Unveiled at CES 2012, the D-Link DIR-605L Cloud Router is the first cloud-based wireless router I’ve reviewed. While Cisco released its app-enabled Linksys EA series a while ago, the cloud features of these routers are not available until later this year. That said, the DIR-605L’s new feature, which allows users to manage their home network no matter where they are, proved to be a great extra in my trials.
Other than that, the new router is a dead-simple single-band wireless-N router that operates in the 2.4Ghz frequency. It has no other bells and whistles, lacking Gigabit Ethernet, USB ports, IPv6 support, and even guest networking, which is a feature available in almost all D-link’s routers I’ve seen since 2009.
The new DIR-605L more than makes up for its spartan packaging, though, by offering decent performance and very stable wireless signal. On top of that, you shouldn’t expect much from a networking device that’s priced at just around $40. And for those who don’t need a high-end wireless network, the DIR-605L is worth every penny.
Design and ease of use
The DIR-605L is tiny and yet quite bulky at the same time. That’s because while the router itself is small, fitting right on a large hand, its two non-detachable antennae, which stick up from the back, are oversize, making the whole package a little disproportionate. Since all of the router’s ports (including four LAN ports and one WAN port) as well as the power port are also on the same side as the antennae, you’ll find the back of the router quite crowded to work with.
On the front, the router has the usual array of tiny LEDs that show the status of the port on the back as well as the Internet and wireless connections. On one side, there’s a WPS button for quickly hooking up clients using Wi-Fi Protected Setup. The router comes with four rubber feet to keep it steady on a surface. Since the router is very light, it’s a little hard for it to stay put, especially when there are multiple cables connected to it. The DIR-605L is not wall-mountable.
The DIR-605L doesn’t come with setup software, but it’s very easy to get it up and running anyway. All you have to do is plug it in the power, connect the router to an internet source, such as a broadband modem, via its WAN port, and connect a computer to one of its WAN port. After that, from the connected computer, point a browser, such as Firefox, to its default IP address, which is 192.168.0.1 and you’ll be greeted with its Easy Setup page. Here you can change the router’s wireless network, set the encryption key and so on. You can also use this page to create a mydlink account and associate the router with it. If you want to access other features of the router, click on the Manual Setup button at the bottom of the page and you’ll find the common Web interface, similar to that of other D-link routers.
D-Link’s mydlink portal is a free service that allows users to manage D-Link’s Webcam. Starting with the DIR-605L, this portal is now also used to manage supported routers.
Once you have associated the router with a mydlink account, the router now becomes a cloud-based router.
The WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo is basically the Thunderbolt version of the My Book Studio Edtion II. The drive offers up to 6TB of storage space (in RAID 0) and very good performance for an external hard drive. Compared with other Thunderbolt storage devices on the market, however, it’s one of the slowest.
To make up for this, the drive starts at a low $600 for 4TB and $700 for 6TB; that’s about $100 cheaper than the similarly configured LaCie 2big Thunderbolt . Like with Thunderbolt storage devices, you’ll have to spend another $50 for a Thunderbolt cable.
This lower pricing and the fact that users can replace the internal hard drives by themselves make the WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo a very good choice for people who want to enjoy Thunderbolt-grade performance without having to spend too much.
Design and features
Drive type
3.5-inch-based dual-bay external hard drive
Connector options
Thunderbolt
Size (WHD)
3.9 x 6.5 x 6.2 inches
Weight
5.2 lbs.
Available capacities
4TB, 6TB
Capacity of test unit
4TB
OSes supported
Mac OS 10.6.8 or later
Software included
WD Drive Utilities
The WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo shares the same design as the My Book Studio Edition II; it looks like a closed book that’s standing up. The only differences are the new tiny power/status light on the front (the previous model has a large vertical one) and the two Thunderbolt ports on the back (instead of USB, FireWire, and eSATA connection options). The My Book Thunderbolt doesn’t have a power switch since it shares the power status of the computer it’s connected to. The top of the drive can be opened with a push to reveal the internal drives inside.
The internal hard drives used for the new My Book belong to WD’s SATA Green drive family. They are called green because they’re designed to use less energy than other drives of the same capacities. The trade-off is that they also tend to have slightly slower performance. Users can replace these two hard drives with another one, as long as they use WD’s Green drive. I haven’t tried, but WD says that although other SATA hard drives physically fit in the slots, they are not tested to work with the chassis.
There’s nothing to setting up the My Book Thunderbolt Duo. Out of the box, the drive is configured in RAID 0 and preformatted using HFS+; it works immediately once plugged to a Thunderbolt-enabled Mac running OS X 10.6.8 or later.
The drive comes with WD Drive Utilities, which helps monitor the status of the drive and change the internal hard drive’s configurations. The options are RAID 0 (default), RAID 1, and two separate volumes. RAID 0 (strip) offers top capacity and performance, but if one of the hard drives crashes, you’ll lose data on both. RAID 1 (mirror) is the opposite; you get just half of the total storage and slower performance, but your data safety is doubled.
Performance I tested the My Book in two sets of tests. In the first set, it was stacked up against other Thunderbolt drives as well as internal drives, including solid-state drives (SSDs). In the second, it was tested the way any other none-Thunderbolt external storage devices are tested: against the test machine’s internal drive. The drive was tested both in RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations.
