Cisco Introduces Dual Band Wireless Home Router
Cisco has released their latest home router with built in dual band wifi, so you can run both G and N wireless at the same time, from one device. Pretty sweet! Also comes with 4 Gig-E interfaces, a USB port for attaching storage, and UPnP support for streaming music and videos!
If you've ever wanted to create a "guest wireless" SSID for your house, typically you've needed an extra wireless AP and a little bit of time to re-engineer things. Not with this little box, it's built in. The major feature that they're touting is 450Mbps, or about 50 Megabytes per second if your signal strength is good and there's no interference. That's pretty good for wireless and will probably feel similar to a plugged in fast ethernet connection.
Only thing I can see that is missing is an apparent lack of support for DLNA. Not a total show stopper, but it's not exactly a new standard and there are a ton of cool devices that can use it (PS3 & Xbox 360 to name a couple).
Overall, it looks like a sweet little home router.
- Adam's blog
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Comments
Wrong
Dual band meens it can do 2.4 and 5.0 GHz, nothing to G and N in the same time...
Every router/AP with 802.11n can do G.
Batnun
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Exactly
You are correct, dual band means it supports 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz, and complies with the 802.11n spec. It also happens to be correct in saying both G and N are supported at the same time, it's called mixed mode and it's enabled by default.
For specific instructions on how to configure mixed mode, the user manual is here: http://homedownloads.cisco.com/downloads/userguide/E4200_V10_UG_NC.pdf
and it's kind of sexy.
and it's kind of sexy.
Guest SSID
Guest SSID can also be made using an old Linksys (now cisco) running dd-wrt.
It's not in the menu's but it's doable using some commands that are run when the device is booted.
Here is a how to:
http://www.pennock.nl/dd-wrt/Multiple_BSSIDs.html
Ehh..
Doesnt look like its worth upgrading from my linksys e3000, which I love, but still pretty cool.
Since I already have a Cisco
Since I already have a Cisco 2801, I use a D-Link 615 router as an access point. Just turned off DHCP. Works great, cheap, and gives me wireless N speeds. Bought on Black Friday for $20!
DLNA is supported
The e4200 will act as a DLNA Media Server.
"Media Server- dedicated devices, like the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, several HDTVs, and more (including your computer) can stream music and video from your disk using the Media Server option. The router uses a service called Twonky to create a DLNA server that you'll see listed in the video tab of your Xbox or PS3. In this tab, you can specify how often the router should look for new videos on the disk, what to share, and what to call your media server. "
That excerpt is from:
http://homecommunity.cisco.com/t5/Wireless-Routers/An-E4200-quot-MegaThr...
That's Awesome!
Thank you for getting clarification on that! I was so bummed when I couldn't find a specific bullet point that says "Yes, DLNA is supported and here's how you configure it!"
I searched in the user guide and noticed there is a single reference to DLNA in the following line:
"If you have UPnP AV (Audio and Video)-enabled or Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)-certified devices in your home, then you can use the router as a media server."
Source: http://homedownloads.cisco.com/downloads/userguide/E4200_V10_UG_NC.pdf
If you look at the guide though, there is a section entitled UPnP Media Server, but there's not specific section that says DLNA Media Server with setup instructions. I guess it's one section called UPnP and it also doubles as DLNA.
Anyone get a chance to set one of these up yet? I'm curious on the performance and configuration options.