Customer Reviews

TRENDnet Wireless N Gaming Adapter TEW-647GA (Black)

5 star:		(104)
4 star:		(62)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

Length:: 1:09 Mins

First off, I had been keeping my eye out for a cheap alternative to the 360's wireless adapter for sometime now, and when I saw this unit as apart of Amazon's lightning deals for $30 I couldn't pass that up.

Before buying this unit, I was sure to peruse for reviews to see other peoples' luck with the item and was left a bit confused on how the product would perform. After playing around with the various settings and getting it to work, I want to just clear the confusion on how this will perform. Also, I have a Bachelors in Computer Networking, not that that means anything, but I have had a good bit of experience playing around with different routers/switches and while reading through the reviews I was left baffled by the varying contradicting opinions of the product.***On a side-note, these types of At Home networking devices are aimed at ease-of-use and my experience had very little effect on how much more/less difficulty I had getting the product to work other than enabling me to filter out the weaker/inane reviews of the product.

Let me clear up the marketing confusion first. This item is a Wireless adapter. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO CONNECT VARIOUS ITEMS WITH AN ETHERNET JACK TO YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK. That means if you have a desktop with an ethernet jack in the back that you would like to be able to hook up to your WIFI without stringing it to your router, this will work. For the "gamer's" that for some reason this item is targeting(most likely the xbox 360 owners), this item works flawlessly and comes strongly suggested given a few caveats(i.e a bit more cumbersome than Microsoft's options Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter A/B/G Networks Only,Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter A/B/G & N Networks given that it has to be plugged into an electrical outlet).

I'll try to give you guys a step-by-step run through of how the configuration process worked for me.

First, I plugged it into an outlet and connected an ethernet cable from my PC to the unit(for the non-techies out there, this should work the same regardless of the Operating System you're on).

Second, I popped in the CD that came included and loaded the router setup software off of the CD. This step was a breeze given that there was no installation of anything onto your computer, as other reviewers had falsely alluded to.

Once in the router setup software, I did run into a few odd hiccups that slowed the overall process. The software was able to find the device right away and I was off and running setting up the unit, although almost every time I hit OK or Next through the prompts, I was returned with something like "Error, the changes were not made" though they were... Other than that, the setup was pretty quick and painless and should be no problem to those that dread anything techie like many of those in my family, given that they read the manual and follow the instructions. And once you have it setup to your wireless network, it'll pretty much connect any of your devices that has Ethernet port to your wireless without having to run through the setup process again. All the settings are saved so you can just move the unit anywhere. As long as you don't tweak anything in your router, this unit should be able to be unplugged and moved around as much as you like and still connect you every time.
**My issues with the strange contradictory error messages were solved once I upgraded to the latest firmware

As for performance, this unit has worked flawlessly for my needs. I was playing Left 4 Dead 2 and a few other games through it and had no significant lag or difference between playing through this unit over playing it hooked up to my router with an ethernet cord. I also tried streaming a few movies from my PC, and again, it worked flawlessly while I fast forwarded/backward and skipped chapters. Though I have yet to try streaming anything HD from services like Netflix, I don't imagine anyone would have any problems given the much more than sufficient bandwidth that this router provides as long as you have a capable internet connection from your Internet Service Provider. I also unplugged my computer from the router and plugged it into this unit just for kicks and, unsurprisingly, it works just as it should.

The device itself is surprisingly small and sleek, though it is a bit of a finger-print magnet. Something of note too, is at the top of the router lies a Wifi Protected Setup button(WPS) that I'm guessing would make the process even easier by eliminating the need for the PC setup process if your router has support for it, mine did not so I can't comment on that.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this product to anyone looking for a cheap way to connect their devices up to their wireless network. Even if I hadn't gotten it on Amazon's sale, knowing what I know now about it, I would gladly by this unit again. That's my 2 cents anyways and I hoped it helped.

