has released the My Net Switch, with a total of eight LAN ports. These are divided into two high priority ports for, for example, HD content, four Ethernet connections with medium priority and two with low priority. The full duplex bandwidth is 2000Mbps.
The My Net 900 Central is available from around 350 euros, the My Net 900 WiFi router has a suggested retail price of almost 180 euros, while the My Net 750 and My Net 600 are available for 120 and 90 euros respectively. The My Net Switch costs 60 euros.