The reason for the first set of tests is the fact that Thunderbolt has a ceiling speed of 10Gbps, whereas the fastest internal drive caps at just 6Gbps of the SATA 3 standard. For this reason, it’d make more sense to test a Thunderbolt storage device against the other fastest possible storage solution, which currently is an internal drive, especially SSD, connected directly to a computer’s motherboard. I used a 2011 MacBook Pro running OS X Lion, on a SATA 3 (6Gbps) SSD, as the test machine.
The WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo is basically the Thunderbolt version of the My Book Studio Edtion II. The drive offers up to 6TB of storage space (in RAID 0) and very good performance for an external hard drive. Compared with other Thunderbolt storage devices on the market, however, it’s one of the slowest.
To make up for this, the drive starts at a low $600 for 4TB and $700 for 6TB; that’s about $100 cheaper than the similarly configured LaCie 2big Thunderbolt . Like with Thunderbolt storage devices, you’ll have to spend another $50 for a Thunderbolt cable.
This lower pricing and the fact that users can replace the internal hard drives by themselves make the WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo a very good choice for people who want to enjoy Thunderbolt-grade performance without having to spend too much.
Design and features
Drive type
3.5-inch-based dual-bay external hard drive
Connector options
Thunderbolt
Size (WHD)
3.9 x 6.5 x 6.2 inches
Weight
5.2 lbs.
Available capacities
4TB, 6TB
Capacity of test unit
4TB
OSes supported
Mac OS 10.6.8 or later
Software included
WD Drive Utilities
The WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo shares the same design as the My Book Studio Edition II; it looks like a closed book that’s standing up. The only differences are the new tiny power/status light on the front (the previous model has a large vertical one) and the two Thunderbolt ports on the back (instead of USB, FireWire, and eSATA connection options). The My Book Thunderbolt doesn’t have a power switch since it shares the power status of the computer it’s connected to. The top of the drive can be opened with a push to reveal the internal drives inside.
The internal hard drives used for the new My Book belong to WD’s SATA Green drive family. They are called green because they’re designed to use less energy than other drives of the same capacities. The trade-off is that they also tend to have slightly slower performance. Users can replace these two hard drives with another one, as long as they use WD’s Green drive. I haven’t tried, but WD says that although other SATA hard drives physically fit in the slots, they are not tested to work with the chassis.
There’s nothing to setting up the My Book Thunderbolt Duo. Out of the box, the drive is configured in RAID 0 and preformatted using HFS+; it works immediately once plugged to a Thunderbolt-enabled Mac running OS X 10.6.8 or later.
The drive comes with WD Drive Utilities, which helps monitor the status of the drive and change the internal hard drive’s configurations. The options are RAID 0 (default), RAID 1, and two separate volumes. RAID 0 (strip) offers top capacity and performance, but if one of the hard drives crashes, you’ll lose data on both. RAID 1 (mirror) is the opposite; you get just half of the total storage and slower performance, but your data safety is doubled.
Performance I tested the My Book in two sets of tests. In the first set, it was stacked up against other Thunderbolt drives as well as internal drives, including solid-state drives (SSDs). In the second, it was tested the way any other none-Thunderbolt external storage devices are tested: against the test machine’s internal drive. The drive was tested both in RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations.
The reason for the first set of tests is the fact that Thunderbolt has a ceiling speed of 10Gbps, whereas the fastest internal drive caps at just 6Gbps of the SATA 3 standard. For this reason, it’d make more sense to test a Thunderbolt storage device against the other fastest possible storage solution, which currently is an internal drive, especially SSD, connected directly to a computer’s motherboard. I used a 2011 MacBook Pro running OS X Lion, on a SATA 3 (6Gbps) SSD, as the test machine.
I’ve held off reviewing the Asus RT-N66U Dark Knight Double 450Mbps N Router until now due to some known bugs in earlier versions of its firmware. The latest, version 3.0.0.3.108, is still, well, a little buggy, but fortunately not seriously enough to keep the router from being an excellent networking device.
Being the first N900 router from Asus, the RT-N66U offers stellar performance on the 5GHz band and a vast number of features. The router also has great wireless range and was very stable in my testing. With two USB ports it has more to offer than other USB-enabled routers, and it was very fast when coupled with a storage device.
The RT-N66U isn’t perfect, however. Performance on the 2.4GHz band was slower than I expected, and the router’s USB ports lack support for the latest USB 3.0 standard. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for a top-notch router for your home or even a small office, the RT-N66U is one of the best on the market, especially considering that its street price is lower than that of the Linksys E4200v2 from Cisco.
Design and ease of use The RT-N66U looks similar to its predecessor, the RT-N56U, with a sleek casing that more resembles a jewelry box than a networking device. The RT-N66U, however, can’t disguise its true nature due the external-antenna design, with three of them sticking up from the back. These antennas are detachable but you do need them in place for the router to work.