Like the review by R. Neal, I had some issues getting the 647GA running at N speeds. Not content to just dump it and get the Microsoft product, I did some trial and error to figure out if I could remedy the problems. Through a decent amount of troubleshooting I was able to get it running at 240-270mpbs compared to the 30-80mbps that it started out with. This involves changing a lot of settings on the 647GA and your wireless router which may interfere with some of your existing wireless devices. I have 5 802.11G and 3 802.11N devices and none of the changes I made affected them, but if you have older equipment you may have problems. By proxy by making these changes all of my wireless gear is now running faster. Hopefully these steps will help you as they did me! Also I am assuming that you have a 802.11N router.

Now, forget the WPS configuration. For my unit, it resulted in low speeds and I wasn't able to get into the configuration settings via the web interface. If you have connected using this option, locate the reset button on the bottom of the unit and hold it down for appox. 30 seconds. Now connect the 647GA to your computer via the LAN cable and then power it up. Insert the setup CD, open it and click Setup Wizard. Agree to the License Agreement and follow the instructions. Once the software finds the unit click 647GA and click Configure. Leave the password blank and click Login. Set the password (if needed) and click Change. Click the radio button next to Manual Setup and click Next. Click Dynamic IP Address Configuration and click Configure. Click Site Survey and select your wireless network, then click Select. When the window closes click Next. Enter your wireless network key and click Next. Apply the settings. Once this is done, disconnect the 647GA from your computer.

Reconnect your computer to your router and bring up the web configuration page of your wireless router. Depending on your unit it may be a number of different addresses; i.e. 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.10 etc. Look at the documentation of your router to determine this. Now access the wireless settings. There should be a number of options to change the wireless network name (also called SSID), transmit speed or rate, wireless mode, wireless channel, channel width and visibility status etc. You are going to want to make the following changes:

Wireless Channel: Auto (if this is not an option, select channel 11 to get some distance between you and other wireless routers in your neighborhood).
Transmission Rate: Automatic or Best
Channel Width: 20/40 or Auto 20/40

Now find and access the wireless security settings and make the following changes:

Security Mode: WPA-Personal
WPA Mode: WPA2 Only
Cipher Type: AES Only

Now reboot your router by either unplugging it or rebooting it through the software. Once it has restarted, locate the IP address of the 647GA in your router's information page. Also try to find a page that lists all of your wireless clients and the speeds that they connect at. For D-Link products it is listed under Status, then Wireless.

Now that you have the IP address of the 647GA, enter it into your web browser to access the interface. Enter the username and password that you created during the setup process (if you did). Click Wireless on the right hand side and click the radio button next to the Active Wireless Profile. Click Edit. When the window opens, make the following changes:

Security Policy: WPA2-Personal
WPA Algorithms: AES

Click Apply and let the window close by itself. On the main configuration page, select Wireless again and click Advance. Make the following changes:

Wireless Mode(Infra): 2.4GHz 802.11 n only
Channel Bandwidth: 20/40

Click Apply and let the settings save.

Now that you have all the IP settings, we need to update the firmware. For me this helped a great deal of the problems I was experiencing.

Go to the TRENDnet website (trendnet(dot)com). On the top, click Downloads, then Download by Product. Click the pull down bar on Select Products and locate TEW-647GA. Click Go. Click V2.0R. Find the latest dated firmware (you can tell by the date) and click Firmware on the left hand column. Click Continue with Download and save the file to your computer. Make sure you remember the location. Once done, unzip the TEW-647GA_v1.0.1.29 file to your desktop. Now start your internet browser and enter the IP of the 647GA. Enter the username that you set up or use admin with no password as the default. Under Administration select Upgrade Firmware. Click Browse and locate the file that you unzipped to your desktop. Once done click Apply and let the process go. After a short time the new Firmware will be updated and the unit will restart.

