Skydog review: Tomorrow’s network-management features; yesterday’s hardware

December 19, 2013

The Skydog Wi-Fi router suffers from bipolar disorder. It’s blessed with the most powerful and sophisticated network-management features I’ve seen in a router, but it’s running on hardware that would have been state of the art when the IEEE 802.11n standard was finalized in 2009. This dual-band router is not only based on the older 802.11n standard, it’s equipped with only 2x2 radios, meaning it can send and receive only two 150 mbps data streams (300 mbps in aggregate) on each band. More powerful 802.11n routers have 3x3 radios that can send and receive three 150 mbps data streams (450 mbps in aggregate). The best routers based on the newer 802.11ac standard can send and receive up to 1.3 Gbps. ROBERT CARDIN The Skydog’s cloud management features are awesome, so it’s unfortunate that they’re tied to such conservative hardware. The Skydog’s hardware limitations are unfortunate, because everyone—from parents interested in managing, tracking, and controlling what their kids do online, to the most hardcore enthusiasts who want to fine-tune every aspect of their local network—will find the cloud-based network-management tools the Skydog team has developed to be incredibly useful. But you shouldn’t have to tolerate weak hardware to get great software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2080500/skydog-review-tomorrow-s-network-management-features-yesterday-s-hardware.html#tk.rss_reviews