Also on the back, you’ll find four LAN ports and one WAN port. All of these ports are Gigabit Ethernet, meaning you’ll also be able to get a fast wired network if you’re not interested in wireless. Near these ports are the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) button, the reset button, two USB 2.0 ports, the power button, and a tiny power port. While that may seem to be a lot of things on the router’s back, items are well-distributed, so it’s less cluttered than you would imagine. Still, it would be a lot better if a few items were moved to the front or the sides of the router, where there are no buttons at all.
On the front, the router has an array of LED lights that show the statuses of the ports on the back, the connection to the Internet, the USB ports, and the wireless networks.
The RT-N66U comes with four rubber feet to make it stay put on a surface, but it’s also wall-mountable. It comes with a separate base — which, interestingly, I couldn’t attach to the router until I broke a little piece of plastic off of it — for keeping it in a vertical position. (That little piece is probably there to keep the base from falling off, but it’s just too long, making it almost impossible to attach the base to the router.)
The router comes with a CD that contains setup software that walks you though every single step of how to set it up, so it should be very easy for home users. Savvy users can skip the CD and use the router’s Web interface to set it up by pointing a connected computer’s browser to 192.168.1.1, which is the router’s default IP address. The first time you go there, the interface will greet you with a Web-based wizard with steps similar to those of the desktop setup software.
Either way, you won’t have any problem getting the router up and running. I myself was able to do that in less than 10 minutes, including opening the box.
Features The RT-N66U is an N900 true dual-band router, meaning that both of its bands (5GHz and 2.4GHz) can offer up to 450Mbps, currently the fastest speed of the Wireless-N standard. In order to enjoy this higher speed, your Wi-Fi client also has to support the 450Mbps standard (also known as the 3×3 standard), which most of them don’t. Nonetheless, the router works with all existing Wi-Fi clients, including those made for pre-N wireless standards.
To make sure the router offers maximum compatibility, you’ll need to change the settings of its wireless networks to Auto and the encryption methods to support both AES and TKIP methods. To do this you will need to use the Web interface, which also allows you to access to all of the router’s features.
And the RT-N66U’s Web interface is great: well-organized, responsive, and reasonably simple. There are three major parts of the interface that you can access from the left part of the page. The top part is the setup wizard mentioned above, the middle is for General items, and the bottom is the Advanced Settings.
General offers a Network Map for viewing currently connected devices, including those connected to the router via the USB ports. You can click on one of the connected devices to interact with it. For example, you can quickly block a Wi-Fi client or set up a network storage feature of an external hard drive. In the General area, you can also add or change up to six Guest networks, three for each band. Other nifty General features include a Parental Control feature, a Traffic Manager, and management of the router’s USB ports.
Take out the battery and add an optical drive to the Seagate GoFlex Satellite, and we have ourselves the Samsung Optical Smart Hub SE-208BW.
Essentially, the SE-208BW is an external optical reader/recorder with a built-in USB-enabled Wi-Fi router. This combination makes it possible to stream digital content, from a DVD or a connected external hard drive (not included), to multiple iOS- and Android-based mobile devices at the same time. Moreover, the Smart Hub can also wirelessly back up connected mobile devices’ data.
In my trials, Smart Hub worked very well with mobile devices. Unfortunately it doesn’t come with a battery, meaning it’s not exactly as mobile as the Satellite, though it’s still great when you stay in a hotel. When used at home with an existing home network, the Smart Hub doesn’t support PCs very well and won’t share data between devices connected to it and those connected to the home network. It also only works with Wi-Fi-enabled network devices.
For its price of just $130, however, it’s still a fun and useful device for those who own multiple mobile devices and like sharing video DVDd between them. If you have an existing home network and are not really comfortable with networking, the Smart Hub, for now, might not be a good choice for you.
Design and setup The Samsung Optical Smart Hub SE-208BW is about the size of an external DVD recorder. That said, the device is as compact as possible given that it has to host regular DVD disks. The Smart Hub’s DVD drive uses a pull-out tray, similar to a laptop DVD drive, with an eject button on the front.
On the back the device has one B female Mini-USB port and one A female USB port. The first USB port is used to connect it to a computer to work as a regular bus-powered external optical drive, via an included Y-shaped Mini-USB cable. In this case, it offers no networking capability. The Y-shaped cable lets you use two USB ports of a computer in case using only one doesn’t provide enough juice to power it. In my testing, however, I only needed to use one port for all computers I tried it with. This means you can use any standard Mini-USB cable to connect the SE-208BW for use as an external burner.
The second USB port is for hosting an external hard drive when the Smart Hub is used as a networking device. Now, apart from content stored on a DVD, it can also broadcast digital content stored on a connected external hard drive to any Wi-Fi mobile devices running iOS or Android. It also works with other Wi-Fi-enabled DLNA-compliant media streamers, such as the WD TV Live.
Also on the back, the Smart Hub has one WAN Ethernet port to connect it to an Internet source, such as a broadband modem or the router of an existing network.
The Smart Hub comes with a setup booklet and a CD that contains the desktop SmartLink setup software. You’ll need a Wi-Fi-enabled Windows computer to setup the Smart Hub since it works only with Wi-Fi devices. The setup process involves running the software from the CD which supposedly guides you through. In my trials, the SmartLink software, however, was anything but smart.
