Western Digital is launching MyNet N900, a high-end router that has been designed to cater to the enthusiast market, which means people who have many connected computers (desktop, laptop), mobile devices (smartphone, tablet) and home appliances (streaming box, home server, game console). Interestingly enough, a large chunk of the prospect buyers will look for “better performance”, and that’s exactly what the MyNet N900 was designed to do.
Western Digital (WD) has taken a pragmatic approach to the problem. Instead of pitching raw bandwidth (in MBPS or GBPS), WD makes the argument that its product is very good at prioritizing data packets depending on the usage (voice, video, music, etc…). For example, voice or movies should have a high priority, while download and web surfing are not as critical. This is called QoS or “quality-of-service”. This is not really a new feature, but while some routers require the user to perform a complex setup, WD says that it detects automatically the common types of data traffic. That said, Western Digital still leaves to door open for customization if the user wants to handle a very specific app.
Most of us know Western Digital for their storage products, and you shouldn’t be surprised that WD has integrated some storage management features in this router. It is possible to connect hard drives via the USB ports in the back (1xUSB 3.0 and 1xUSB 2.0), and Mac users will be glad to know that it is compatible with Time Machine, so this may be an alternative to Apple’s own products that are often more expensive. There are also 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports in the back, in case you need to have the lowest possible latency and the maximum performance.
