Being in the blogging business I do have to deal with many technical stuff and deal with gadgets which are helpful for my business. So I have thought why not talk about those gadgets and let everybody know about those.
These days one of the main requirement for any home or office, is a good internet connection. With so many devices around, your router should be capable enough to provide good bandwidth and stable connection.
The same is true for your blogging business, you do not want your podcast to suffer because your router can not handle that bandwidth or you do not want your youtube video’s to take lifetime to upload.
I have just upgraded my Router to WD My Net N900 Central 1 TB HD Dual-Band Storage Router. I needed it because my old router had to be reset 2-3 times in a day. It was mainly because of my work and having so many internet devices running in parallel.
I have bought WD My Net N900 Central because of its router capability along with 1 TB internal storage capacity which can act as a NAS device or cloud storage.
Now lets see how is WD My Net N900 Central, lets start with unboxing.
Unboxing WD My Net N900 Central
I have purchased it from Amazon, though it is offered by WD but they are not selling it directly from their site. They have partnered with few retail providers and you have to order it from them.
Here is what you will get in the box:
- Router Unit
- Dual Voltage Charger
- Ethernet Cable
- Manual
Setting Up WD My Net N900 Central
WD claims that setting My Net N900 Central is as easy as just plugging it in and it is absolutely true. You can just plug in with your internet connection and can set it up even from your iPad or iPhone.
I have tried to set it up with my Nexus 10 and I was amazed to see how easy it is. Just connect to the network and open web browser, you will be done within few clicks.
It’s a dual band router so you will get full range of 2.5GHz and 5GHz channels, also it has an option to setup the guest access in both the bands. So in all you can setup 4 different wifi network and let devices use them accordingly.
It has the speed up to 450 mbps on both the 2.5 and 5 GHz channels. I have tried to set it up as a media server for my home and I am amaze to see that while streaming media I am still able to browse internet without any interruption.
WD My Net N900 Central as a NAS
Earlier I talked about My Net N900 Central acting as a NAS Drive or Cloud storage. It comes in two variants 1TB and 2TB, so you can decide for yourself how much space you need.
It has 4 Gigabit Ethernet port and 1 USB Port. USB port can support external hard drive or printer sharing. I have a unit with 1TB and I have added my external USB Drive of 750GB on it, so I have 1.75TB cloud storage available to me.
It is easy to share external hard disk, you just need to connect it to USB panel and open Wdrouter Local administration panel and select set up storage option.
You just need to click on next and your storage will be setup and shared over the home network. Make sure you eject the hard disk before removing it from the router.
FasTrack Plus and Parental Control
The router comes with WD latest technology, FasTrack Plus. It can analyze your network usage and the run time and can prioritize it. So if some download is running and you started playing a youtube video, you don’t have to stop that download. This router will automatically adjust the bandwidth and your youtube video will play fine.
HD video playing and media sharing got highest priority in this, so doesn’t matter how many things are running…you will get a good video streaming experience.
There is a downside too, to preserve the bandwidth it sometime limit the bandwidth for the applications like Torrents etc. So if you use those apps, you may want to consider turn it off.
I really like the experience with this, It is able to prioritize the apps correctly and able to provide good speed. I have Google TV, Sony network streaming player, Tablet, 3 SmartPhones and 2 Laptop connected to this router and there is no issues in terms of speed and connectivity.
The router also provides parental controls. Setting them us is as easy as switching on button and selecting the region. Once on it will keep your children away from spammy sites.
Cloud Storage Access
The storage not only act as a NAS drive but it can also be accessible from outside. You can access the files through the mobile apps provided by WD or through the WD2go website. To connect it through the website you have to create an account with WD2go, which can be done from the admin interface only.
WD has a mobile app called WD2go, which is available on most of the mobile platform. All of the remote access can be revoked from the admin panel, so you have complete control on the security. This app also provides access to Dropbox, Skydrive or Google Drive files.
They also have a WD Photos app which can provide direct access to the photos from your drive. To be honest these apps needs some more work to be more usable but currently they provide sufficient access to the drive.
Admin Interface
The admin interface for the router is web browser based, which can be opened by going to Wdrouter Local. The admin screen has a simple structure and all the complex settings are hidden under Advanced tab.
Advanced tab will give you access to some advanced settings like setting up sharing mode for storage, reset the router or reboot it. You can setup FasTrack and exceptions to it also in that tab.
You can also decide to run the router as an extension or as a primary router. In an extension mode it will expand any existing wireless network and will make it available to wider area.
The router is also compatible to mac os and can be used to take time-machine backup.
DLNA Compatibility
This router is also DLNA compatible, streams all of you media files through DLNA. I am using it with many network streaming player and the DLNA server is working great. Sometime it just takes time to list the new file but once listed it works great.
All in all, WD My net N900 Central is an excellent router and provide a great internet experience for all kind of users.
It’s seems your router gives you so much advantage and I can see why. 🙂 Nice router you have there. I wish to have one really soon!
I heard a lot of good things about your n900 central router. I hope I can see its advantage for myself soon. Thanks!
Your net router sounds cool and better to use. I’ll consider upgrading too. Mine’s kind of failing sometimes. Thanks for the info!
The performance is really great…stable and fast internet connection with multiple device connection…hope you will like it….
Good to see you establishing yourself as a geek blogger. You could choose routers from NetGear, it’s a trusted brand.
Yes, it is also a good brand but it was lacking in some of the aspect like traffic prioritizing (FasTrack) etc. Also WD has a good experience with hard disks, being an integrated hard disk I preferred WD. It turns out to be vary good choice….
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