It used to be that the wireless router only did one thing and threw in a few wired ports for computers close to the hub. Today the wireless router is becoming a converged device that serves multiple purposes. Netgear has announced a new router called the Rangemax Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB model number WNR3500L.

The router has gigabit ports on it for fast wired connections and has a single USB port on it. The USB port will allow you to share USB peripherals with the wired and wireless network including hard drives and other devices.

NetGear has now jumped into the consumer NAS market with a 1TB offering dubbed Stora. It’s basically a “dumbed down” version of their business NAS devices, compatible with Mac, Linux and Windows platforms. It should work pretty good as an iTunes or DLNA server.

It’s also ships with a two-bay configuration which is auto-set to mirror data. The NetGear Stora MS2110 will retail for $229 and comes with a 1TB drive.

I have wished on several occasions that I could get my DVR connected to the internet. The problem for me is that my house is larger and my router and modem are a long way from my living room and running new cable through the walls is not an option.

At CES Netgear was showing off its Home Theater Internet Connection Kit and the company has announced that the kit is finally shipping. The kit is nothing more than a powerline networking system that includes a switch for the entertainment center with four ports and the adapter that plugs into your internet router.

I would really like to connect all of my home theater components to my wireless network, but most of the gear I have can’t connect wirelessly. My router is in a different room and running wire through my walls is much more than I am willing to do. Netgear has launched a new Coax-Ethernet adapter kit that might be just what I need though.

The kit is called the MCAB1001 Netgear MoCA Coax-Ethernet Adapter Kit and is designed to offer the bandwidth needed to distribute HD video and multimedia content to your Blu-ray player, TV, and cable box.

Netgear is bundling a few of its  wireless 802.11n products together so one can add 5GHz wireless n speed to an existing network. This bundle is called the Netgear Wireless-N Upgrade Kit (WNEB3100) and pricing is set around $150.

The Netgear Wireless-N Upgrade Kit (WNEB3100) consists of Netgear’s 5GHz Wireless-N HD Access Point (WNHDE111) and RangeMax Dual-Band Wireless-N Adapter (WNDA3100). Netgear says this kit lets you quickly get 802.1n 5Ghz wireless up and running by plugging the WNHDE111 into an existing router or gateway. Adding it to an existing 802.11b/g network will, in effect, give you a dual-band network.