Valentine's Day Gift Guide 2011

8. Asus RT-N56U Dual-band Gigabit Wireless-N Router

These 15 hot gadgets set our hearts aflutter. We think at least one of them will do the same for your Valentine. Laptops, audio gear, storage and more.

$129

Is there anything less sexy than a wireless router? Well, I used to think the answer to that question was “nope,” but ever since getting my hands on Asus’ RT-N56U, I’ve changed my mind. This router is petite and easy to hide, but I actually want to display it, vertically or horizontally: the rippled, glossy black coating glitters and sparkles, especially when the blue LED indicator lights are blinking. This is the first router that’s ever made me say, “awwwwww.”

Five gigabit Ethernet ports and two USB ports mean your home networking gear will play very nicely (and fast) with this pretty box. The “dual band” moniker means you can surf the web on your laptop and check email from your smartphone using the 2.4GHz band, while your gaming console and streaming HD movies rely on the super-speedy 5GHz band—it all happens automatically. Standard power-user features like DoS firewalls and MAC filtering are included as well, as is the ability to use the router as a uPNP server.

Aside from blazing speeds and hot looks, my favorite thing about the RT-N56U is how easy it is to get going--with password protection, of course. Be safe, kids!