Now unplug the unit and hook it up to your Xbox, PS3 etc. Go back to your wireless router and reboot it again. Once it is up, login to the configuration page. Find the wireless connections page (if available) and look at the connection speed of your devices. The 647GA should have a significant increase in mbps as well as your other devices (802.11G will stay relatively the same, they max out at 54 mbps.). I can now play Xbox games with little to no lag and full connectivity bars. Netflix and streaming from my computer are seamless. My 647GA connected at 243 mbps at appox. 62% signal with my router a floor above me. 802.11N is very dependent on the distance from the wireless client to the router, so your results may differ. Either way using the settings above will result in an increase of speed.

As a side note, one of the reviews noted that his router reported the 647GA connected at 802.11G mode when he set it up using the CD. This is because the 647GA connects to the router using WPA and TKIP. Changing this setting (as above) to WPA2 and AES changes forces the change to 802.11N. Also for true 802.11N speed, your router needs to be set to 20/40 MhZ. Routers come configured to 20MhZ for legacy device support, and most people never change this because they just don't know. I hope this guide works for you and congratulate yourself on giving your business to a small(er) company rather than the giant conglomerate that is Microsoft!

I purchased this for one reason, it was an "N" band adapter that could be used on the XBox 360 and was less expensive than the Microsoft "N" adapter. I was, oh, so looking that the Trendnet adapter would work well given it's price point. I wanted "N" band as I'm looking to use my XBox to stream music and videos in addition to playing games. If that's your goal skip this adapter and get the Microsoft N adapter, sure you'll spend a few more dollars but, as they say, you get what you pay for.

I have now been able to do side-by-side comparison on these two and can provide a summary of my experience. For full disclosure I'm using D-Link DIR-655 router with my set-up.

First, the good on this adapter:

- It will work on the XBox 360 (note comments below on performance, or lack thereof)
- It looks good with status lights to show connectivity
- It costs less than Microsoft's "N" band adapter


However, let's look at the not so good aspects of this adapter:

- Your connection rate will be MUCH less than if you used the Microsoft N adapter. With the Trendnet adapter my connection speed (as measured by the XBox network test) was just barely passable for TV. With the Microsoft's adapter I registered a full connection on the graph, now suitable for TV as well as HDTV! I also used my router's administrative status to get the actual hard reading, a 70-90 rate for Trendnet, 220-240 for Microsoft's adapter, that's a HUGE difference.

- You may need to make some changes to your router, I did. I had my router set for AES "Cipher Type", by default the Trendnet required "TKIP". I made change to my router, but later found I could login to the adapter's administrative set-up and change this - however this is not an option when you go into the configuration screen the first time so you have to change your router to support TKIP. Time spent debugging the problem with Trendnet adapter 15 minutes, no time required with Microsoft's adapter.

- You will need to set-up the Trendnet adapter using your PC, first installing the adapter set-up software, then configuring the adapter. I have 20 years of PC experience and given my set-up it was not as straight forward as I would have liked. I continued to run into problems where my IP address for the adapter wouldn't show up in on my router status screen (it showed as 0.0.0.0 - that's not right). I had to reset my router to get the IP address to show up. I found that I had to do this several other times over several days as it would revert to 0.0.0.0. I called Trendnet, they connected into my router remotely, they had no answers or suggestions. By comparison, I plugged in the Microsoft adapter to my XBox 360, selected my wireless network and entered my WPA password. Time spent setting up and debugging the Trendnet was 30 minutes, time with Trendnet Tech another 30 minutes. Using Microsoft's adapter was about 1 minute.

- The Trendnet is advertised as "N" band, however my router only recognized it as "802.11g"("G" band only). All other "N" band adapters on my system (3 others, now 4 including Microsoft's) all register as "802.11n (2.4GHz)". I asked Trendnet's tech support why this would not show as "N". I found their response to be quite interesting. Per the tech support, they tested the speed in their lab and achieved "N" band speeds, they therefore classified this as "N" band. This seems strange that they make their designation based on speed and this is not recognized as "N" band by my router, nor is speed anywhere near the "N" dual band that Microsoft's adapter provides. As noted above, Microsoft's adapter is properly recognized as "802.11n (2.4GHz)".

