dual-band

LAS VEGAS--Amped Wireless, maker of extra-long-range, high-power Wi-Fi products, showed off at CES 2013 the upcoming RTA15 High Power Dual Band AC 700mW Wi-Fi Router, the company's first that supports the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard.

Like previous routers from Amped Wireless, such as the 600mW Gigabit Dual Band R20000G, the new RTA15 promises to offer incredible Wi-Fi coverage.

According to Amped Wireless, the new router features three high-gain, dual-band antennas and 10 total power amplifiers: four 5GHz 700mW, two-stage amplifiers, two 2.4GHz amplifiers, and four low-noise amplifiers. As the result, Amped Wireless claims it can cover up … Read more

LAS VEGAS--If you have a true dual-band router and want to extend the range of both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands at the same time, Netgear has something to offer.

The company unveiled today at CES 2012 the Universal Dual-Band WiFi Range Extender (model WN2500RP), its first dual-band extender that can extend the range of both bands at the same time. All you need to do is place the device in between the existing wireless router and the area that needs coverage and use Wi-Fi Protected Setup to connect the two. Your Wi-Fi network will then be extended further.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--There's now another true 450Mbps dual-band router on the block.

Belkin announced today at CES 2012 the Advance N900 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router, model F9K1104. This is the company's top-tier wireless router, similar to the already released Linksys E4200 v2 from Cisco or the WNDR4500 of Netgear.

The router offers the new 450Mbps wireless data rate on both the 2.4Ghz and 5Gh bands. Belkin says it also support its exclusive MultiBeam Technology designed to deliver "a high-powered signal that allows for higher and more-consistent network speeds and minimizes the number of wireless dead spots.&… Read more

Cisco Systems released the original Linksys E4200 in January, which turned out to be a formidable wireless router.

Now as the year is ending, the company announced today the second version of the same router. And the Linksys E4200 v2 Maximum Performance Dual-Band N900 turns out to be one of the best, if not the best, router of the year.

The new E4200 v2 looks exactly the same as the original on the outside, with a sleek-looking design that looks more like an expensive jewelry box than a router. On the inside, however, it packs much more power than the … Read more

The WNDR3800 N600 Wireless Dual-Band Gigabit Router isn't intended to be Netgear's top-of-the-line wireless router for homes. That's the role of the WNDR4500, which makes no compromises and offers 450Mbps wireless speed on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

However, in our testing, we found that the WNDR3800 is arguably the best router among those recently announced by Netgear. For one, despite the fact that it only supports the 300Mbps standard, its real-world data rates on the 2.4GHz band are better than the WNDR4800's.

Furthermore, the WNDR3800 offers something that its big brother doesn't: it can host a USB external hard drive as a personal cloud storage option. It even comes with a piece of software called ReadyShare Cloud PC-Agent, which enables VPN-like access for the remote computer, as though the remote computer were in the same local network as the router.

On the other hand, the WNDR4500's storage capability is limited to that of a local network.

The router also offers great range and signal stability. It comes with a helpful Netgear Genie desktop application and a very easy-to-use and robust Web interface that both help novice and advanced users alike to set up and manage a network.

At a street price of around $150, it's a good choice for homes and home offices.

For more information on the WNDR3800's features and performance, check out CNET's full review of the Netgear WNDR3800 N600 Wireless Dual-Band Gigabit Router.… Read more

Netgear announced today the availability of its latest wireless router, the N900 wireless-dual band gigabit router (model WNDR4500).

This is first true dual-band router from the company, and the second submitted for a CNET review, that offers the new 450Mbps speed on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The first was the TEW-692GR from Trendnet.

While the Trendnet TEW-692GR doesn't offer much else, the N900 on the other hand is also the first of its kind to incorporate two USB ports to host USB external storage devices and printers. Physically, the N900 is one of the biggest routers … Read more

Netgear announced today the availability of its top-of-the-line true dual-band router, the N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router Premium Edition (model WNDR3800).

Introduced at CES 2011, the WNDR3800 is an upgrade to the company's existing WNDR3700. Netgear says it's the first home router to offer the Clear Channel Selector feature and also the first that's capable of creating private cloud file sharing through Netgear's new ReadyShare Cloud service.

Clear Channel Selector, which the company says is generally available only in expensive wireless routers for businesses, "automatically detects when the Wi-Fi channel currently in use becomes … Read more

Cisco announced today the availability of its first dual-band wireless bridge, the Linksys WES610N Wireless-N Dual-Band Entertainment Bridge. This is similar to the TEW-680MB from Trendnet and the DAP-1513 from D-Link.

The WES610N offers four Ethernet ports and can connect to an existing Wireless-N network, either on a 5GHz or 2.4GHz band. This means you can connect up to four nonwireless Ethernet-ready devices to an existing wireless network. The device is designed for home entertainment products, such as TV set-top boxes, game consoles, and other devices that tend to come without built-in wireless adapters.

The new Linksys bridge features … Read more

Generally, if you want to get a good true dual-band router, you should be prepared to spend around $130 or more.

For this reason, at a street price of less than $100, Belkin's stylish new N750 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router is a steal. And this is not just a regular dual-band router; it's also one of the few on the market that offers the higher 450Mbps speed on the 5GHz band.

However, as they say, things are cheap for a reason. And for the N750 DB, this reason is not that it's a bad router but that it delivers less than it makes buyers expect.

An example of this is the fact that the router doesn't support IPv6 or the old standard WEP wireless encryption. This means it's neither future-proof nor backward-compatible with existing wireless clients that only use WEP.… Read more