David Flynn22 September 2008, 4:00 PM
New routers capable of simultaneously running 2.4GHz and 5GHz weave separate data and ‘entertainment’ wireless networks around the home
The 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band may be bursting at the seams, but upgrading to the cleaner and uncluttered 5GHz band has typically been an either-or proposition. ‘"Dual-band" routers can be switched between these bands but can’t run both at the same time.
Select 5GHz and the latest laptops can enjoy life in the fast lane, but products fitted with 2.4GHz radios – including older notebooks, most netbooks and the iPhone, along with virtually all home media extenders – are locked out. Drop your router back to 2.4GHz for maximum compatibility and it’s like taking your Ferrari off the freeway and onto Main Street.
Now we’re finally seeing dual-band routers which don’t make you choose. Instead a single box can run both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios at the same time, creating two unique networks with their own SSIDs.
Linksys is first out of the gate with this week’s Australian debut of the WRT610N. Selling for $350, the 610N is central to Linksys’ "Connected home" strategy. “5GHz wireless-n lets you create what we call an 'entertainment-grade' network for online gaming from your Xbox or PlayStation as well as moving all your video and audio, all your high definition multimedia content, around your home to a TV screen” explains Graeme Reardon, Regional Director for Linksys Australia & New Zealand. “I consistently get around 120Mbit/s in my house on 5GHz when I’m streaming video from my Vista PC to my TV using a digital media adaptor, and that’s the sort of speed you want for pushing video around.
“At the same time you can keep 2.4GHz for what we’d classify as your data network, which is email and Web browsing and things like that,” Reardon told APCmag.com. Of course, users with a clean ADSL2+ connection can also use 5GHz to deliver maximum bandwidth to their notebook in instances where 2.4GHz, especially using older 11g wireless, isn’t up to snuff.
“A dual-band Wireless-N solution gives you the best of all three worlds: you get the extended range and speed benefits of 11n technology in both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands, and also the backward compatibility with legacy 11b and 11g products.”
On the hardwired side the 610N also contains a four-port Gigabit Ethernet switch plus a USB 2.0 port which can convert any external hard drive into a network-accessible drive capable of streaming music, video and photos to any UPnP-compatible media adapter using the router’s inbuilt media server software.
Like most of the current generation of wireless kit the WRT610N is rated to last year’s 802.11n Draft 2.0 spec, so Reardon says the router should enjoy hassle-free connection to most modern Windows and Mac notebooks, even though the final spec isn’t due to be ratified until late in 2009. None of the 802.11n updates through to Draft 5.0, which was approved in July this year, have required hardware modifications – any necessary changes to hardware have been accommodated through firmware updates.
“Certainly it’s still a concern with some people that 11n is still not ratified,” agrees Reardon. “But we don’t expect to see any major changes, and certainly no hardware changes, so (the final standard) would be a firmware upgrade on our current Draft 2 product to move to the final version.”
Linksys won’t have the dual-band space to themselves for long. D-Link has already announced the local release of its $480 DIR-855 ‘Xtreme N Duo Media Router’, which, like the WRT610N, trumpets its capability to “simultaneously stream high definition movies, music and online games” over the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.
Apple is also tipped to bestow simultaneous dual-band capabilities onto an upgrade of its Airport Extreme base station, either as part of a larger Mac product announcement rumoured for mid-October or next January’s Macworld Expo.