Cisco Linksys E4200 v2 Maximum Performance Dual-Band N900

Linksys' E4200 v2 Maximum Performance Dual-Band N900 router ($200) does not look any different from the original E4200, which came to market at the beginning of this year. That's a good thing, too because the E4200 is perhaps the most stylish consumer router available. The difference between the E4200 v2 and the original are under the surface. A ratcheted-up processor, tweaked software and a flawless setup process makes the E4200 a router that delivers power to even the most technically clueless of users.

Make no mistake?it's expensive, at a list price of $200. That price should come down somewhat if purchasing through various online retailers. However, if you are looking for a router with speed only topped by Netgear's powerful N750 and N900 dual-band routers, and you want an even simpler setup and user experience than Netgear provides; the E4200 v2 is the router to choose.

Hardware Specs

The E4200 v2 is Cisco Linksys' first router to provide throughput of up to 450 Mbps on both the 2.4- and 5-GHz bands.? This is achieved by 3x3 spatial stream MIMO antenna arrays for both bands. Six internal antennas along with internal and external amplifiers help the router keep good throughput at range?although not as consistent as that of Netgear's N750 and N900 routers.

The E4200 v2 has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, and a USB port for connecting printers and external storage. The processor has been upgraded from 533 MHz from the previous E4200 to 1.2 Ghz which results in faster copy and file transferring to and from a connected USB storage device.

Check out How to Buy a Wireless Router

Setup

The setup process is fantastic: the best we've ever seen. Setup takes only a couple of minutes and does not require anything more than a computer with a working wireless adapter. You need no wired connection to get the E4200 v2 set up. During setup, I ensured the laptop I was using wasn't connected to the Internet via one of the many WLANs in proximity. The router sets up SSIDs, security and other preliminary configurations. Not only that, but after configuring, my laptop was connected to the newly created wireless network without requiring me to do anything. ?

By default, the router gives both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands the same SSID. This way, wireless devices will typically select the most appropriate band, which is fine for those who don't want to deal with the underbelly of networking. I prefer to distinguish the 5 GHz band by denoting it as "<SSIDname>-5" because this makes it easier for me to select which devices should access which band for myself. For more on which of the most popular wireless devices connected to which bands, check out The Wi-Fi You Need For The Gadgets You Want.

The features are the same as in latest E-series routers. You can read the full description of features in the Cisco Linksys E3200 review. The Cisco Connect software is a user-friendly interface for setting up parental controls, guest networking and other tasks. The only management you can't do it from it is work with devices connected to the USB port. That has to be done through the advanced settings interface.

Testing and Performance

The E4200 v2 is a speedy performer, only bested by Netgear's latest dual-bands. I was a bit disappointed with the range?throughput dropped 7 percent as I moved from 5 to 30 feet?just a little more than the E3200's which has a drop of only 4 percent. You are still getting excellent throughput at longer distances, however, so this is not a big issue.

Other than the range, my only other issue is how hot a portion of the bottom of the router got after leaving it up for a day and half. There are air vents at the bottom and running underneath the lip of the top chassis, so the hardware should be protected. The hottest part was a plastic strip running underneath the bottom with information like the serial number printed on it. Hopefully there is nothing important hardware-wise under that strip.

File copy performance to and from an attached storage device has greatly improved over older E-series routers with the same capability. ?Uploading a 1.5 GB file to an attached 250 GB USB external drive clocked 7.7 Mbps over 5 GHz. Download speed was an impressive 13 Mbps. This is better performance than copying a file with the Cisco Linksys E3000, which only managed 6.25 Mbps download. The improvement is due to the buffed-up processor in the E4200 v2. The USB can support a printer or serve as a connection for external storage to serve light network-attached storage needs.

Here are the throughput benchmarks at 2.4 GHz in Mixed mode, channel width set to "Auto 20/40 MHz" encryption set to WPA2/WPA compared to other dual-band routers:

Here are the throughput numbers at 5 GHz, 802.11n-only mode, with channel width set to 40 MHz and ecryption set to WPA2 Personal:

Our Favorite Dual-Band Router

The E4200 v2 is our new Editors' Choice for dual-band routers. While Netgear had faster throughput with the N750 and N900, the E4200 v2 also has excellent throughput and its setup process and software can't be beat. This is a future-proof router with support for IPv6 and is an excellent choice for the home with lots of data demand and lots of wireless gadgets whose users don't want any hassle with setup and maintenance.

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APNewsBreak: 10,000 US troops leave Afghanistan (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama's order to withdraw 10,000 American troops from Afghanistan this year has been accomplished, a little more than a week before the year-end deadline, military officials said Thursday.

The drawdown is the first step in the plan to wind down the war, transition security to Afghan forces and end the combat role for international troops by the end of 2014.

It also gives the Obama administration a second war-related accomplishment to tout this month ? coming just a week after U.S. officials marked the end of the war in Iraq and the last convoy of American soldiers rumbled out of that country into Kuwait.

Officials say there are now 91,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan ? down from the peak of 101,000 in June.

In December 2009 Obama announced he was sending an additional 33,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan in a bid to beat back the escalating Taliban insurgency and change the course of the war. Six months ago, declaring that the "tide of war is receding," Obama said he would withdraw 10,000 troops by the end of this year, and another 23,000 by the end of next summer.

The decision was met with initial opposition from military leaders who thought the withdrawal was too much, too soon, particularly since it would pull troops out before the end of next year's fighting season, which can last well into October and even November.

Last week, however, during a trip to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta repeatedly told troops that the U.S. had reached a turning point in the war. And at one point he went so far as to say, "I really think that for all the sacrifices that you're doing, the reality is that it is paying off and that we're moving in the right direction. ... We're winning this very tough conflict here in Afghanistan."

Contrasting that assessment is the ongoing violence in Afghanistan's east, along the Pakistan border, and the high-profile attacks and assassinations that continue to wreak havoc in and around Kabul. The violence is compounded by worries about government corruption, the fragile economy, and fears that Afghan forces won't be ready to take over security of the country as American and NATO troops leave.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_afghanistan

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Italy seeking women with French breast implants

Dr. Maurice Mimoun, a plastic surgeon at the St Louis hospital, holds silicone gel breast implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP, that he removed from a patient because of concerns that they are unsafe, Paris, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. French health authorities are considering whether to suggest that an estimated 30,000 women in France get their breast implants removed, amid warnings by leading doctors about risks of rupture and possible cancer risks. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Dr. Maurice Mimoun, a plastic surgeon at the St Louis hospital, holds silicone gel breast implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP, that he removed from a patient because of concerns that they are unsafe, Paris, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011. French health authorities are considering whether to suggest that an estimated 30,000 women in France get their breast implants removed, amid warnings by leading doctors about risks of rupture and possible cancer risks. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

ROME (AP) ? Italy's health ministry on Thursday asked hospitals to track down women who received silicone breast implants made by a suspect French company due to concerns the implants may be unsafe.

The ministry's health council also said the national health system would pay to have the Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP, implants removed if medical conditions required it, such as if they ruptured.

While saying there was no proof of any greater cancer risk among women with PIP implants, the council suggested that women with the implants contact their surgeons because there's a "greater probability of rupture and inflammatory reaction."

The council met Thursday in an emergency session on the eve of an expected decision by French health authorities over whether to recommend mass surgery for thousands of women who received PIP implants.

French investigators say the implants were made with cheap industrial silicone, not medical grade silicone, and that more than 1,000 women in France have had one or two implants burst. In addition, there have been eight cases of cancer among women with the implants, including one who died in November.

Italy's health ministry estimates that about 4,000-4,300 PIP devices have been implanted in women in Italy. From 2005 to today, some 24 ruptures have been reported.

Italy recalled the implants April 1, 2010, a day after French health authorities reported that they had suspended the sale, distribution and exportation of PIP implants after discovering that the vast majority were made with industrial silicone.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-12-22-EU-Italy-France-Implants/id-dfd816769bba426e8164d69d25e2b275

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Mayor Barrett, County Executive Abele announce bids for re-election

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele announced on Wednesday morning they plan to seek re-election in 2012. They also endorsed each others' campaigns.

Barrett was elected to mayor on April 6, 2004 and would be seeking a third term as Milwaukee's chief executive.

Abele won a special election in April 2011 to fill the remaining year of former County Executive Scott Walker?s term. Abele is seeking a full, four-year term.

The date of the spring election is April 3, 2012.

?

Source: http://bayview.fox6now.com/news/news/99534-mayor-barrett-county-executive-abele-announce-bids-re-election

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Hungary tech firm immortalizes Steve Jobs in bronze (Reuters)

BUDAPEST (Reuters) ? A Hungarian software company unveiled what it said was the world's first bronze statue of Apple Inc co-founder Steve Jobs Wednesday, calling him one of the greatest personalities of the modern age.

Jobs died on October 5 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56.

The bronze work by sculptor Erno Toth stands in the Budapest campus of architectural software maker Graphisoft.

"He was one of the greatest (personalities) in our era, that's what we wanted to express with this sculpture here," Graphisoft Chairman Gabor Bojar told Reuters.

Bojar said Jobs gave cash and computers to Graphisoft, helping it to become a global leader in architecture software from humble roots as a tiny firm in the 1980s in then-communist Hungary.

"In some ways, Apple was a religion," Bojar said at the unveiling ceremony, comparing the experts from Cupertino-based Apple who helped educate Graphisoft's engineers to evangelists.

Steve Jobs represented a technological revolution which can be compared only to the discovery of writing, Bojar said.

"We have felt his spirit every day and now it is embodied," he said. "We hope that we can deserve with our entrepreneurial culture in Hungary what this sculpture expresses as a message."

(Reporting by Sandor Peto, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/od_nm/us_hungary_jobs

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Buzz spurs early NYC release for Tilda Swinton movie (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - With Tilda Swinton having racked up Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her role in "We Need to Talk About Kevin," distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories has pushed up the New York City release date for the psychological thriller.

The film -- which is based on Lynne Ramsay's novel of the same name -- will now be released January 13 at two theaters in New York: the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and Angelika Film Center. A week later, it will hit the Arclight Hollywood Theater in Los Angeles.

The movie, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on May 12, had a one-week Oscar-qualifying run in the U.S. earlier this month.

"The film's attendance exceeded even our highest expectations," Oscilloscope Laboratories President David Fenkel said in a statement. "Theaters are excited to have a quality arthouse genre film to bring in younger audiences."

Swinton has already won multiple awards for her role in "Kevin," including best actress trophies from the National Board of Review, San Francisco Film Critics and British Independent Film Awards.

The movie also stars John C. Reilly.

Radiohead guitarist/keyboardist Jonny Greenwood composed the film's score.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_buzz_spurs_early_nyc_release_tilda_swinton_movie020909411/43978648/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/buzz-spurs-early-nyc-release-tilda-swinton-movie-020909411.html

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Fierce winds and snow snarl Great Plains travel

A deadly storm that halted travel throughout the Great Plains weakened Tuesday as it headed east into Missouri and toward the Great Lakes, and officials reopened interstates in areas where motorists had been forced to adjust holiday plans mid-trip.

Authorities still were reporting snow drifts of up to 10 feet high in southeast Colorado, and Texas officials warned drivers to stay off the road in the Panhandle so crews would have a clear path to remove ice and snow. Major highways in the western half of the Oklahoma Panhandle remained closed.

