Cisco Announces 802.11ac Router and Media Connector

Cisco has announced the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi EA6500. The router uses 802.11ac technology and is compatible with Cisco Connect Cloud. In addition, the manufacturer comes with the Universal Media Connector, also equipped with 802.11ac.

The Linksys EA6500, which should hit the European market in September, will support the 802.11ac standard on the 5GHz band. It offers gross throughputs of up to 1300Mbps, with the router using six antennas. On the 2.4GHz band, the router offers 802.11n technology with theoretical bandwidths of up to 450Mbps.

Cisco has provided the EA6500 with two USB 2.0 connections, which can be used for shared storage on the network, and there is DLNA functionality. Four long-gigabit Ethernet connections and one wang gigabit Ethernet connection are also available.

The EA6500 provides access to Cisco Connect Cloud. The manufacturer has recently added a number of new features to this service that should make it easier for consumers to, for example, activate a child lock or set priorities for devices on a wireless network.

The Linksys Universal Media Connector WUMC710 also uses 802.11ac on the 5GHz band. The device can be used to wirelessly connect devices such as smart TVs and consoles to, for example, the EA6500. The Media Connector has four gigabit Ethernet connections and should be on the market in October for an unknown price.