If everything goes as intended, the first time you run SmartLink, it will ask you to enter the default Wi-Fi network information printed on the back of the Smart Hub to get the computer connected. After that, it offers you the option to change the default network’s name to your liking. And then, it will configure and start the iSCSi service of the computer, which allows the Smart Hub to work like an internal optical drive as if directly connected to the computer. You do need to run the iSCSI Initiator by yourself and connect the computer to the Smart Hub, however, which is not an easy step for home users.
Now, if you had to do all those steps just once, that wouldn’t be a big deal. However, you have to type in the Wi-Fi network information every time you run the software, even when the computer has already been set up and connected. Since the default network name and its encrypting key are rather long and hard to remember, this might drive you mad if you have to run it a few times, which, unfortunately, you may have to. In my trials none of the steps worked out smoothly the first time. For example, when I wanted to change the network’s name to something that’s easier to remember, the software returned an error saying that the operation failed, but then it said that the setup was completed. It took me several tries to get the Smart Hub up and running with a computer.
The good news is, you can skip that setup process entirely. Instead, just connect an iOS- or Android-based mobile device to the Smart Hub’s default Wi-Fi network (with the information printed on its bottom), run a free downloadable app called Mobile Smart Hub, and you’re set; the rest is self-explanatory.
Features The Mobile Smart Hub app is well-organized and easy to use. There’s really nothing you have to learn to use it.
In an era of ever-smaller computing devices and the promise of cloud services descending from every direction, it can get a little numbing and confusing for the owner of an iPad, a smartphone, or even a laptop to figure out how to access and sync data such as photos, music, and documents. Devices like home NAS servers try to bridge the gap for home storage, but most of them require a long learning curve to set up and use.
That’s where the Pogoplug is trying to fit in. The product is basically a bring-your-own-storage version of the NAS (network-attached storage) –a “home cloud” that’s composed of whatever USB thumbdrives and hard drives you have lying around the house, plugged into the Pogoplug, which is in turn plugged into your router. It shares your media and music across mobile devices, computers, and the Web. It even supports DLNA, the Digital Living Network Alliance standard, which enables streaming playback of video and music on compatible TVs, Blu-ray players, media boxes, Xbox 360s, and PlayStation 3s.
This new $99 box is small, unassuming, and studded with useful ports: USB 2.0 and 3.0 (for portable hard drives and flash drives), an SD card slot, and even a topside slot for 2.5-inch SATA hard drives. It’s easily the best version of the Pogoplug yet, but there are two notable caveats. First: video nuts hoping this will be a perfect TV-friendly media box will be sorely disappointed. And secondly, you’ll want to determine if you even need a “home cloud” hardware product. For light users, it may well be redundant when there are so many free and inexpensive online file services out there (Amazon Cloud Drive, Dropbox, Box.net, SkyDrive, iCloud).
If, on the other hand, you’re craving a compact way to get the contents of your storage devices online and shareable, you’ll enjoy this simple, versatile little box.
Design The new Pogoplug Series 4 is a device that aims to take the best of cloud computing and home network-attached storage and combine the two into a seamless experience. That’s been the goal of each Pogoplug released over the last few years, but this latest version dumps the weird boxy look of recent iterations and adopts a far more home-friendly and port-studded solution.
I’ve reviewed multiple Pogoplugs before, but none of them came close to what this new version offers: USB 2.0, 3.0, SATA, and an SD card slot vary the input options beyond mere USB 2.0, and while there are fewer USB ports than on earlier versions, they’re much more logically placed now.
Yes, it looks like an Apple TV or Roku box, but think network-attached hard drive instead: this device plugs into your router via Ethernet, and it comes studded with ports that accept a wide variety of storage devices. Two USB 3.0 ports are on the back and an SD card slot is on the side, and under the removable top are an additional vertical USB 2.0 port and a SATA port for 2.5-inch laptop hard drives, or for compatible devices like the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex series of portable hard drives. It’s an expanded version of the Pogoplug Mobile, a nearly identical-looking $79 device that debuted a few months ago with only a single USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot. I’d gladly pay the extra $20 for what’s offered here, instead.
The top port lets you pop a hard drive right in and turn the device into a mini-NAS of sorts. USB flash drives, SD cards, additional USB hard drives, all can be plugged into the Pogoplug, in nearly any format. Pogoplug’s software comes in several versions: a Web portal guides newcomers through an easy first-time setup and can be used to view and share media, but Mac, Linux, and Windows users can also mount a remote Pogoplug like a regular hard drive for drag-and-drop use, just like you can with Dropbox, for instance. (In other words, a hard drive connected to your Pogoplug just shows up as the “F:” drive, for instance–pretty much indistinguishable from your other internal or plug-in hard drives.)
One issue is worth reporting: when we plugged a Kingston USB 3.0 flash memory stick into the Pogoplug’s USB 3.0 port, it eventually became quite hot to the touch. Usually, that’s something we’d overlook–lots of products heat up–but considering that the ill-fated Pogoplug Video product was recalled because of a fire hazard, heat from this product does give us pause.
The D-Link Amplifi HD Media Router 2000 DIR-827 was recently demoed at CES 2012 with an exciting feature called HD fuel, which helps make HD media streaming a much better experience. The Amplifi designation also means that it’s supposed to offer better Wi-Fi coverage than other routers.
