New Features in Linksys EA4500 Smart Wi-Fi Router

Linksys EA4500 Highlights:

• New N900 wireless technology
• Cisco Connect Cloud
• Gigabit Interfaces
• USB port for share storage or printer

Features of Linksys EA4500 N900:

• Ultra-fast wireless speed connectivity (up to 450 + 450 Mbps)
• Simultaneous dual-band to maximize throughput and help avoid network interference
• Maximum range and reliability with full 3x3 MIMO antenna array
• Gigabit ports for speeds 10x faster than Ethernet
• USB Port to add a range of devices such as storage and printers
• Cisco Connect Cloud (Available summer 2012) - Get anywhere, anytime access to your home network from a browser or mobile device. Plus, optimize your online experiences with included apps.

I was wondering when Linksys shipped new version E4200V2 router why it didn’t release a brand new product with N900 technology. This E4200V2 improves the performance of the first generation of Linksys E4200 N750 router for faster speed (n900) and optimized for streaming HD video and gaming. Now you have the answer, Linksys introduces new series of Smart Wi-Fi routers including EA4500 N900, EA3500 and EA2700 smart-wifi routers. What’s new with these new lines of products? The answer is that they support the upcoming Cisco Connect Cloud.

Cisco Connect Cloud

Cisco Connect Cloud shortens the distance of your home network as close as your fingers accessing your mobile device, anywhere anytime as long as you can access the internet from around the world. If you can monitor your security surveillance via your network, with Cisco Connect Cloud you can monitor it via the internet from all over the world. Cisco offers new apps to support any types of home smart devices. This is a very benefit feature for traveling users which frequently access their home or small office network when they are away from their network. Netgear with its coming soon product WNDR4700 also offers you Share-Cloud feature, looks like similar feature as Cisco Connect Cloud (available in summer 2012). Netgear doesn’t give a release date yet for WNDR4700, but you can order now for Linksys EA4500 from some stores.

High Speed

Like other new N900 routers, this Linksys EA4500 works on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time delivering wireless speeds of up to 450mbps each band with aggregate bandwidth up to 900Mbps theoretically. You know they won’t reach these speeds in the real world.

All the Ethernet port interfaces are equipped with Gigabit ports including LAN and WAN ports for reliable high speed cable connection; make sure you use CAT5e (extended) or CAT6 UTP cable for best performance. All brand new all-in-one desktop computers include Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired connection, while mostly DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems are also equipped with gigabit Ethernet port you may connect to the EA4500 gigabit WAN port for maximum data rate throughput between modem and router.

USB port is designed with multi functions including hosting the external disk storage, USB printer, and it supports media server. The first generations of Linksys wireless routers including Linksys E-4200 and E3200, you can’t use the USB port to host a printer. Unfortunately there is only one USB port available. So if you require hosting both storage and printer at the same time, you can’t do that. There are some routers available in the market you may consider such as new Asus RT-N66U N900 router with two USB 2.0 ports. You may also compare it with the D-link Dir-857 which includes USB 3.0 port 10 times data rate throughput than standard USB 2.0 port.

The table shows main specs comparison for EA4500 Vs WNDR4700 Vs DIR-857

	Linksys EA4500	Netgear WNDR4700	D-link Dir-857
Wireless technology	N900 with 3×3 MIMO antenna (6 internal antennas)	N900 with internal antennas	N900 with smartbeam technology
Interfaces	Gigabit Ethernet	Gigabit Ethernet	Gigabit Ethernet
USB ports	One USB 2.0 for storage or printer, DLNA media server	One USB 3.0 port for additional storage or printer	USB 3.0 port for storage or printer
Other features:	Cisco Connect Cloud	Share-Cloud ready Ready-share Vault for automatic backup strategy Time machine support for Mac	SD Card Slot with DLNA compliant

With the included 6 internal antennas and 3×3 MIMO antenna technologies for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, the EA4500 router is very reliable reaching farthest corner of your large house, eliminating the requirement of adding a wireless range extender. To cover the whole home you can place the router in the middle of the house, try not too much obstacles between the router and the clients.

D-Link Cloud Routers

D-link offers cloud routers including DIR-605L (MSRP is only $40) and DIR-600L with mydlink Service – a cloud access to let you access your home network remotely with free smartphone app. with mydlink Service you can manage user control, View Real-time Browsing History, Connect and Disconnect Computer Devices from the Network – all are done remotely from your mobile devices. DIR-605L is based on wireless N300 technology while DIR-600L is N150 router.

The dual version (N600) of D-link cloud router is Dir-826L cloud router 2000 which is also embedded with Gigabit Ethernet interfaces both for wired connection to the LAN and WAN ports. With the built-in high power amplifier, this router covers larger area within the house.

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