Event: Simply Powerful – Cisco Unveils New Linksys E-Series Routers

New Design, More Power

Form Meets Function

Cisco's Linksys brand has long been synonymous with home networking products such as routers and switches. In an event held at the Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati, Cisco unveiled to the local technology media their new E-Series home networking devices, along with a number of Wireless 802.11n peripherals. To kick things off, Mr. Tang Boon Ping, Cisco's Home Networking Regional Sales Director for Asia gave an overview presentation of Cisco's new business strategy. He explained that one of the biggest trends in technology today is the proliferation of non-PC Wi-Fi devices such as Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones and tablets. The sales of these devices are growing exponentially, adding to the number of Wi-Fi devices in homes. Since most homes have just one Internet connection, all these devices will need a powerful router to effectively spread and manage bandwidth as well as transfer data, specifically video streaming.

This is where the Dual-Band technology of their new routers comes in. The new E-Series routers operate on both 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz frequencies providing up to 450Mbps transfer speeds and greater wireless coverage. This makes for smoother data transfers even with multiple devices in different parts of the house. Taking advantage of this speed boost, the new routers also incorporate hot-swappable network attached storage via USB along with HD media and FTP server capability. This means that you can attach any USB storage device to one of the new routers, and it will automatically become network-attached storage, accessible by anyone in the network, or even offsite, as with the FTP server-capable models. The highest model, the E4200 can even act as an HD media server, detecting any digital multimedia file in the attached storage device and streams it to any connected network device, such as an iPad.     

Aside from the growing number of Wi-Fi devices, Mr. Tang Boon Ping also mentioned other issue that the new routers addressed is aesthetic appeal. Past Linksys routers were industrial-looking and unsightly, which made many owners opt to hide them in cupboards or closets. These new routers feature sleek and simple designs which have won the prestigious Red Dot Industrial design awards in Germany. None of them have any protruding antennae as with previous models, and are mostly smooth and flat making them easily blend into the interiors of the modern homes.