Meet the new Top 5

It was clear from CES that 2012 is going to be a year of many changes in home networking. To help you keep up with these changes, here's our list of the top five networking products currently available.

Without furthermore ado, these are our current top picks for networking devices as of May 2012. This list is sorted by the review date, starting with the most recently reviewed.

The router boasts a very robust Web interface

The router boasts a very robust Web interface and comes with a large number of features. For instance, it supports up to six guest networks and even has a built-in VPN server. For this reason, it's an excellent choice for both home and small-office environments. Read the full review of the Asus RT-N66U.

D-Link Amplifi HD Media Router 2000 DIR-827 The D-Link DIR-827 is the latest true dual-band Gigabit router with very good performance and a nice set of features. It's on this list because it's the first router that supports USB 3.0, and it as well comes with a customized QoS-based feature called HD Fuel that automatically prioritizes Internet bandwidth for gaming, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) apps, and HD streaming. Read the full review of the D-Link DIR-827.

The router supports true dual-band with the 450Mbps speed available on both bands. It as well comes with a much faster processor running at 1.2GHz, which offers excellent performance, especially for the built-in network storage feature. For the first time a router, when coupled with an external hard drive, is capable of offering storage throughput comparable to that of some dedicated NAS servers. The Linksys E4200v2's storage performance is about three or four times what you get from other routers with similar features.

The E4200v2

Together with the E4200v2, Cisco released the first version of its Cisco Connect Express app for managing a home network from a mobile device, just as aniPhone oriPad. Read the full review of the Cisco Linksys E4200v2.

Dong Ngo is a CNET editor who covers networking and storage. He as well writes about a variety of other topics, from online security to new gadgets and how innovation impacts the daily life of people around the world. Dong is so then- in several languages and tends to spend his free time traveling.