Western Digital Finally Goes Where We All Wished They Would, Enters Router Market.

Western Digital has been a household name in storage for decades. And like many storage device manufacturers, they flirt with network support, getting as close as offering networkable drives, remote access, etc. And beginning today, they’ve finally jumped completely into the networking world with four new dual-band routers and a new switch.

The high-end N900 Central router is the cream of the crop of WD’s router lineup, packing a 1 TB or 2 TB internal hardrive as well as 4 LAN/1WLAN gigabit ports, 1 USB port, printer and media sharing features, and UPnP and DLNA complient. The N900 router is rated at the same 900 Mbps speeds, though, drops the internal harddrive. In light of it’s empty belly, the N900 comes with 7 gigabit ports and 2 USB ports so expansion shouldn’t be a problem. Slightly below the N900 is the N750 which tops out at 750 Mbps and drops a gigabit port in the process. The N600 has a 600 Mbps ceiling and identical port layout to the N750 router. Finally, the “My Net” is a no-frills gigabit (10/100/1000) switch, offering 8 gigabit ports and nothing more.

All of the above hardware will have plenty of media sharing and remote functionality thanks to WD’s WD 2 Go software that allows browser access from any computer as well as Android and iOS apps. Also, WD is touting their new “FastTrack” technology that can actively monitor and prioritize bandwidth as needed, ensuring that game or Netflix movie is never hampered by a system update or other mundane task running in the background.

Everything shown here is available today from WesternDigital.com or official retail partners save for the high-end N900 Central Router — that is slated for release “next quarter”. Pricing for the new gear is as follows: