WD Entering in Home Router Market

Western Digital Technologies, Inc. unveils its first line of wireless home networking products, designed to accelerate movies, video and gaming, delivering high-definition entertainment experience.

With the My Net family of home networking products, WD debuts its FasTrack technology that instantly detects entertainment traffic on the network and fast-forwards it to gaming consoles, media players, smart TVs, tablets, smartphones, computers and other Wi-Fi connected devices.

"With so many people within the home simultaneously watching movies, playing games and browsing the Web via their iPad, iPhone, Xbox and other devices, the network demands placed on today’s connected home has grown exponentially," states Jim Welsh, EVP for WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. "Our successes in creating Connected Home solutions with our WD TV media players and personal cloud products have given us valuable insights into the network-overload problems of home wireless users, and entering the wireless home networking market offers WD an exciting opportunity to strengthen our Connected Home offerings that are aimed at enhancing the home entertainment experience for consumers."

Accelerated Entertainment
According to Nielsen and NM Incite’s recent report, State of the Media: U.S. Digital Consumer Report, Q3-Q4 2011 (registration needed), data from the fourth quarter of 2011 shows that 33% of consumers streamed a movie or TV show from the Internet through a subscription service such as Netflix or Hulu Plus. Internet video services, multi-player online gaming sites, and live video chat services, combined with the growth of tablets, smartphones and other devices that connect to the home network, have created a new model of home entertainment and Internet usage.

With a line of HD dual-band wireless N routers, My Net customers can enjoy this age of home entertainment. FasTrack optimization technology intelligently and automatically prioritizes Internet favorites like Netflix, Hulu Plus, VUDU, YouTube, Xbox LIVE, Skype and others, to create a smooth streaming experience in up to full-HD 1080p quality. By using real-time analysis to maximize bandwidth for entertainment services, routers provide a premium entertainment experience on any screen in the home that is connected to the router.

Streamlined Setup
The sleek hardware design of the routers is complementary to the devices’ friendly and intuitive user interface, which was designed by a veteran team of developers to enable quick router setup from wireless or wired devices such as iPads and other mobile devices, as well as PCs and Mac computers. The streamlined router setup is designed to make it easy for novice users to be up and running in minutes, while also providing the customization tools expert users crave. The included My Net Dashboard makes it easy for users to customize, monitor or change the settings of the network, including setting parental controls, Internet security, guest network access, network name and password, printer and scanner settings, and mapping storage drives.

Combination Router, Personal Cloud
and Automatic Wireless Backup
Customers can also centralize storage and backup for all the computers in their home, as well as create a personal cloud for their digital media and remotely access those files anytime, anywhere. Part of the My Net family, My Net N900 Central is an all-in-one N900 router with an integrated 1TB or 2TB internal HDD.

Remote access to My Net N900 Central is available on any computer through WD mobile apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch or Android smartphones and tablets.     

In addition to keeping content safe at home and accessible while away from home, users can rely on My Net N900 Central for automatic wireless backup with the included WD SmartWare software for Windows, while Mac users can utilize all the features of Time Machine. Additionally, any WD external HDDs with SmartWare software can connect to a My Net router to wirelessly backup all PC computers in the home.

My Net Router Family

• My Net N900 Central – The HD dual-band storage router provides accelerated HD streaming plus integrated storage for wireless backup and remote access. With FasTrack Plus optimization technology, it delivers high quality, accelerated HD entertainment that is intelligently and automatically prioritized to ensure smooth streaming. The wireless-N storage router features wireless at speeds up to 900 Mbps (450 + 450 Mbps on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands combined), as well as integrated 1TB or 2TB internal storage for automatic wireless backup. It includes 4 LAN and 1 WLAN GbE ports for up to 10/100/1000 Mbps wired speeds, 1 USB port for additional storage, printer and media share server use, and range amplifier antennas for extended range. Additionally, My Net N900 Central is Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and DLNA certified for detection and connection of Wi-Fi devices.
• My Net N900 – The HD dual-band router also provides a premium entertainment experience for movies, games, video, music, video chat and more. It offers performance for all connected devices in the home, even while streaming to multiple devices at the same time. The FasTrack Plus technology provides intelligent, real-time traffic prioritization for simultaneous HD and 3D media streaming and online gaming. The wireless-N router features wireless speeds up to 900 Mbps (450 + 450 Mbps on the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands combined) and also includes 7 LAN and 1 WLAN GbE ports for up to 10/100/1000 Mbps wired speeds, 2 USB ports for additional storage, printer and media share server use, and range amplifier antennas for extended range. Additionally, it is UPnP and DLNA certified.
• My Net N750 – The HD dual-band router is optimized to deliver multiple simultaneous HD media streams on the network, delivering accelerated video to all connected wireless and wired devices. FasTrack technology detects entertainment traffic and prioritizes bandwidth on the network to smoothly stream multiple HD movies, shows, games and more to connected devices. The router provides a combined data rate of up to 750 Mbps (300 + 450 Mbps) and features 5 GbE ports and 2 USB ports.
• My Net N600 – The My Net N600 HD dual-band router is for simple and fast web surfing and entertainment streaming with FasTrack technology for a smooth HD viewing experience. The router provides a combined data rate of up to 600 Mbps (300 + 300 Mbps) and features 5 Fast Ethernet ports with 1 USB port.
• My Net Switch – It is an 8-Port Gb home entertainment switch for expanding wired connections with GbE up to 10/100/1000 Mbps.

MSRP Pricing

• My Net Switch: $69.99
• My Net N600: $79.99
• My Net N750: $119.99
• My Net N900: $179.99
• My Net N900 Central (1TB): $299.99
• My Net N900 Central (2TB): $349.99

Availability
My Net N900, My Net N750, My Net N600 and My Net Switch are available since June 14 at select U.S. retailers and online. My Net N900 Central will be available next quarter.