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"Excellent router that is now as inepensive as a decent G one" on by my oh my
Pros: Fast, long range, solid signal through walls and pipes
Cons: getting any N router right now means the N card will need to be the same brand as the router
Summary: I needed to replace my linksys wrt54g... the thing has almost no range-just across the room, it was maxing out at 4 bars out of 10 on the signal, but its more typical strength was 2-3. I researched about every router out there, from netgear's rangemax to Buffalo's airlinks to the more expensive Belkin Pre-N... once I got it narrowed down, price became the selling point, since once a rebate that was then at J&R (who got it to me in 2 days and emailed all the forms to me, too, to make sure I knew to send in the rebates if I wanted to!) went through, it was fifty bucks-the retailer rebates shift between one store and the next with trendnet-buy and newegg get them, too, so it is really just a matter of seeing who gets the superior $30 rebate for the month. Anyway, the range and signal on this is fantastic... I've had it set up for about 2.5 weeks and haven't lost a signal ONCE. That, for wireless in my pipe-laden, wood and plaster walled house, is incredible. I still use my linksys wmp54g card with it, but I'm planning on eventually getting the trendnet wireless card just to make the speeds scream. My bandwidth speed is, with this router, already twice what it was on the linksys wrt54g, and again, that's just using the G, not yet the N. The only difference for my setup is the router-all else is identical. The other computers also get a stellar signal through many walls, almost always at least very good, usually excellent. The unit is also cool (temperaturewise; routers aren't "cool" to me in other regards, LED lights or not), and the software is absolutely great-super simple to setup, tons of features available at the click of a mouse button, and good security options. Once I got it set up with all my needs (I limited it to G only, for example, since you can tell it b/g/n or any combination of them), it rebooted the router from the page I was on and there we were, full broadband speeds coming from our wireless connection, finally! I have no reservations recommending this product!
Just a quick update... My original review was August 28, 2007... I'd had the router about 2.5 weeks with no signal loss, nothing...
Updated on Feb 23, 2011
Now it's 2011. I still have this router. The big difference, apart from what it's sending wireless TO? FIOS... Fiber Internet is handled beautifully by this. You're truly only limited by the strength of your wireless cards/mobile gadgets (my N95--also an antique!--never loses its signal no matter where I am in my home, and that... that's pretty incredible; can't say the same for my iPod Touch, but that's where it's all about the OTHER device; still, when it does drop, it's not for long and I've always got my phone around). Figured since there were so many 1-review negatives, I'd chime in as an initial praiser of this and update in case anyone is still looking at this router. It's certainly a viable option and works on everything from Windows 2K to Win 7 to OSX (snow leopard) and Linux. -
"Simply awfull. This router is cheap for a reason." on by idlewanderlust
Pros: Cheap is it
Cons: too many to list here.
Summary: I don't really know where to begin on this router. I thought it was a steal for 89 bucks on newegg. Now I why. The range is laughable. I purchased this to replace my aging Linksys WRT54G router that I have had for over 2 yrs. After replacing the linksys and going through trendnets setup (which was hell) I finally got the router working and thought great now i have draft-N spec speeds and range to get full signal every room in my house. WRONG!! I have a bed room that is at most 100ft from the router and not so much as one signal bar from. The Linksys would give me full signal. Add to it the random shut downs and reboots the Trendnet router would do makes this the worst I have ever used.
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"fast, reliable and now affordable" on by die4you
Pros: pretty fast, excellent range, handles p2p fairly well
Cons: not near 300mbps, based on a draft spec, install not idiot proof, firmware update didnt worked
Summary: I replaced my old Dlink DI-524 with this draft-n router by trendnet, and I must say, I'm pretty satisfied. I used it at my home, 5 computers connected, 3 wirelessly, and 2 other wireless appliances (xbox 360 and a pair of wireless 802.11g cams)
I'm not the average user, i usually push my hardware to its limits. I have a dedicated machine for bittorrent, a Linux home server, my backups are all done to a centralized file server, and its all working flawlessly. Also, i constantly stream media content to xbox360 and my media center PC on my home theather, even HD content. I can get good speeds even with 3 big walls in front of it, and a fair distance. It's a workhorse, for sure. I went poking with the firewall and other stuff, but I didnt went far. Seems nice. Two things didnt worked out of the box: install CD, which depends on a working internet connection (and i use this router to authenticate to my dsl router by pppoe, so its impossible to get internet without first configuring the wireless router... stupid logic from trendnet, i must say). Also, firmware I downloaded from trendnet website didnt worked. I sent an email to their support and surprisingly, i got a response after 6 hours. And if didnt solved my problem, at least it isnt a machine generated answer. They told me my router hardware is V2.0 and the firmware in their website is for V1.0 only. I assume my firmware is the latest, from what I see, its only 2 months old. As a drawback, at least for those with Apples and other fancy hardware, this router is UGLY. But it works, I can work from every corner of my house with good connectivity, and its fast enough to perform wireless backups and HD content streaming. Its running for days now without a single 'random' reboot, like netgears and other troublesome hardware i owned previously. -
"Excellent and working fine even after almost 1 year" on by freakQNC
Pros: Good Firmware GUI and functionality
Gigabit switch
WirelessN
AP mode and Bridge mode supportCons: Parental Control
Web Filter to block sites, Currently allows only sites listed (denies the rest) should be modified to: allow all but those listed.
