WD (Western Digital) My Net N900 Central Review – Western Digital, famous for manufacturing hard drives and portable HD Media players like the WD TV Live that I reviewed in the past, has released their first family of wireless routers: My Net N600, My Net N750, My Net N900, and My Net N900 Central.
The last one, My Net N900 Central, has a built-in storage of either 1TB or 2TB in capacity which attracted my attention when I was offered to review one of My Net wireless routers a couple of weeks ago.
WD My Net N900 Central Review – Packaging
The packaging includes:
- The N900 Central wireless router
- The Power adapter
- An RJ45 network cable
- CD which contains the setup guide & software to install (optional)
WD My Net N900 Central Review – Installation
The installation is pretty straight forward and easy to follow, thanks to the step-by-step instructions provided through the installation CD.
You can either set My Net N900 Central wireless (with any wireless capable device) or wired (from your computer to the router with a network cable). My Net N900 Central is not a modem router combo, so you do need to have a modem (or another modem router) connected to it to connect to the internet.
After connecting to the router via Wi-Fi in its factory default settings, I was able to set-up my new wireless network quickly and comfortably with My Net N900 Central.
You can also use your tablet such as the iPad to set the router up. Overall, the setup is fairly simple to follow and does not bombard you with advanced network jargons which may confuse & scare non-technical people.
WD My Net N900 Central Review – Design & Features
My Net N900 Central is coated mostly in black, with 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 1 USB 2.0 port included.
The review sample that I have has a built-in 1TB storage space. The router is also a dual-band router (2.4GHz and 5GHz) which provides up to 450 Mbps data speed on each channel. One of the highlighted features of the My Net N900 Central is the FasTrack Plus, which automatically prioritizes all movies, videos, games and voice-n-video chat on your wireless network to ensure the smoothest experience. The router can manage this automatically so you don’t have to manually set them up, but you do have the option to customise them yourself.
The coolest thing that My Net N900 Central has (which is probably the reason why you are reading this review too), is the built-in storage space. Rather than having to attach an external USB storage drive onto the router, My Net N900 Central comes with it from the factory. You are not even required to install an external driver or set-it up separately. That actually explains the bulkier design because there’s a massive storage being squeezed inside.
You can go into the drive directly on your Windows Explorer by referring to \\MyNetN900C in the network or alternatively, you can assign a drive letter to it.
It is then only a matter of choice on how do you want to utilise this wireless network storage. You can use the drive to store your media libraries and stream them to every device you have at home. Or you can also do a wireless backup using your own favorite backup software or the included backup software from WD, called the WD SmartWare.
The interface is pretty good and the software is also quite powerful. Files are saved as they are so you can simply copy them across (or use the restore function) if you want to access the backup files directly.
There are also other software that you can install from the CD to further simplify your administrative task on the router.
There are many other features that I haven’t talked about such as the WD 2go which enables remote access from a web browser anywhere to your WD My Net N900 Central storage drive or from smartphones/tablets. There are also the Parental Controls, WPS support, Guest Access, and more. The My Net Dashboard makes everything easy to customise and change these network settings.
WD My Net N900 Central Review – Conclusion
WD My Net N900 Central Review Conclusio
Western Digital My Net N900 Central is a solid wireless router for both home and the office. It is packed with tons of network features such as the WD 2go, WD FasTrack Plus, WPS, Parental Controls, USB network storage, fast wireless transfer, and most importantly, its own built-in internal storage space. With that, I can remove my NAS (Network Attached Storage) and simply use My Net N900 Central’s built-in solution as both my router and wireless network storage. If I want to, I can even make my files available online so I can have access to them anywhere I am – whether they are important documents or even my collection of music for streaming through my devices.
All these can be set-up easily through the My Net Dashboard interface, which is user friendly and provides plenty of customisations for power users at the same time. Western Digital is definitely on the right track here!
Note: WD My Net N900 Central review sample was supplied for reviewing
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