Customer Reviews

TRENDnet 300Mbps Wireless N Access Point TEW-638APB (Black)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Home networking can be a real pain especially for someone like me who knows enough to be dangerous but not enough to be a network installer. I have a wireless router burried in my basement that wasn't getting signal to my upstairs part of the house. I tried two other different products 1) two routers connected to each other and 2) a Hawking repeater. I ended up wasting a lot of time with them and they just didnt work or had compatibility issues. I took a plunge on the no brand trendnet based on this other positive review and he was 100% right. The price is 50% cheaper than the comparable Linksys N switch and does exactly as advertised. Setup took 5 minutes and I now have coverage all over my house. No issues so far.

UPDATE 07/02/10: Firmware fixes! v1.2.7 greatly improves the stability of this unit and now it performs flawlessly.

Original review:
I have had this AP for a few months now. It was not difficult to set up at all. When it works properly, I get decent speeds. However since this is a 2.4GHz access point don't expect channel bonding to work as well as in a 5GHz or dual band unit because the 2.4GHz band is basically overloaded. Also, this access point only comes with a 100BaseTX wired ethernet interface, so even if you got more than 100Mbps on the wireless side you're limited by the wired interface.

I also have it set up with WPA2, initially with WPA2-PSK and now with WPA2 enterprise using FreeRADIUS on pfsense for better security.

It does have multiple SSIDs but what is the point of that? It's not like you can segment it into VLANs or anything so this is a pointless feature. This would have been useful because I could keep one SSID open and put it on a DMZ on my firewall so I can give guests wifi access without opening up my whole network.

That said, my access point refuses to connect every ever so often. Completely random, but usually after I've completed some large file transfers over N wireless. It almost seems as though some buffers in the device are being saturated and the device just locks up. My laptop or iPod will attempt to associate then fail with no explanation, then magically come back after I power cycle the device.

I have not seen any firmware updates for it that would fix the issue so I think I'll just attempt to get warranty service for it or just get another access point like a Cisco.

Sometimes you can use a wireless adapter to get your device on your network. Sometimes your TV or Blu-ray player leaves you with no option other than a wired connection. This device allows you to put a switch or hub anywhere in a typical home or plug any network cable directly into it for a network connection.

Alternatively, two of these can tie remote areas of a network together wirelessly without having this emulate a wireless adapter. You can also use this by plugging it into your network in locations where wireless devices, such as laptops get weak signals. You could even have an individual laptop use this instead of its built in adapter if it has trouble picking up on your network from remote areas of your home.

You start off by connecting this device to a single computer so you can configure it. You can bring it up with a web browser, and bypass the need to install the configuration software on your PC. However, if its default IP address is out of the range of your subnet mask, you would have to manually assign an IP address and subnet mask to your computer, and set them back after configuration.

That method is a common way to configure similar devices. It can make things easy, or it might seem confusing enough to drive you away. If so, you merely use the software on the CD, which finds the device and walks you through the configuration without the problems above.

The way the modes of operations work could be explained better in the manuals, and there is an assumption that you already understand the related network concepts and types of wireless security. The method of configuration is not what you might be typically used to. There is some ambiguity in certain areas where it is not clear whether a field applies to the device or to the router you are connecting to.

It's pretty clear that they were not willing to hire the native English speakings consultant to maintenance of wording the screens. If you understood that last sentence, you should understand their configuration screens too.

In order to work with my network, I needed to set up a profile for the wireless network name used by my router. Once I got the security information in there, things worked like a charm. It also did a good job of finding other networks within range.

One day I found that my connection speed was not only fast, but far exceeded what my Internet provider gives me. After a little investigation, I found that at some point, this device connected to the network with the strongest signal, which was an unsecured router belonging to a neighbor. That left my network vulnerable since it had a non encrypted connection, plus security and firewalls assumed I had a secure wired connection. Their support group told me there is no way around that.

Since your devices plug into this (or a hub or switch that's plugged into this) they act as if they were any other wired devices. You do not see a WiFi icon in your system tray nor do you see a signal strength indicator. So there's no way of seeing what network you get a wireless connection to unless you look at what network this independent device got connected to. This would not be an issue if you use two of these devices to bridge wirelessly, but that should not have been necessary.

At some later point, I found that it tried to give a warning message before attempting to connect to a non-secure network, which is something their tech support group told me would not happen. I wish there were an explanation for why it connected to one on its own before without such a warning. You would never see the aforementioned warning unless you went to the device to try to figure out why you had no network connection. It would have been nice if they had something similar to what you have with a bi-directional printer where a status icon in your PC tray shows the state of the remote device.

If you have things set up, your router stays on and connected, and the device stays powered on, you can get excellent performance. If you lose the connection while you are updating your router's firmware, or for any other reason, I can't tell you what this device will do on its own in the interim. It still works well enough that I use it and it's the best practical alternative for me.

These are fairly easy to set up. Have only used them in bridge mode with a Trendnet router (but should work just as reliably with any make). I have just ordered my 3rd one for a new spot. They all work great and have been "Set And Forget" type products.

This access point is capable of wireless N network speeds of up to 300 Mbps, as advertised (I verified the speeds). In order to get these speeds, however, you must have the appropriate optimal settings for both your gateway and this access point. A quick google search will show the appropriate settings for things like the HT Physical Mode, MCS, etc.

The unit works well for my use, but since I don't have another unit to compare against, I can't say that it is better or worse than its competitors. It does have dual antennas which presumably improves its signal strength.

I am using this unit in bridge mode. The hardest part of the setup was finding the instructions. The general setup instructions assume that one is going to use it as an access point, presumably to add wireless access to a non-wireless router or to add N capability to an A, B, or G router. My only other complaint is that the unit has only a single ethernet port. To connect more than one piece of equipment, one has to use a switch, so the only advantage I see over a gaming adapter is the dual antennas.

Great product! It was easy to set up and works great! When I requested help setting security, the customer service reps helped and got me all set up.

The TRENDnet 450 Mbps Wireless N Access Point TEW-690AP (Black) is the best wireless access point I have ever used. It is the fastest access point I have ever seen. It gives me my full internet speed from my ISP. It is alway there and available for all my wieless devices. It is worth every penny I paid.

I received a Version V2 hardware, eventhough Amazon describes it as V1. Not sure what the different is with the versions. I set it up as a AP client to connect my LCD TV to the network and it worked as described. Just follow the instructions and run the setup from the CD. It is a simple procedure.
1) Hard wire this hardware to the router
2) Connect the power supply
3) Run the setup CD
4) Provide SSID and access password for the network
5) Finish setup
6) Disconnet the hardware and connect it to any device with an ethernet port (TV, desktop, Bluray etc)

$40 (thru gold box) looks pricey when compared to the price of routers, but then I couldnt find a cheaper AP hardware.

Update: But what good the 300Mbps device will do if the ethernet port is capable of only 10/100 Mbps. The device is usually as fast at the slowest port.

I had very little signal strength in a bedroom addition (from my phone company-provided DSL wireless b/g modem/router) due to distance and intervening walls, but I did have the foresight to have an ethernet cable run in there during construction. Putting this access point in with a switch to connect to the remainder of the network worked with just a little help from tech support. This application did require a manual setup. I might have been able to puzzle that out from the directions, but tried the automated setup first and experienced a failure to configure. Tech support was very knowledgable, helpful, friendly, etc--a pleasure to work with. The 150 Mbps AP is plenty for my 100 Mbps ethernet and has become the default connection point for other parts of the house as well due to speed and signal strength. This works great for me!