- You'll also need to have an additional A/C plug for the Trendnet adapter. With Microsoft's adapter it's powered by your XBox only.


My conclusion:

If you are looking for an adapter for gaming only (no streaming of music or videos), then this may be an adapter to look at.

If you are buying this to stream music and videos on network devices, based on my experience with sub-par network speeds (and not registering as an "N" band adapter), I'd look at other adapters.

If you are looking to use on XBox 360, go with Microsoft's product, you'll save yourself a lot of time and frustration, will easily justify the additional $$ to get Microsoft's "N" band adapter.

Note: The unit that I used for my review was the latest hardware and firmware offered by Trendnet (HW v2.0R with FW v1.01.22). As noted above, I, like other reviews, was able to connect my XBox 360 to the network wirelessly with this adapter. What I was lacking was performance. For basic gaming the low throughput that I found with this adapter won't matter. What I've failed to see in other review is their actual throughput speed. If you are streaming video you'll want a high throughput. Trendnet didn't provide that, my experience was the rate was about 1/3 the rate that Microsoft's "N" adapter provided. I had high hopes this would meet my networking needs, just unfortunately fell a bit short of target for me.

After suffering for many months trying to stream DLNA content over a 54G network to my PS3, I stumbled across the Trendnet Wireless Gaming adapter. The price is great and when I received it from Amazon, I was pleasantly surprised that it was far smaller than I expected. It's about the size of a wallet and hides next to the PS3 really well. I was a little disappointed to find that the setup required a direct connect to a PC, running a CD-ROM based setup program. There is a ROM based interface built into the adapter (which wasn't really detailed in the documentation), but you have to run this setup first. (Some of the documentation and specifications are a bit vague; for example, I still want to know if the Ethernet port is 100 or 1000 Full) Within very little time however, I was up and running. The good part: it's really fast! All of the delays I'd been experiencing before, with Cat5e cabling or 54G wireless, were gone. Streaming directly from Netflix works flawlessly, and streaming from my PC running PlayOn worked so much better. I am connecting it to my Belkin 802.11n Network + router. It didn't take long, however, to discover one big issue though. Between uses, the adapter would drop off the wireless network. Didn't matter if I left the PS3 on or turned it off. I tried setting a static IP address on the PS3 with no improvement. Each time, the only thing that worked was to disconnect and reconnect the power to the adapter, resetting it. The PS3's DHCP request would then be passed and everything would be fine, until the next time (usually the next day). Not finding anything on the Internet, I tried a variety of settings until I found one combination that worked. I had to access the Trendnet adapters interface from a PC on the wireless network via browser, whatever it get assigned by the router, something like http://192.168.2.8. I disabled MMS- basically the Quality of Service option, and I changed the Channel Bandwidth from 20 to 20/40. Now, it stays on the network for days and works flawlessly. I'm very happy with the product now that that issue has been resolved. I'm assuming the issue was a result of a minor incompatibility between the adapter and my Belkin 802.11n draft router running on 2.4Ghz only, especially since most people seem to be having great luck with theirs. If you experience the same issue, give these settings a try.

I recently bought a sony Blu-Ray DVD player Sony BDP-N460 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) as a part of package with an LCD HT tv. Although the Blu-Ray player claims you can watch streaming video content on it. It is missing an integrated WI-FI and a USB drive to buffer the content. These have to be purchased separately.

To connect the BDP-N460 to a network would be easy if you have an existing wired network in the vicinity of your DVD player. Any lack thereof you would need to get an ethernet bridge or a Gaming adapter to talk to your wireless router.

