Fast performance, slick design and excellent software, all at the right price

A low-cost, managed Gigabit switch with full PoE support on all fixed ports, but the external power supply is huge.

A compact IP telephony router with great features, but the web interface isn’t user-friendly.

A compact IP telephony router with great features, but the web interface isn’t user-friendly.

An absolute steal at this price – great performance and superb value make this a must for next-gen WiFi junkies

Although it’s not a screamer at short range, the good long-range performance (at 5GHz at least) makes the Linksys WRT610N an attractive choice

It's a close race between this draft-n Vista Media Extender and the Xbox 360 for getting HD video to your TV. If you watch video from your Vista PC, read on.

USB 2.0 hard disks are a convenient way of backing up your data, but if you want to share the files with other computers over a small office or home network they're not ideal. But Linksys has an alternative. The Network Storage Link (NSL) takes a USB 2.0 hard disk or flash drive and puts it on the network.

The arrival of dual-n band networking with 5GHz promises an end to crowded home wireless networks. Speed, range and technology is great, but the price is steep

With its futuristic design, the WRT310N could live just as happily in your front room as it could next to your PC – at just 34mm high it’s easy to hide. If you already have an ADSL modem, this is the pefect wireless router companion.

The Linksys WAP11 access point features a single 10/100 Ethernet point for plugging directly into a network or via a hub to a PC.

Slow speeds and a high price make this an underwhelming offering

A low-cost SSL-VPN appliance that may fit your bill, but sacrifices are inevitably made to hit the sub-$250 price

This PCMCIA card was fairly average in all tests, returning some uninspiring times and a middling tenacity to stick to its signal.

Not quite up there with the USB dongles from MSI and Booya, the WUSB11 has good signal strengths but was lacking in transfer speeds.

Oddly, in our tests, the BEFW11S4 performed better at long range with bad reception than it did at short range with good reception and a stronger, more robust signal.

Even at a glance, the Linksys WRV54G looks to be more than just an 802.11g/b wireless access point. It acts as an Ethernet switch connecting up to four wired devices, making this a good bridging choice between wired and unwired networks. It's also a router capable of hooking up to a DSL modem, which is useful for basic connection sharing.

A solid draft-n router with NAS and media-streaming features – though it’s a little on the slow side.

A business-orientated router with average performance

Good value, but without the decent performance or the feature set of our current award winners this time