May 06, 2009

The untimely death of my Linksys WRT45GXv2 as birthed a new gadget in the office – a new Linksys WRT400N.

Linksys WRT400N

Here’s the lowdown: this simultaneous dual band router means that one radio (the 2.4GHz one)  can handle all mixed traffic (802.11 B,G,N) and the other radio (the 5 GHz one) can be dedicated to 802.11 N  traffic only.

This is nice when working in a mixed environment, as any 802.11 network is going to operate at the speed of the slowest attached device.  That means that my new 17″ MacBook Pro can cruise in style on 5GHz N, while my older Dell is “limping along” at 54Mbps G at 2.4GHz.  Unless of course my wifey is online with her 802.11b laptop, at which point my Dell will suffer the consequences, but not the Mac.  Of course, the Dell is used to it, as that’s the way my single band WRT45X was working anyway.

Its a sweet compartmentalizing of wireless traffic that goes a long way towards real-world usability.  Who wants to shell out more $ for an N router only to have everything run at the same old G or even worse, B speeds?  Prior to simultaneous dual-band routers like the WRT400N, the only other alternative was to spring for N adapters for all wireless devices.  That adds up in no time, and isn’t even possible for some things like my BlackBerry Bold.

I’ve only just installed this so I can’t vouch for its reliability yet, but its functionality and speed are spot on.  Pick on up at our Amazon store for relative peanuts.