Western Digital Enters Wireless Router Business

For the longest time, Western Digital has been a worldwide provider of hard disk drives, but the company is expanding its horizons in a direction that is, perhaps, not as easy to guess as others would be.

Western Digital has made its first announcement on the wireless home networking market. In other words, it has launched a set of wireless routers. WD has dabbled in wireless communications before. After all, it is the developer of the WD TV media player family. This is the first real raid on the wireless home networking segment though, and the corporation made sure it was a bold one. We are looking at four routers and a Gigabit Ethernet home entertainment switch, all bearing the My Net brand name.

My Net N600 would be the low-end device, but it is still a dual-band router with a combined data rate of up to 600 Mbps (300 over 2.4 GHz and 300 over 5 GHz). FasTrack technology ensures that media runs smoothly (prioritizes HD and 3D media streaming and online gaming). My Net N750 is second, also a dual-band router with FasTrack. It has 750 Mbps speed (300 + 450 Mbps), 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 2 USB connectors. Third in line is the My Net N900. This one achieves 900 Mbps (450 + 450) and has seven LAN ports, one WLAN Gigabit Ethernet port and 2 USB connectors. It is UPnP and DLNA certified.

Finally, the My Net N900 Central stands apart from the others through the 1 TB or 2 TB of integrated HDD storage, for automated wireless backup. Four LAN ports exist, along with a Gigabit connector, one USB port and range amplifier antennas. “With so many people within the home simultaneously watching movies, playing games and browsing the Web via their iPad, iPhone, Xbox and other devices, the network demands placed on today’s connected home has grown exponentially,” states Jim Welsh, executive vice president for WD's branded products and consumer electronics groups. In addition to the routers, Western Digital has introduced the My Net Switch, with 8 Gigabit Ethernet ports (10/100/1000 Mbps). The prices are of $80 - $180 / 63 – 143 Euro ($70 / 55 Euro for the switch).

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