Since I've been with TBCS I've had a lot of firsts, and covered a lot of new territory, both in modding and in technology in general. The most recent example was my much-delayed entry into the land of always-on broadband Internet. As always, it wasn't enough. To better utilize this endless tide of information I needed a way to share it with multiple devices simultaneously. Enter the Trendnet TEW-673GRU 300Mbps concurrent dual-band wireless router.
Before I start, let me be frank: as you may have picked up already, my previous wireless experience has been limited to changing the channel on my television and dialing my phone. I'm sure there will be a great many wireless gurus out there that read this review and wonder where all the tech data is. My answer: in another review. I really think that a huge point in favor of most technology, especially a device like this, is its usability by the layman. It's easy for us to forget that here in our ivory tower of technophiles. In this instance I found myself a layman. First, the tech specs for those who need them:
Hardware
Standards
*Wired: IEEE 802.3 (10Base-T), IEEE 802.3u (100Base-TX), IEEE 802.3ab (1000Base-TX)
*Wireless: IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n USB 2.0
WAN
1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Auto-MDIX port (Internet)
LAN
4 x 10/100/1000Mbps Auto-MDIX port
USB
2 x USB 2.0, 1.1 compliant USB type A port
WPS Button
Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) with other WPS compliant devices
Connection Type
Dynamic IP, Static (fixed) IP, PPPoE, PPTP
Router/ Firewall
Enable/disable firewall
NAT, SPI and DoS (block ping, port scan, sync flood)
MAC / Protocol/Domain filtering (deny or allow)
UPnP, DMZ, Static/Dynamic Route support
LCD
1.5” x 1.25” color LCD management interface with 4 control buttons
LCD display
Displays real time performance statistics (2.4GHz, 5GHz, wired switch ports, and Internet connection), device status (2.4GHz, 5GHz, wired switch ports, and Internet connection), management controls (router restart, factory reset, date/time, connected device information), WPS setup, and current PIN information
LED Indicator
Power
Power Adapter
2A external power adapter
Power Consumption
1200mA (max)
Dimension (L x W x H)
194 x 118 x 38.5 mm (7.6 x 4.6 x 1.5 in.)
Weight
365 g (12.8 oz)
Temperature
*Operation: 0°~ 40°C (32°F~ 104°F)
*Storage: -10°~ 70°C (14°F~158 °F)
Humidity
Max. 95% (non-condensing)
Certifications
CE, FCC
Wireless
Frequency
2.412 ~ 2.484GHz
5.180~5.240GHz / 5.745~5825GHz (a/n)
Antenna
2 x 3dBi detachable dipole antennas
Modulation
OFDM: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM
DBPSK, DQPSK, CCK
Data Rate
*802.11a: up to 54Mbps
*802.11b: up to 11Mbps
*802.11g: up to 54Mbps
*802.11n: up to 300Mbps
Security
64/128-bit WEP, WPA-PSK(TKIP)/WPA2-PSK(AES), WPA/WPA2-RADIUS
MAC/Protocol/Domain filter
QoS
WMM, uplink speed control, IP prioritization
Output Power
*802.11a: 14dBm (typical)
*802.11b: 15dBm (typical)
*802.11g: 15dBm (typical) 802.11n: 14dBm (typical) with HT20 or HT40
Receiving Sensitivity
*802.11a: -70dBm (typical) @ 54Mbps
*802.11b: -86dBm (typical) @ 11Mpbs
*802.11g: -71dBm (typical) @ 54Mbps
*802.11n: -64dBm (typical) with HT20 or HT40
Channels
2.4GHz: 1~11 (FCC), 1~13 (ETSI)
5GHz: Customer to select channels in compliance with respective local regulations
So bearing all that in mind (there will be a test), let's see how I fared.
The first thing I noticed about this router was its appearance. (I told you I was a layman.) It is very sleek, though larger than I had expected. Not overly cumbersome though, and its appearance is polished enough for me to display it with my other carefully-collected or built electronic gizmos.
My inexperience raised its head when I looked at the back of the router:
Wow, that's a lot of ports. I did something that really goes against my grain; I read the manual. Thankfully, the manual that came with the router was well above average, both in product quality and usefulness. To be honest, I was expecting to have to fumble with online documentation, but that was never necessary. Setup was literally as easy as plugging a cable from my cable modem to the router and a cable from the router to my PC. Follow the simple wizards included and suddenly I have data filling my home and spilling over to my neighbors' homes as well.
The beauty of the product only got better when I turned it on:
The on-screen menus are very useful, but I have to say the navigation is not very intuitive. Rather than moving a selected area up, down, right or left with the arrow keys, it moves as though reading a book: right arrow to the end of an option line, then right arrow again to move to the beginning of the next line. The up and down arrows are more "back" and "enter" keys, respectively. This took some time to figure out, and is not documented very well, but once I figured out the navigation method it was easy. Why in the world the design team at Trendnet didn't opt to go with two arrow keys and a Back and Enter key is just another of a very long list of "Why" questions I'll never know the answer to. So be it. Consider yourself forewarned.
So once I got the thing up and running, how does it perform? Again, this is not a highly-technical review, as I mentioned, but in real-world use this piece of hardware is very impressive. When I found that I had signal in my garage, which is as far away from the router as I can get in my house and separated by several walls, I questioned four of my neighbors, and three of them had a good enough signal to reliably piggyback on my ISP if they chose. Time to set up the security! This was also a breeze through the included wizard. As for my personal use, to test it to the maximum of my ability, I printed a 30-page pdf file on my wireless printer, while playing video from two different sources on two different laptops and streaming a Netflix movie on my console and never once saw a single issue with any of them. I have a reasonably fast data connection, but that is a lot of information to be traveling through this router simultaneously. Bravo, Trendnet.
On to the bad. The TEW-673GRU supports USB functionality, as you may have noticed from the image of the rear panel. However, the USB function is controlled from within Windows via proprietary Trendnet software, and each USB device on the network has to be manually "recognized" or assigned to a given machine before it's usable by that machine. If you have a USB hard drive and hope to access it from multiple computers, you can but you will have to manually choose the hard drive from one computer at a time, and while that one system is assigned to it, no others can access it. Seems like a waste of this product's tremendous data transfer capability.
Overall, from a new user's standpoint I am extremely impressed with the TEW-673GRU. If I had hoped to share anything USB-connected between machines I would not be so happy. Thankfully that was not on my agenda. Consider yourself forewarned again. The TEW-673GRU can be had on Newegg.com for $99.99 at the time of this writing, and for myself at least, given the product's ease of use and performance, that's a deal. The confusing nature of the control panel and the inexplicable execution of the USB connection are enough that I can't give it a perfect score, but with those items in mind, it is excellent at what it does.
This product was provided free of charge by it's manufacturer, for the purpose of review.
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