In my testing, the router indeed worked well, even excellent for the most part. However, I also found some bugs with its firmware that keep some of its features from working as expected. The router’s data rates on the 2.4Ghz band, though not bad, could also use some improvement, compared with others.
Even with the slightly buggy firmware, at a price of around $145, the DIR-827 still makes a very good router. If you want something similar that doesn’t currently have any known bugs, check out the Linksys E3200 or the Asus RT-56u.
Design and ease of use Being the third router in D-Link’s Amplifi family , the HD Media 2000 DIR-827 shares the traditional design of the HD Media 1000 DIR-657 and not the cylinder shape of the Whole Home DIR-645. The new router has a squarish, flat shape with the front slightly tapered. It also has a very sleek black top that’s a fingerprint magnet.
The DIR-827 has internal antennas, making it more compact than any previous D-Link router. On the back are four Gigabit LAN ports and one Gigabit WAN port, pretty standard for a Gigabit router. What is not standard is its USB 3.0 port. This is officially the first router on the market I’ve seen that supports USB 3.0. There’ll be soon more routers that will offer USB 3.0 in the near future, however.
On the front of the router is an SD card slot; this is another feature that I haven’t seen before. This allows users to quickly share data stored on an SD card. Near the slot is the Wi-Fi Protected Setup button that allows you to quickly hook up a wireless client to the network. (Note that you probably want to avoid using WPS because of some unresolved vulnerability issues.) On top, the router has two blue LED lights that are only visible when lit up. These lights show the power status and the status of the Internet connection.
The DIR-827 comes with a CD that contains the setup desktop software, making setting it up a very easy job for anyone. The software walks through all the steps, from unboxing the router to hooking it up to the power cord, an Internet source, and a computer. After that you will also be prompted to set up the wireless network via a few clicks.
Even without using the software, the router is still very easy to set up. This is because once you hook the router to a computer (via one of the LAN ports), to an Internet source, such as a cable modem (via the only WAN port), and the power, the rest is easy. Now from the connected computer, if you launch a browser, you’ll be directed to a Web-based wizard that will work through similar steps found in the desktop software.
I had no problem getting the DIR-827 up and running and believe that no home users will have problem with it. Savvy users will, however, need to use its Web interface to manage other features of the device.
Features The DIR-827 is a true dual-band router, meaning it can offer two types of wireless networking at the same time, one on the 2.4Ghz band and the other on the 5Ghz, each with top speed of up to 300Mbps. This means the router can support basically any Wi-Fi client on the market, including those that offer improved data rates for intensive networking needs, such as HD media streaming.
Apart from two wireless networks, one for each band, the DIR-827 can also offer two more guest networks, one for each band. Guest networking has been a consistent feature of almost all D-Link Wireless-N routers and allows guests to access the Internet while separating them from local resourses, such as files or printers.
Unfortunately, during the trials with guest networking, I found a bug with the router’s firmware. Once a guest network is turned on, all Wi-Fi clients, including those connected to the regular (nonguest) networks, are isolated from one another, meaning you can’t share data between them. In other words, the turning on of one guest network will make all clients connected to the router be treated as guests, allowing them to access only the Internet and nothing else on the network. This is a major bug that doesn’t affect the sharing of the Internet but defeats the purpose of the guest networking feature. D-Link has been made aware of this and hopefully will release a firmware update soon.
To manage the guest networking feature, as well as the router’s other features, you’ll need to use the router’s Web interface by pointing a browser from a connected computer to the router’s default IP address at 192.168.0.1. Unless you have specified a new password, the default login password should be left blank.
The router’s interface is well organized and easy to work with thanks to the context-based help, which automatically appears on the right part of the page. The new router supports all common features found in a router of its type, including IPv6, port forwarding, Quality of Service, Web filtering, and so on. In addition, it also comes with some D-Link’s rather unique features, such as the OpenDNS parental controls, an enhanced SharePort plus technology for its USB port, and HD fuel.
The OpenDNS parental control feature allows users to manage Web filtering from anywhere over the Internet. To use the router with OpenDNS, first you’ll need to sign up for a free OpenDNS account. After that, from within the router’s Web interface, pick to use OpenDNS as the method to manage the parental control feature; you will then be asked to associate the router with the OpenDNS account via a few mouse clicks and that’s it. The router can now be managed from anywhere in the world when you log in to your OpenDNS account at OpenDNS.com.
The Linksys E4200 v2 Maximum Performance Dual-Band N900 router is a major upgrade to the original Cisco Linksys E4200 that was released in January. Though it looks exactly the same on the outside, on the inside the E4200 v2 boasts 450Mbps on both 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands (as opposed to just the 5GHz band of the original) and a faster processor for network storage when coupled with an USB external hard drive, and can host up to 50 guest clients (up from the original 10). Other than that, the two routers are essentially the same in terms of features.
That said, the new E4200 v2 offers all that the original has to give and more, enough to justify its price tag of $199, compared with the original’s street price of around $150. If you’re looking for a top-notch router with no compromises, especially one that also offers an easy and viable network storage option when coupled with an external hard drive, the Cisco Linksys 4200 v2 will make an excellent investment.
