Many new technologies over the years have played a chicken-and-egg parody with introducing and supporting a revolutionary new product, for the inventor and the manufacturer, respectively. A good example was the BTX specification. Thankfully, this does not seem to be the case for the Wi-Fi draft committee and for manufacturers pumping out products of a new Wi-Fi specification.

In fact, it is more accurate to say that manufacturers are falling over themselves to support barely-established technologies like “pre-N” and “Wi-Fi N Ready” components when they came out of the labs. This is probably due more to market forces than anything, but the fact is, the chicken came first and now the “real” Draft-N specifications are now finalized and is in draft 2.0.

                                             Wi-Fi drafts avoided this argument entirely - well, almost.

In keeping with the parody, Edimax has introduced a slew of “eggs” in the form of a Wireless-N Router, PCI card, Cardbus and USB adapter with updated pricing into the Philippine market. These products form a complete solution for the regular consumer, giving them flexibility in terms of bringing a product, be it new or a bit outdated, into the Wireless-N fold.

The nMax BR-6504N Wireless Router, with an SRP of P5600, sports multiple antennas in support of advanced MIMO (Mutiple In Multiple Out) that boosts signal rate and range. A simple one-touch security feature called the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) adds on to the multitude of security options found on most routers, and up to 250+ users can be recognized with a single broadband connection.

                                              The nMax EW-7708PN Cardbus Adapter for your laptop.

An interesting feature is the detachable antenna of the router; this enables two add-ons that will boost range. Namely this is the high-gain antenna, and the EA-MARS, or the antenna relocator. These two optional components essentially frees up where you can place your Edimax router and makes configuring for the best coverage an easy task.

                                             The nMax EW-7718UN USB Adapter

Three other products, namely the nMax EW-7728IN PCI Adapter, the nMax EW-7708PN Cardbus Adapter, and the nMax EW-7718UN USB Adapter are basically receivers in three formats that mirror the router’s features in reverse. In other words, these receivers are all Wireless-N compliant, supports Advanced MIMO through multiple antennas (internal ones in the case of the Cardbus and USB adapters) and has the same easy configurability through the WPS feature.

                                              The nMax EW-7728IN PCI Adapter

The three receivers all retail for P2900 each, so all that remains is to make sure of the available connection or port on your machine for you to get on with Wireless-N surfing at a theoretical 300Mbps. At least until the next Wi-Fi Draft chicken clucks along. By then we can expect Edimax with new Networking products for us.