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The best wireless routers for streaming Netflix, Hulu, and more

Linksys WRT1900AC review

Do you love streaming your favorite shows, but run into a certain amount competition and lag around the household? Our modern lives are filled with the ability to stream Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, online games, and much more – but our networks have trouble keeping up, especially when everyone piles on in the evenings. If your router is several years old, it's time to think about a replacement: Today's best wireless routers and gateways are much more advanced and generally useful! So to help keep your network on safe footing, improve security, and give you a performance boost, we have collected the best wireless routers around. These beasts excel at processing data, tracking devices, and give you the features you need to manage your network (and maybe even give your own devices a bit of preference on the side). Take a look at a couple of these powerful routers and what they can do for you.

Click to continue reading The best wireless routers for streaming Netflix, Hulu, and more


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Bleeding Edge TV 550: Linksys WRT1900AC 802.11ac Wi-Fi Router Review

I give you a look at one of the best routers on the market in the Linksys WRT1900ac in this episode. This is a fast router that supports 802.11ac speeds, which is up to 4.3x faster than 802.11n wifi. This router has simultaneous dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz antennas, and a dual core CPU that promotes high speed data processing.

The cool thing about the WRT AC1900 is that it is open source-ready. This means you can install packages like DD-WRT and OpenWRT and it will be officially supported. External antennas round this one out, and they can be removed and swapped out for larger, more powerful antennas as well!

You can pick up the Linksys WRT1900AC now!

Don't forget to subscribe to Gear Live's YouTube channel--also, we are giving away awesome perks for our Patreon backers - thanks for your support!

 

Click to continue reading Bleeding Edge TV 550: Linksys WRT1900AC 802.11ac Wi-Fi Router Review


Why the Flip camera failed

Flip Camera failed

The Flip was never my favorite pocket camcorder. That's partly because it was the darling of everyone else and also because I found more powerful options elsewhere, like the Kodak Zi6 (and then Zi8). Both offer HD video capture, a microphone-in jack and removable media. Flip didn't offer any of that; the Flip team always told me that those features would likely confuse consumers who just wanted to capture video.

Now I realize they were right. In fact more right than any of us had imagined.

A day after Cisco unceremoniously dumped its $590 million purchase in favor of a pure business strategy, Flip owners and even the Flip CEO are busy licking their wounds and wondering exactly what happened. I'll tell you what happened: A device came along that made video capture and sharing even easier than the Flip—end of story.

Flip's demise has to be one of the most spectacular flameouts in recent tech history. When I met with Flip last year (just prior to the launch of the ill-fated Flip SlideHD), Flip had marketshare numbers that looked not only unbeatable, but unstoppable. According to Cisco executives:

  • Flip sales grew by 300 percent between 2008 and 2009.
  • Flip led the category throughout the 2009 holiday buying season.
  • Flip sold more units than Sony, Canon, Kodak, and JVC combined.
  • Flip cameras were number nine out of Amazon's top 10 selling products.
  • The "Shoot and Share market" grew over 35 percent in 2009 and and Flip's share of that? A whopping 93 percent.
  • On CNN's popular iReport user-generated news section, 70 percent of the user-gen video was shot with a Flip.

This was the success story to beat all success stories. And while I complained even then that Cisco wasn't innovating enough with the Flip brand—I wanted a microphone jack and was begging for them to be the first to offer optical zoom—I could not argue with its success.

Click to continue reading Why the Flip camera failed


2010 Holiday Gift Guide Giveaway: Cisco Valet 802.11n wireless router

valet wireless hotspot router

The Cisco Valet wireless router is next in our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide, and we're giving away three of these home hotspots to your readers, but more on that below. First, the basics - we're recommending the Valet because, quite simply, it's simple. Cisco has made setting up an 802.11n network in the home super easy, with automatic security, guest access, parental controls, and more. This takes away the guesswork, which means less time for you to spend playing tech support specialist when your family and friends have network issues. See? It's like a gift to yourself as well! They typically sell for $99, but Amazon has them for $64.99, which is a killer deal.

Okay, now on to the details of the giveaway. We've got three Cisco Valet routers to give away, but as we said, they are meant to be simple. You set them up, and you are done. We know our readers are a bit more techie than that, so we've upped the ante a bit. Each winner will receive two Cisco routers - one Cisco Valet, and one Cisco Linksys E2000 Advanced 802.11n router! That way, you can keep the feature-packed Linksys for yourself, and give the Valet to a tech-challenged loved one as a gift.

Here’s how to enter:

That's it! Do that, and you are entered. However, this time we're giving our bonus entries. All you have to do is head to the Gear Live Facebook page and Like us, then leave a comment on our wall. That gets you a second entry. The contest will run through Friday December 17th, and is open to US residents. A winner will be chosen randomly from all eligible entrants.


Newegg Deal: Linksys WRT54GL broadband router

Linksys WRT54GL‘s got a deal on the Linksys WRT54GL 802.11b/g router for $49.95, selling it for $30 less than retail from now through June 15. This is a router that is a dream for DIYers, as it works great with a lot of different custom firmware packages, making it easy to set up your own VPN, Samba, and FTP servers. It can also boost existing wireless signals, act as a Radius server, and more. Take a look at the Linksys WRT54GL on Newegg, and use promo code ROUTER685 to get the savings.

As always, you can find all sorts of Newegg promo codes and deals on our forums.

Read More | Newegg: Linksys WRT54GL

Linksys Wireless Broadband Router WRT54G2

Linksys RouterLinksys’ WRT54G2 G Router is an access point for Wireless-G (802.11g at 54Mbps) and -B (802.11b at 11Mbps.) It is also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 switch to connect PCs, hubs, and gadgets by Ethernet and a router for high-speed cable or DSL connection. At a size of 8 x 6.3 x 1.4 and a weight of 9.9 oz, it carries a price of about $50.00 online, depending on where you shop.

Read More | c/net

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