CES 2009

D-Link's Xtreme N DIR-685 wireless router.

(Credit: D-Link)

During 2008, I complained about all of D-Link's wireless routers, such as the DIR-825 or the DIR-855 because of their common, old-school, bulky designs. Thursday, however, I was more than impressed by the all-new Xtreme N Storage DIR-685 wireless router.

It's possibly the first router that really offers a lot more than just routing.

First off, the DIR-685 is the first router from D-Link I know of that features the internal antenna design, which is not new, as Linksys and Netgear have done this for a long time. Nevertheless, the DIR-685 is now much more compact and eye-catching than previous generations of D-Link routers.

What makes the DIR-685 unique, however, is the fact that it comes with a hard drive bay that can house a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive, a full-feature NAS system (with support for media servers and BitTorrent downloads), and features a 3.2-inch LCD monitor. The monitor, apart from being able to display the device's status via graphical gauges, can also work as a photo frame, play streamed video, and show weather forecasts and other live streaming Internet content in up to 1.6 million colors.

The DIR-685 uses D-Link Green technology which, according to D-Link, helps conserve energy. It does this by automatically recognizing port activity and cable length and adjusting power usage by consolidating all functions to a single device instead of many separate products, and by using the idle mode that automatically turns off power to the LCD screen.

According to D-Link, the router's wide local-area network scheduler can turn off the router's Wi-Fi module at a preset time, and the power adapter complies with Energy Star specifications. With these features, the router can offer power savings of up to 30 percent over other routers of the same type, according to D-Link.

On its back, the DIR-685 has four gigabit Ethernet ports and one gigabit WAN port. It also sports two USB ports featuring D-Link's SharePort technology that lets them work as networked USB ports, enabling the router to support any USB devices. The SharePort technology can also be found in D-Link's previous router models, such as the DIR-825.

The DIR-685 will be available by the end of the first quarter and is estimated to cost less than $300. I am looking forward to testing one out.

The DIR-685's back with its ports and open hard drive bay.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)

D-Link's DNS-726-4 NVR Pro at CES 2009.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)

The first NAS server I've run into that features a surveillance system is the Synology DS107+, and I was very impressed. Thursday, D-Link announced two NAS servers that work more like Internet-based surveillance products--or network video recorders (NVRs)--than storage devices. They are the DNS-722-4 and the DNS-726-4.

Both products are based on D-Link's two-bay network-attached storage (NAS) device technology, such as that used in the DNS-323. The DNS-726-4 NVR Pro version works with D-Link, as well as Axis, Sony, and Panasonic network cameras, while the DNS-722-4 NVR works only with D-Link network cameras.

There's one more difference between the two. The DNS-726-4 supports multiple channel playback. The DNS-722-4, on the other hand, supports only one channel.

According to D-Link, the new NVRs can house up to two SATA hard drives in four RAID setups and feature a security lock, 24-7 recording, and a friendly graphical user interface for multiple camera management and for viewing live video or playing back recorded data through the Internet from anywhere at anytime.

While many NAS servers can support Internet cameras to form a surveillance system, D-Link's new NVRs reportedly feature an advanced and flexible event-based management mechanism. The NVRs can monitor all camera events via motion detection or digital input and command different cameras to perform tasks based on certain predetermined conditions. For example, if camera 1 detects motion, the NVR can trigger camera 2 to record, camera 3 to emit light, and camera 4 to turn to the preset position.

Other than that, they both boast the following additional features:

• Smart search: The NVRs' intelligent search function quickly retrieves data by finding a selected area on the video based on preset search criteria (motion detected, object missing, focus lost, camera occlusion, etc.)
• Multiple channel playback (available in the DNS-726-4 only): This means that after selecting the desired video period, the NVR will begin playback and display up to four simultaneous channels.
• Playback speed control: Both NVRs can playback at up to 16x speeds in fast-forward or fast-backward modes. They can also playback video one frame at a time.
• Video enhancement: Users can adjust the recorded video to get enhanced output for brightness, sharpness, etc.
• Camera status display: Both NVRs will produce a status page to show connection, recording, frame, and bit rate information for each camera. Users also can check the display to see how much recording time remain.

According to D-Link, the new NVRs are the only IP surveillance recording and playback management systems that offer advanced functionality and four built-in levels of RAID, as well as up to 120 frame speed performance, for less than $700.

But not by much, the DSN-726-4's estimated price is $699.99, while the DSN-722-4 is $399.99. Both will be available during first quarter 2009.

Here's a cool little product that I can't wait to try out: The Pogoplug. It's a simple and releatively cheap box that plugs into an external hard drive (or flash drive) via USB, and also into you home's Internet connection. Then it puts the hard drive on the Web as well as on your local network. Any computer in your home can access it as a shared drive, and people outside can also connect to it over the Web. It sounds like a very quick and simple way to put a whole bunch of files online for friends to see.

Pogoplug connects your USB drives to the Internet.

Now, it's no great feat for a geek to wire up a PC or a network-attached storage drive for Internet access. What the Pogoplug does is not utterly unique. The company is going for ease of use, though. Instead of having to open ports on your router, or configure a NAS for Web access, with Pogoplug you just go to the company's Web site, enter the identifying code from your device (presumably, it's stamped on it somewhere), and then the Pogoplug servers will set up the routing for you and give you your device's Web address.

You could, also, upload your files to a sharing service like Flickr or YouTube. In comparison, Pogoplug will make the upload faster (it's local), and should also give you more control over your files (if you want to remove them, for example), and who can see them.

One thing I would be concerned about for home users: Many home broadband connections are much slower on the upload than download. People who want to download your raw AVI home movie files from your drive may be limited by the speed that your Pogoplug-attached drive can upload to the Net. If the device streams video this should not be a big issue.

Other promised features inlcude an iPhone interface (for upload as well as viewing), and an open API for developers.

It's not out yet so I haven't tried it; I don't know if it's as easy as it should be, or if the security is appropriate for its target use. But the price is right for this utility: $99 retail. I could really use this, and look forward to trying it when the first units are made available in February.