Which Draft N router is right for you?

Felisa Yang, Associate Editor March 1, 2007

With the release of the first draft of the 802.11n specification by the IEEE came a flurry of product releases from the major networking vendors. Each company put its own spin on the new routers, from hidden antennas to paddle antennas to user-friendly network-display panels. With so many choices, how can you tell which is right for you? That's a tough question to answer. All of these products' throughput numbers looked stellar when compared to the throughput of standard 802.11g routers, but they all fell short of the promised speed improvement of 802.11n (according to the spec, the max throughput is 270Mbps). And there is a slight chance (unlikely, but not impossible) that some major change in the final 802.11n spec could render these product nonupgradable. Our advice dovetails with that of industry analysts: if you already have a wireless home network, keep using it until the spec has been finalized (expected to be around mid-2007) to see how the final performances stack up.

If you absolutely can't wait and need to have one of these routers now, we liked the D-Link N 650 for its fast performance and wealth of features and the Belkin N1 router for its unparalleled user-friendliness.

Also, don't forget to check these routers' companion wireless notebook adapters.