Schedulable", "per application" modifiable presets to block access to online games such as SecondLife.Summary: The rating of 4 stars rather than 5 is based solely on the shortcomings listed as Cons. plus some non major problems which could not mention on the Cons. section as it allows to post only 250 characters, such as:
As I advised to other users don't take the word of manufacturers on products. Allow yourself to test thoroughly for about a week and remember that many stores will accept returns if you are not satisfied with it. It's your right as a customer to be able to return a faulty or unsatisfying device. By law you have at least 7 days in many states (some 15 or may be more... check with your state/store), to return the unit or ask for a replacement one. Do not consider your purchase final right from the start. Hardware may fail or be defective, that's a fact of life. Also in your case Bob, when considering where you are using the device you may have interferences and obstacles that cause the range to be shortened, or some other electrical issues (like electrical power fluctuations for example) which may be affecting stability/performance. Some units are more tolerant than others. Mine is still working fine and connected for weeks with no reset needed. Good luck with your next unit! :)
a) the casing being an average quality (plastic like all other devices currently on the market),
b) the unit runs a bit hot and that may shorten its life and at the same time makes it unadvisable to stack it with other components such as modems, additional switches, etc.
The features, specs and capabilities are available on the product page at:
http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=145_TEW-633GR&cat=66#
In my experience it has been worth the expense, minor drawback is that it runs a bit hot and that may shorten life of components. It would have been great is an heat-sink or fan, or both have been added or if the case was metallic to help dissipate heat. Unfortunately that may have not been done to keep price low and profits high. Overall I'd recommend the hardware to anyone as long as the lack of web filtering and parental control features is not a deal-breaker for you. Hopefully this review will help you make a better informed decision about buying your next router.
Updated on Nov 23, 2009 -
"Worst router I have ever owned tech support is awful" on by ohoc
Pros: triple antenna's
Cons: very hard to deal with would never buy another one again
Summary: After a friend told me about the good things about trend net routers I decide to try one out. I bought the TEW-631BRP 300Mbps Wireless N Broadband Router. The product arrived at my home so I replaced my wireless g linksys I had. I hooked up the Trendnet product to 4 hardwire computers and 2 wireless ones. Only 3 of the hard wired computers would pull and ip address and the 2 wireless computers would not. After switching ports to see if one of the ports were bad I figured out that was not the problem. I promptly called the technical support #. After 3 hours with the level 1 guy and upgradeing the firm ware. He placed me on hold. While on hold I tried something myself and turned off the WLAN switch in the back. Low and behold the 4th hardwaire computer would pull an ip address. I told this to the technical support rep. He once again placed me on hold and had a so called supervisor to help me futher. SO after the Supervisor got on the line I explained to him every step we went trough. He had me set the router for 200 ip adress's (which it was already set to 100 address's) and give my computer a static ip adress. I did this and turned back on the WLAN switch. Once again my computer would not pull an IP address. This stumped the supervisor. He told me he would call back within 24 hrs after he did some research. (heh) 2 days later and 2 phone calls later he finally called back and tried some other fixes. Low and behold that also did not work. I was told that I would recieve a call from a level 3 technicain because they were the only ones that could send me out a new router due to the fact the supervisor beleived that with one was defective. That was 3 days ago. I still have not recieved a call yet. I went out and bought a dlink router just a basic wirelss N one I got for $29.00. OMG guess what all 6 of my computers were online and running 4 wired ones and 2 wireless ones. The only thing I am missing is the triple antenna's that the trendnet had. That and all my computers are working now. With that being said I guess I will never stray from the brands I know again.
Update Trendnet customer support just asked me to to take down my network and send them in the router for a replacement he said the total time I should be down is 12 buisness days. This is the absolute customer service I have ever dealt with. I was promised a call back from a level 3 techsuppoet and 5 days later no call. I have had better time with linksys, d link and belkin. At least they took my credit card info over the phone just incase I never sent back the bad product. That was not even an option with this company. Take My advice if you want a worry free router or a good technical support team get a LINKSYS or DLINK. If you want nothing but a headache go with a TRENDNET.
I hope people take this review in considersation before they buy a trendnet. Hey it could have been a bad router and other people may have great luck with theirs. I just hope they never have to deal with the technical support team.
Updated on May 5, 2009
Trendnet Wireless N-Draft Router user reviews