Sony recommends Linksys WET610N Wi-Fi bridge (which i am sure is a fine product albeit being more expensive).
Hence I bought the more affordable TRENDNET Wireless N Gaming Adapter TRENDnet Wireless N Gaming Adapter-Black (TEW-647GA) (V1.0R) (Version 1.0R).

This product is surprisingly small in size and slim in aesthetics. Can easily be hidden in your media cabinet.

Set is very easy. If your WI-FI network has a straight forward configuration. TRENDnet Wireless N Gaming Adapter-Black (TEW-647GA) (V1.0R) has a simple set up button on top.

However, if your WI-FI configuration is more complicated, TEW-647GA ships with a setup CD/DVD, that will take you through a few easy steps to get TRENDnet Wireless N Gaming Adapter-Black (TEW-647GA) (V1.0R) configured for your secure settings.

It took me less than 2 minutes to get it first configured on my laptop and connect it to the BDP-N460 blue-ray player. I was able to watch streaming Netflix movies in HD in no time. The steam rate was so good it played like a DVD.

Am sure it is a great delight for Gamers as well. In case you need to share this with other devices in your entertainment array. use a network switch between your devices and TRENDnet Wireless N Gaming Adapter-Black (TEW-647GA) (V1.0R).

In short a great product that gives you value for your money.

I bought this to connect to my blu-ray player as I didnt want to string network cable across the house. It was fairly easy to setup, just connect to your PC, insert the disc and it will walk you through the setup, even the WEP settings. Then unplug the network cable from the computer and connect to your player. Works great, I have streaming Amazon and have used the BD-live without a problem.

I had been trying unsuccessfully for quite some time to connect my airport extreme and my xbox 360 wirelessly. I first tried the xbox wireless adapter. That didn't come close to working. This Trendnet adapter was the answer.

For those that are interested, Trendnet's tech support walked me through the setup. They couldn't configure the adapter using a mac computer. Fortunately, I had a PC and on my network, and tech support patiently talked me through the configuration.

I had to plug the Trendnet adapter into the pc using an ethernet cable, and then use their setup software to configure the adapter. I then unplugged the adapter from the pc and connected it to my xbox 360, using the ethernet cable.

I now have a wireless "n" connection between my Airport Extreme and my xbox 360.

Five stars to Trendnet's tech support!

The only hiccup was that I had to use a pc to configure the adapter, but after that, it worked fine connected to a Mac Airport Extreme and a xbox 360.

Used this product to connect with Direct TV HD DVR. Has worked very well with my Airport Extreme. Much cheaper than Linksys adapter which Direct TV uses.

I ordered this with Free Super Saver Shipping and it came 4 days ahead of the estimated delivery date. It took about 15 minutes to do the manual setup. I just followed the instructions in the book. No problems at all. Would recommend to anyone looking for the alternative to the Microsoft adapter for the XBOX360. Just keep in mind that you need to plug it into a power outlet, unlike the Microsoft one.

This is a very nice device with just one drawback. It comes with a Windows only CD for configuring it. There are no instructions for configuring it for a Mac. I spent at least an hour with TENDnet's technical support before getting it to work. As it turns out, it's not very difficult. Here is what you need to do on a Mac.

Once you unplug the TEW-647FGA you will lose these settings. You may want to do this from a laptop so you can be near to the place where you will keep the device.

- Plug the network adapter into the Ethernet port of your computer.

If the IP address of your home network begins with 192, you may not need the following three steps.

- Open network preferences and select Ethernet on the left.

- In the Configure IPv4: menu select Manually

- In the IP Address: field enter 192.168.10.50 and press Apply. On the left, Ethernet should show Connected.

- Enter the address 192.168.10.110 into Safari.

- Enter admin as the user name and no password. Press the Log In button. This should connect to the adapter.

- Press the Wireless button.

- On the left, click on Site Survey.

- Select the radio button for your network and press the Connect button.

- Fill in the security information and press Apply.

You should be connected.