Those who don’t care much about the 450Mbps speed should also consider the original Linksys E4200, the Netgear WNDR3800, or the Asus RT-N56U.
Design and ease of use Like the rest of the Linksys E-Series routers, the Linksys E4200 v2 looks more like an expensive jewelry gift box than a router. With its flat shape and internal-antenna design, the router is more compact than its peers. This means you can leave it out in the open, rather than hide it, as you would most routers. The v2 also comes with a much more compact power adapter than the previous version, which is a nice touch.
The router has four LAN ports and one WAN port on the back. All are Gigabit Ethernet-capable, meaning they support throughput up to 1,000Mbps. Also on the back you’ll find the push button for the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) feature, a recessed reset button, and a USB 2.0 port that can host a USB external storage device for the router’s network-attached storage (NAS) function. With WPS you can add WPS-enabled clients to the wireless network with the press of a button. The USB port on the E4200 v2 supports either a USB printer or an USB external hard drive for a quick network storage solution. The router now comes with a much faster processor that runs at 1.2GHz (as opposed to the original’s 480MHz), promising significantly higher storage performance.
On the front, the new E4200 forgoes the usual array of status LEDs. Instead it has just one white light, in the shape of Cisco’s logo, which blinks when the router’s booting up (or something is not right) and stays solid when everything is in order.
Like all routers in the E-Series, the E4200 v2 comes with Cisco Connect, software that helps novice users set up and manage the router very easily. Anyone who can use a computer mouse can get the router up and running within about 5 minutes. The software works essentially the same for all E-Series routers.
By default, the software sets up a single wireless network combining the two networks for the 2.4GHz band and 5GHz band, so that they share the same name and the same password. This is similar to how Apple sets up its AirPort Extreme. Though this makes things easier, it also means you won’t be able to manually pick which band to use with dual-band clients.
With Cisco Connect you can also turn the guest network (which is available only in the 2.4GHz band) on or off, manage the parental control features, and carry out a few other tasks. The software is very limited in functionality and requires a live Internet connection to work. In order to do more with the router, such as name two separate networks for 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands, or set up the router for an isolated network that’s disconnected from the Internet, you’ll need to use the router’s Web interface by pointing a connected computer’s browser to 192.168.1.1.
Note that if you haven’t used Cisco Connect, the default credential to log in to the router’s Web interface is “admin” for both username and password. Once you have changed the default password, the username remains the same. If you use the Cisco software to set up the router, the password (or encryption key) for the wireless network is also the one required to log in the router’s interface.
It’s rather confusing to list what you can and can’t do with the Cisco Connect software. The good news is, the Web interface’s functionality encompasses that of Cisco Connect. For this reason, savvy users can and should skip the Cisco Connect software entirely, so they can be in complete control of the router’s settings.
In the end, it’s best to use the Cisco Connect software if you are a novice user, or the Web interface if you are a savvy user, but not to use both, to avoid instances where one would cancel out the other.
Starting with the E4200 v2, Cisco has also released a mobile application for Android- and OS-based devices that enables users to monitor the router, or any other router in the E-Series, right from a mobile device. For now you can only do that if the device is connected to the router’s wireless local network, and not from anywhere via the Internet.
Features The Linksys E4200 v2 is a true dual-band router, meaning it has two separate access points–one for the 2.4GHz band and the other for the 5GHz band–that can work simultaneously. It’s also the first from Cisco to offer the 450Mbps (or 3-by-3) configuration on both bands. The previous version only supports this on the 5GHz band. Others routers I’ve reviewed that offer dual-band concurrent 450Mbps include the Trendnet TEW-692GR and the Netgear WNDR4500. To take advantage of this new speed, the clients have to also support the same 3-by-3 Wi-Fi standard, which more and more of them do.
In addition to the networks for the two bands, the E4200 v2 offers another wireless network on the 2.4GHz band for guests. Guest networking is great for when you want to share the Internet with others without giving them access to your local resources, such as files or printers. The E4200 v2′s guest networking feature allows up to 50 clients, which is a big improvement compared with the original E4200′s maximum of 10. However, you’ll need to use the Web interface to set this higher number, as Cisco Connect allows a maximum of 10 clients. This is likely because 10 clients are enough for a home and only home users would use the software rather than the Web interface to set up the router.
Regardless of which option you use to manage the router, you can’t name the router’s guest network arbitrarily. The guest network’s name will always be your main network’s name plus a “-guest” suffix. This means guests will always know what your main network’s name is and that, well, they are guests.
The E4200 has simple and straightforward support for network storage, including features such as sharing the content of a USB external hard drive (formatted using either NTFS or FAT32), with user account restriction. By default the admin account has full access and can create more user accounts. It also has a built-in UPnP media server with which you can stream digital content to other UPnP-compliant devices, such as set-top boxes, network media players, and game consoles.
The Synology DiskStation DS712+ server is an upgrade to the DS710+, and, in the Synology tradition, it’s an excellent product. The new dual-bay server is now much faster and much better designed, supports up to 16 IP cameras, and can be scaled to up to seven hard drive bays, when coupled with a DX510 DiskStation Expansion Unit (not included), for a maximum 21TB of total storage space.
