WD My Net N900 HD Dual-Band Router Review
Overall Design
For most people, looks aren't all that important when shopping for a router, but Western Digital didn't use that as an excuse to launch a line of ugly networking devices. On the contrary, the My Net series brings a bit of style to a category that doesn't typically receive much aesthetic attention.
The top of the My Net N900 is textured and concave in design, though we don't suggest using its as a bowl to hold your keys or candy. It gets a little warm to the touch, and we can't imagine melted M&Ms are good for a router. A silver strip forms a bezel around the device, giving the router a pleasant two-tone finish that should easily blend in with your home entertainment gear or other electronic gadgets, depending on where you decide to put it.
Functionally, it's too bad the router only sits horizontally. The decision to go this design route may have come down to the placement of internal antennas and how best to beam the wireless signal throughout your home, but the tradeoff is that you'll have to clear enough desk space to accommodate a wide router rather being able to situate it upright in a vertical position.
Four soft-glowing blue LEDs run alongside the front: Power LED, Wireless LED, Internet LED, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) LED. There's also a WPS button on the right-hand side. The nice thing about the LEDs is that just a little bit of light seeps through the tiny slits, so it's unlikely to keep you up at night if you place the router in your bedroom.
Around the back is a generous serving of LAN ports. There are seven to be exact, or three more than what you'll typically find on most home consumer routers. The My Net N900 is the only model in Western Digital's lineup to offer seven LAN ports; even the My Net N900 Central (1TB and 2TB) top out at five.
Way over to the right is the yellow-colored WAN port, which tethers to your cable or DSL modem. On the left side is the power button, power port, and two USB 2.0 ports. That's not a typo. For whatever reason, Western Digital decided to color one of the USB ports blue, which typically denotes a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port, but both of these are of the High Speed USB 2.0 variety. That's a bit of a bummer, until you realize that the added throughput of USB 3.0 is largely wasted on a Wireless-N device anyway.
;)
The top of the My Net N900 is textured and concave in design, though we don't suggest using its as a bowl to hold your keys or candy. It gets a little warm to the touch, and we can't imagine melted M&Ms are good for a router. A silver strip forms a bezel around the device, giving the router a pleasant two-tone finish that should easily blend in with your home entertainment gear or other electronic gadgets, depending on where you decide to put it.
Functionally, it's too bad the router only sits horizontally. The decision to go this design route may have come down to the placement of internal antennas and how best to beam the wireless signal throughout your home, but the tradeoff is that you'll have to clear enough desk space to accommodate a wide router rather being able to situate it upright in a vertical position.
Four soft-glowing blue LEDs run alongside the front: Power LED, Wireless LED, Internet LED, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) LED. There's also a WPS button on the right-hand side. The nice thing about the LEDs is that just a little bit of light seeps through the tiny slits, so it's unlikely to keep you up at night if you place the router in your bedroom.
;)
Around the back is a generous serving of LAN ports. There are seven to be exact, or three more than what you'll typically find on most home consumer routers. The My Net N900 is the only model in Western Digital's lineup to offer seven LAN ports; even the My Net N900 Central (1TB and 2TB) top out at five.
Way over to the right is the yellow-colored WAN port, which tethers to your cable or DSL modem. On the left side is the power button, power port, and two USB 2.0 ports. That's not a typo. For whatever reason, Western Digital decided to color one of the USB ports blue, which typically denotes a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port, but both of these are of the High Speed USB 2.0 variety. That's a bit of a bummer, until you realize that the added throughput of USB 3.0 is largely wasted on a Wireless-N device anyway.
;)
Flipping the My Net 900 on its head, we find four rubber feet, a partial vent, and a small fan in case things get too toasty (it never needed to kick on during our stress testing). If we were to crack open the chassis, we'd find a Ubicom IP8260U processor, two Atheros AR8327N switches powering the seven LAN ports, 256MB of RAM, 16MB of flash storage (for storing and flashing the firmware), and a series of amplifiers.
