Labs

Linksys' Wireless-N Gigabit Router looks very similar to the WAG325N, but it's a lot more expensive. In part, this is because it has a Gigabit Ethernet switch, but it's also because of the built-in Storage Link technology. Using the USB port on the back, you can share any USB storage, such as an external hard disk, over your network. You can also set it

ADVERTISEMENT

up as a media server, so you can stream videos, pictures and music to media receivers. The benefit is that you can use standard USB devices for this rather than shelling out for Ethernet network attached storage (NAS) boxes.

The excellent web-based management utility makes these and other advanced features, such as QoS, simple to configure. With a CD-based wizard also supplied, it's a very easy router to set up.

Performance using our Centrino laptop was almost identical to the WAG325N, except that we could only get 2.45Mbit/sec at 25 metres. This is still good enough for web browsing, but not to take proper advantage of Storage Link. Switching to Linksys' WPC300N CardBus adaptor (around £47) we managed 41.4Mbit/sec at one metre and a quick 10.94Mbit/sec at 25 metres.

The Wireless-N Gigabit Router is worth the price if you'll use the Storage Link feature. If not, Buffalo's Wireless-N Nfiniti is cheaper and faster.