The DS712+, however, also shares a few minor shortcomings with other Synology servers. These include the overly simplistic desktop setup utility, called Synology Assistant, and the primitive Data Replicator backup software. The server also comes with only one IP camera license, meaning you’ll have to pay more if you want to use two cameras or more for a surveillance system.
Nonetheless, if you’re a tech-savvy user looking for a dual-bay NAS server that gives you much more than you’d probably imagine getting from a network storage device, then even with the relatively high price tag of $550, the DS712+ will make an excellent investment. If you want something that can offer even more storage out of the box, check out the four-bay DS410 or the
five-bay DS1511+.
Design and setup With the previous model, the DS710+, you have to open the server’s chassis to install and replace the hard drives. The DS712+ makes life much easier with its front-facing drive bay design. You can easily pull each drive tray out thanks to a latch that, when locked, also keeps the tray securely in place. You do need a screwdriver to attach a hard drive to a tray, but that’s an easy job, especially with the provided screws. The DS712+ is the first dual-bay server from Synology with this convenient hard-drive access design, which was first introduced in the higher-end DS1511+.
The DS712+ supports both desktop (3.5-inch) and laptop (2.5-inch) standard SATA hard drives, of any capacities. Out of the box, the dual-bay server can host only two hard drives, but it comes with an eSATA port that works with Sinology’s DX510 DiskStation Expansion Unit to host another five drives. The DX510 costs another $500, which is rather pricey, but you don’t have to get it right away, only if need arises. Synology says that the eSATA port and the eSATA cable accompanying the DX510 are made in a special way that guarantees that hard drives added via the DX510 will have the same data speed as the DS712+’s internal drives.
The DiskStation DS712+ also has three USB ports, two on the back and one on the front. These ports can be used to host more external storage devices or printers. The front USB port can also be used to quickly back up the entire contents of a USB storage device, such as a thumbdrive, via the quick-copy button right above the port. Unfortunately, none of these USB ports supports USB 3.0 standard. While this is not an end-of-the-world shortcoming, it’s rather disappointing considering that USB 3.0 has been out for a long time, and other lower-end NAS servers, such as the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ v2, already support it.
Also on the back, the server has one large ventilation fan, which manages to remain quiet during operation, and two Gigabit Ethernet ports that can be used at the same time to either balance out the workload to maintain the top speed of each port during heavy operation, or to serve as a failsafe in case one of the ports stops working.
The DiskStation DS712+ ships both with and without storage included. My review unit comes with two 2TB hard drives set up in Synology’s proprietary Hybrid RAID. This is a great RAID configuration that allows for using hard drives of different capacities as long as the replacement hard drive is of the same capacity as or larger than the one it’s replacing. It also means you can upgrade the total capacity of the server without having to rebuild the RAID setup from scratch.
In the case of the DS712+, since the server has only two drive bays, the Hybrid RAID setup will be similar to a RAID 1, where one drive is reserved for redundancy. When more drives are added via the DX510 expansion unit, it will automatically scale to a RAID 5-like configuration. You then will have the option to have the RAID use one or two drives as redundancy for data safety. After multiple reviews of Synology NAS servers, I find that Hybrid RAID offers the same performance as RAID 5. Note that Synology NAS servers, including the DS712+, generally also support all other standard RAID configurations allowed by the number of hard drives being used.
As with other NAS servers from Synology, savvy users should have no trouble getting the DS712+ set up and running. The server is also superfast in terms of setting up RAIDs, taking just about 25 minutes with two 2TB hard drives for any type of RAID, even when disk checking is performed during the build. This is amazingly fast compared with most servers, which typically take half a day or even more.
Home users may find the server harder to set up, however. The NAS server comes with a desktop application called Synology Assistant to help with initial setup and installing the operating system (included on the CD or can be downloaded) in case you buy a diskless unit and choose to install the hard drives yourself. After that the software only helps with detecting the NAS in the network, mapping network drives to default shares, and launching the Web interface, nothing else. The software generally doesn’t provide enough information on what it does and may make users feel that the server doesn’t have much to offer.
And that’s not true at all, once you launch the server’s Web interface.
Features Unlike the desktop setup application, the server’s Web interface, which is part of its Linux-based operating system, called DiskStation Manager, is the best on the market. The server uses version 3.2 of the OS and, within a browser, it looks and feels just like the graphic user interface of a full-featured operating system, like Windows XP or Mac OS X. Most of the server’s features and settings are accessible via icons like those found in Windows’ Control Panel. What’s more, the interface supports multitasking, meaning you can run multiple jobs, such as searching for torrent downloads with the Download Station and managing user accounts, at the same time in separate windows within the server’s Web interface. And that, though already really cool, is still the least interesting thing among what the server has to offer.
Virtually everything you want to do with the server is wizard-driven and you’ll be walked through it via a few simple steps. Take making a share folder for example. After a RAID rebuild, the server by default has no share folder. In this case, when you click on the File Browser icon, there’ll be a message saying that there’s no share folder it will prompt you to run the Share Folder wizard. The wizard gives you the options to give the share folder a name, encrypt it, hide it or make it visible to the public, and so on. Once a folder has been created, the wizard presents you with the list of existing user accounts so you can assign access privileges to the new share folder. This well-designed interface makes it hard for any user to make mistakes by forgetting certain settings. And if you do, you can easily edit the share and make changes. This robustness is really important considering the vast number of features the server has to offer.
