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If all you need is the ability to stream multimedia files to various players around the home, then this device is for you. The 4420 has a server that’s fully uPnP compliant, and boasts a feature you won’t find on the average NAS – the 4420’s integrated wi-fi capabilites enable you to set up an additional access point, or bridge any networking ‘gaps’ in larger homes.

To extend the physical ‘reach’ of a network to accommodate, for example, an internet-enabled bedroom TV, you can buy a pair of 4420s.

Supports the established 2.4GHz and newer 5GHz bands. High-speed ‘N’ is supported for claimed data transfer rates of up to 300Mbps.

The uPnP server works very well indeed. I plugged a large FAT32-formatted pen drive, containing a variety of categorised multimedia content, into the side-mounted USB port. All of the content – music, video and photos – was accessible to my array of multimedia players.

The supplied management software displays a diagrammatic representation of your network, including any 4420s. If one of these has a USB storage device attached, then you can open it up on your PC desktop just like a local hard drive. But transfers are ponderously slow. AirTies says it’s making a firmware update available.

Network Assistant, as this management system is known, is currently Windows-only, and the configuration interface is occasionally unresponsive. In addition, it’s pernickety about Windows workgroup names.

AirTies Air 4420-TV
Price: £90

Overall: 4/5