If your plethora of wireless devices are clogging up your intertubes and causing dropped connections, BT may have the solution in the form of its third-gen Home Hub router.
If, like us, your living room looks like a Currys window display, you began shunning anything with a wired connection back in 2003 and your fridge often tries to strike up a conversation, then you may have had a run-in with wireless interference.
All those wireless connections zipping through the air, while handy, can sometimes cause severe issues to your Net speed, and may even cause your wireless signal to drop out altogether. This would be bad enough if you're in an important Skype call, but a whole lot worse if you just can't wait to watch another fat kid fall over on YouTube.
BT's third-generation Home Hub uses tech it calls 'Smart Wireless' to detect any interference to your current connection and automatically switch to a stronger channel. It then continuously monitors it to ensure you're always using the best connection. This method, BT claims, enables the Home Hub 3 to maintain a connection when other -- perhaps less badass -- routers from competing ISPs fail.
It all sounds good in theory, although we'll reserve judgement until we can see this thing in battle against the vast hordes of wireless devices in the CNET UK barracks.
Being green is crucial for any self-respecting gadget, so it's good of BT to make its new router consume up to a third less power -- it's built from 25 per cent less plastic than its predecessor too. Our office plants will be happy.
You can get the Home Hub 3 for free from 28 February if you sign up as a new customer to BT's Total Broadband or BT Infinity packages. In a grand effort to reward loyalty, existing customers will have to pay for the router, but you will at least get it for half price (£46) if you phone BT.