Priced at around $400 without any storage, the new ReadyNAS NV+ v2 is slightly cheaper than the older but higher-end ReadyNAS Ultra 4 while offering higher storage capacities and more features. Where it needs to catch up, however, is its performance: though not slow, the NV+ v2 was significantly slower than the Ultra 4 in our testing.
To make up for that, the ReadyNAS NV+ v2 sports easily front-accessible drive bays, and USB 3.0 connectivity, and its flexible X-RAID2 configuration makes replacing and upgrading the server’s internal storage a nonissue. The server also has a great backup mechanism and supports Apple’s Time Machine. On top of that it now features Netgear’s sleek new RAIDiator 5 operating system for NAS servers. While easier to use than its predecessor, RAIDiator 5 doesn’t add many more features, however, and the server is still behind competitors’ servers in this regard, missing popular options such as PC-less download and support for IP cameras.
If you’re looking for a relatively affordable server with lots of storage space, and don’t mind the intermittent loud noises its fan emits, the ReadyNAS NV+ v2 is a decent choice. For better performance and more features, also check out the Synology DiskStation DS410.
Design and setup ReadyNAS NV+ v2 has almost exactly the same design as the ReadyNAS Ultra 4: it’s as compact as a four-bay NAS server can be. On the front the server has a large door that opens to reveal the hard-drive trays, which can be pulled out easily without using any tools. Once a hard drive is installed, a tray can be locked into its place firmly with a latch. You do need a screwdriver and four proprietary screws to attach a hard drive to a drive tray, though fortunately the server comes with enough of them for all four drives.
Below the drive bay door, there’s a small LCD that shows the IP address of the NAS server and the current status of the internal hard drive. On top of the drive bays are a USB 2.0 port and a Backup button that quickly copies a USB drive’s contents into the server’s internal storage. On the back, the server has two USB 3.0 ports to host more storage via external hard drives. The NV+ v2 is the first NAS server we’ve seen that supports this new and much faster USB standard.
Unlike the Ultra 4, which comes with two Gigabit Ethernet ports, the NV+ v2 has only one. This means it doesn’t have the fail-safe or load-balancing networking feature, which is not a terrible shortcoming, since most NAS servers don’t have that, either.
The NV+ v2 comes with a CD of help materials and a desktop application called RAIDar you can use to detect the NAS in the network, browse its share folders, and launch its Web interface to further customize the server’s features. For the server’s target audience, tech professionals, the NV+ v2 is easy enough to figure out.
The reviewed unit comes with one 1TB hard drive but the server can handle up to four hard drives of up to 3TB each (as opposed to the 2TB of the Ultra 4) for a total maximum storage space of 12TB. (In most cases, when all four bays are occupied with 3TB hard drives, you’ll get about 9TB of storage out of the server; generally the other 3TB are used for redundancy overhead.) The server, however, works even when there’s only one hard drive installed.
Regardless of how many hard drives you use, even if it’s just one, the server by default will set them up in Netgear’s proprietary X-RAID2 configuration. Similarly to Synology’s Hybrid RAID or LaCie’s AutoRAID, X-RAID2 enables you to dynamically expand the volume without having to back up or restore the existing content. The configuration automatically safeguards the setup against a single-drive failure. Obviously, you’ll need at least two hard drives for the XRAID 2 to be effective. In this case the two drives will be set up in a RAID 1-like configuration (also called a “mirror,” in which only half of the total capacity is available). Now if you add another hard drive, the volume will be dynamically expanded and changed to a RAID 5-like setup, which is balanced between data integrity and maximum storage space. And you can keep doing that until the bays are all occupied.
X-RAID2 permits changing the hard-drive setup anytime, even when the server is running, as long as you only add or subtract one drive at a time. You can even replace an existing drive with another of larger capacity, making this a great way to upgrade the server’s storage without having to rebuild the RAID from scratch. Note, however, that once a new hard drive is added, it takes a very long time for it to be synced with the existing RAID. This means, depending on the capacities of the drives, it could take up to a few days for you to replace all four drives. The good news is the server still works, though at slower speed, during this process and you can keep track of this process via the front LCD.
Features The ReadyNAS NV+ v2 doesn’t have much to offer in terms of features. Nonetheless, the server does come with a completely new user interface compared with the Ultra 4. It’s sleeker and more or less resembles the UI of an operating system. Once logged in you’ll be greeted with the Dashboard showing the server’s operating condition. On top, you’ll find four self-explanatory tabs, Configure, Documentation, Community, and How To. The Configure tab is, obviously, the most important since it takes you to all the server’s settings.
The server offers an easy way to add or remove users and share folders. Once each new item is added, you’ll be able to assign the access privileges (Read-only, Read/Write, No access) of each user to each folder with a few clicks. For each share folder, you can also turn on the ReadyDLNA feature, which permits streaming digital content stored in that folder to DLNA-compliant streamers in the network. All in all, we found the new interface much easier to use than the Ultra 4′s.
May 9, 2012
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