Hardware Review
Trendnet TEW-672GR
A lot of computer users now have multiple PCs in their homes. Naturally, most users network these computers to share data, stream audio and video files to their media centers as well as play network games. An efficient and reliable router is the key on maintaining good speed over your network. Tonight we'll take a look at Trendnet's new TEW-672GR wireless N router. We would like to thank the Trendnet team for making this review possible.
Click the image to see it full view...
Since the final release of the wireless N specifications, PC users now can gain up to 300mbps of speed over a wireless N network as well as further range. Here is a few specifications for the TEW-672GR.
Click the image to see it full view...
As you can see from the specifications above, the TEW-672GR supports gigabit transfers through the 4 Ethernet port. In order to transfer at gigabit speeds, you do need gigabit Ethernet cards in your desktop PCs to take advantage of the router's maximum network transfer speeds. Below are some screen captures of the TEW-672GR's setup menu.
Setting up the TEW-672GR is very easy. The setup menu is very self explanatory as well. It provides you a very good navigation on how to setup the router's network setting, wireless settings and security as well as administration settings.
The TEW-672GR sports three antennas, as well as a very bright activity lights on the front of the router. There's also a handy wireless LAN on/off switch just located on the left side. For this review, we tested the transfer’s speed of the TEW-672GR compared to a generic wireless G adapter and Trendnet's TEW-624UB wireless USB adapter. We tested the router's capabilities by transferring a 700MB file through our network connected to the TEW-672GR. And below are the results.
Click the image to see it full view...
You can see the increase performance of the 802.11N standard compared to the 802.11g connection. We weren't really surprised with the results. The Trendnet TEW-672GR delivers very good wireless performance as well as range. With the wireless N, we were able to go close to 140mbps connections, though we would've liked to have seen higher connections. We were able to get a working signal at about 100ft indoors with the TEW-672GR.
Audio and video stream were very good and lag wasn't an issue at all wirelessly. The Giagabit LAN is also very fast over the network, you do need gigabit ethernets on your PCs to take advantage of this feature. We were very satisfied with the connections we got, however we somewhat did want connections closer to the 200Mbps. But at 140Mbps, it was fast enough for our regular wireless use. We give the TEW-672GR a score of 8 out of 10.
Pros:
Upto 300Mbps with wireless N
Good wireless coverage
Gigabit LAN
Wireless on/off switch
Cons:
We were only able to get 140Mbps
Manufacturer Link:
