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Edimax CV-7438nDM N600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Bridge review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £50
inc VAT

Great Wi-Fi performance, and it lets you stream music from Airplay-compatible devices

The Edimax CV-7438nDM is a curiously shaped device that lets you connect up to two Ethernet-only devices, such as smart TVs, older Sky+ HD boxes and Blu-ray players, to your wireless network so that they can access the internet. Not only that, you can also use the CV-7438nDM to stream audio from Airplay-compatible devices to a set of speakers.

Edimax CV-7438nDM N600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Bridge

The Edimax CV-7438nDM is incredibly easy to set up, and you don’t even need a PC to configure it, just a tablet or smartphone. The CV-7438nDM can draw power from a spare USB port on your computer, Blu-ray player or some other device, or you can connect it to the mains via with a supplied plug adaptor. However, we found that the Ethernet connection to our test laptop kept cutting out when the CV-7438nDM was powered by USB but not when it was plugged into the mains.

Once switched on, you can connect to the Cv-7438nDM via Wi-Fi with your tablet, computer or smartphone and select the network to which you want to connect the CV-7438nDM in the device’s web interface. The CV-7438nDM scans the airwaves and lists all the wireless access points it has detected and displays them in two lists: one for those on the 2.4GHz band and one for those on the 5GHz band.

You’ll need to reboot the CV-7438nDM once it has connected to your router, and after that you can connect the CV-7438nDM to a computer, Blu-ray player or any other device with an Ethernet port so that it can access your network and the internet.

Edimax CV-7438nDM N600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Bridge

You won’t be able to connect to the CV-7438nDM wirelessly again after setup because it’ll work as a wireless bridge only, conveying data to and from the device to which it’s physically connected with an Ethernet cable. It is possible to access the CV-7438nDM’s web interface again so that you can make it connect to a different router or access point. However, we found we could only access the CV-7438nDM’s web interface using the computer to which it’s attached, unless we entered the CV-7438nDM’s IP address into a computer’s web browser rather than the configuration web address.

AIRPLAYER

With the CV-7438nDM you can turn any speaker with an auxiliary input into an Airplay compatible device. Connect the CV-7438nDM to your speakers via its 3.5mm audio output and from there you can select the CV-7438nDM in iOS as the device to which music should be streamed. Your iOS device needs to be connected to the same router as the CV-7438nDM, but if that’s your home router then it’s highly likely that it will be. You can also select the CV-7438nDM within iTunes and stream music from your PC or Mac. We found that there were occasional audio drop-outs when streaming to the CV-7438nDM, but our lab is heavily congested on both Wi-Fi bands, so it should perform near perfectly in a typical home environment.

It’s worth noting that Edimax recommends that Android users use the Twonky Beam app to stream music to the CV-7438nDM.

NOT JUST A QUIRKY FACE

As the CV-7438nDM is essentially a wireless adaptor, we connected it to our test laptop and configured it to communicate with our test PC via a Linksys EA-4500 wireless router on the 5GHz band. This test setup transferred data at 119.8Mbit/s at one metre, 114.8Mbit/s at 10 metres and 28.9Mbit/s at 25 metres. When we used our test laptop’s built-in Wi-Fi adaptor to perform the same test, the setup achieved transfer speeds of 76.3Mbit/s at one and 10 metres, and 21.7Mbit/s at 25 metres. This shows that the CV-7438nDM is capable of pretty good wireless performance.

Edimax CV-7438nDM N600 Dual-Band Wi-Fi Bridge

Although we’re unconvinced by the CV-7438nDM’s unconventional looks, it is a brilliant means of connecting Ethernet-only devices to your network, and the fact you can stream music to a pair of speakers from Airplay-compatible devices is a major bonus. If you’ve no interest in audio streaming and prefer something a little more discreet then you should consider buying the Netgear WNCE2001 instead. However, the WNCE2001 only works on the 2.4GHz band. We like both devices, but would be happy to pay more for the extra versatility and convenience provided by the Edimax CV-7438nDM.

Details

Price£50
Rating*****