Still, officials reopened Interstate 40 in the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico, and portions of Interstate 70 in western Kansas that had been closed. New Mexico reopened a closed section of Interstate 25, the main highway from Santa Fe to the Colorado line after crews cleared drifts as high as 5 feet. The storm dumped as much as 15 inches of snow as it hit parts of five states.

At least 40 people were stranded at the Longhorn Motel on Main Street in Boise City, Okla., where manager Pedro Segovia said blowing snow had created drifts 2- and 3-feet high and closed the main road.

Video: Six dead as blizzard slams Southwest, Great Plains

"Some people cannot even get out of their houses. There is too much snow," Segovia said. "It's was blowing. We've got big piles. It's real bad."

Receptionist MaKenzee Grove sympathized with the 50 or so people stranded at the hotel where she works in Guymon, about 60 miles east of Boise City. She too spent Monday night there.

"I have this rinky-dink car that does not do well in this," Grove said. "If we wouldn't have had the wind, it wouldn't have been as bad. The winds ... made the drifts really bad."

A few guests traveling to Oklahoma City managed to leave Tuesday, but others would likely have to wait another night before all roads were clear, she said.

In Kansas, schools in Manhattan canceled classes Tuesday, anticipating several inches of snow. The National Weather Service reported later that 3 inches or less fell.

To the east, a cold rain pelted the Topeka area, turned into a mix of light sleet and snow without much accumulation and tapered off. Forecasters said the storm became less potent as it moved northeast toward the Great Lakes.

Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner said the patrol dealt with dozens of accidents in which motorists slid off highways Tuesday morning.

"We had ice-covered roads, covered by snow packed on top," he said.

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The late-autumn snowstorm lumbered into the region Monday, turning roads to ice and reducing visibility to zero. Many of the areas hit Monday had enjoyed relatively balmy 60-degree temperatures just 24 hours earlier.

The storm was blamed for at least six deaths Monday, authorities said. Four people were killed when their vehicle collided with a pickup truck in part of eastern New Mexico where blizzard-like conditions are rare, and a prison guard and inmate died when a prison van crashed on an icy road in eastern Colorado.

The Colorado Army National Guard said it rescued two stranded motorists early Tuesday in eastern Las Animas County, in the state's southeast corner, using a special vehicle designed to move on snow. Smaller highways in that area remained closed.

Video: Snowstorm threatens Southwest, Great Plains

Authorities were investigating whether severe weather played a role in the crash of a single-engine plane in eastern Texas Monday night. Five people, including two children, were killed.

Ernest Contreras, of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the crash happened Monday night just before 10 p.m. (11 p.m. ET) in a farming and ranching community in Brazos County. Everyone on the plane was killed.

Contreras said the flight originated in Atlanta, stopped in Jackson, Miss., and was headed for Waco, Texas, when it crashed.

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Contreras said the severe weather may have played a role in the crash, but authorities were still investigating.

Two adults, a two-year-old child and a teenager were found dead inside the plane, while another adult was found about 50 yards away, KBTX.com reported, citing Department of Public Safety troopers.

KBTX.com said the pilot had spoken to air traffic control at Forth Worth after getting into bad weather and was told to take a specific course, but flew in the opposite direction, according to the DPS.

"It's a pretty horrific scene over there," Sgt. Charles Booker told KBTX.com.

Meanwhile, weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said there was a chance of snow in the Northeast for the Christmas weekend.

"There are two possible scenarios for Christmas weekend in the Northeast," he said.

Erdman said an area including Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford, and Boston could see accumulations of snow, although also with a chance of rain.

However he said under the second scenario, the I-95 Boston-to-Washington corridor could get "predominantly rain."

___

Associated Press writers Jeri Clausing in Albuquerque, N.M.; Roxana Hegeman, in Wichita; Terry Wallace in Dallas; Juan Carlos Llorca in El Paso, Texas; Maria Fisher in Kansas City, Mo.; and Tim Talley in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45734726/ns/weather/

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