Thinking of upgrading your home or office wireless network and wanting more range and speed? If you thought wireless G and Super G were good, be prepared to be startled by N. Follow along as we unbox, set up, and test the economical and stylish Trendnet wireless N router.
| Packaging and Presentation | Rating  |
The product came in a shiny box that proved to be a liner over an OEM cardboard box. The box was sturdy and the components were nestled in paper-mache-like egg-crate material. The router had transparent plastic applied to each side for protection. An Ethernet cable, a brief User's Guide in French (first) and then English, an end-plug power adapter, as well as the driver CD were included. No parts were missing or damaged.
| Fit, Finish, and Design | Rating  |
The router proved to be a shiny, piano black fingerprint magnet. That seems to be par for the course in today's products. A snap-on base was included if you want to stand the router upright. Conveniently, the router also has four rubber feet in case you want it to sit horizontally.
Fit and finish were excellent. Trendnet did a great job of hiding the assembly fasteners.
Design is very straightforward. A "WLAN On-Off" switch is located under the "nose" end if the unit is upright. This shuts down the wireless network without affecting the local Ethernet connections. A "WPS" or "Wi-Fi Protected Setup" button is also provided. We did not test this as we did a mixed manual and wizard setup and did not need it. However, in theory, it should make creating a home network easier - if the client adapters also support it.
On the back of the router are four Gigabit Ethernet ports that can take cross-over Ethernet cables as well as standard cables. This is where the LAN connection to the modem is made, as well as where the power adapter plugs in. A reset switch is also provided in this area.
I would have preferred to find antenna connectors rather than the fixed masts provided, but this is an economical router intended for in-home use. Some nice touches are simply not needed for the majority of users.
| Software Installation | Rating |
The User's Guide simply steps through the set-up program's screens. (The more comprehensive manual is on the CD in the "Manual" subdirectory.) The installer is labeled "Easy GO Setup," although later screens are credited to "Network Magic Technology."
It first advises you to collect all the needed components...
And then the installer looks for the Internet connection. (At this point, you should have the modem plugged directly into the PC.)
Here's where I ran into a problem. The installer correctly detected that my ADSL+ modem, a BellSouth/AT&T Motorola 2210-10, is also a router. However, it then gave me two options, neither of which I wanted. One was to use the 633GR to replace the Motorola. The second was to add the 633GR "behind" the Motorola and use them both.
To make a long story short, I discovered that the Motorola modem can be used as a router. Since it only has one Ethernet port, however, that didn't make much sense to me. Happily, it can be switched over to a "Bridged Ethernet" mode, and then the Trendnet wizard will find it as a regular modem.
I also wrote about that, so if you need help with a Motorola 2210-10 (BellSouth version only, as the setup menus are different in other AT&T service areas), please see Trendnet TEW 633GR Router vs. AT&T/Bellsouth Motorola 2210 Modem.
Assuming that your cable or DSL modem will be detected as a modem (and not as a router), the installer next guides you through the steps of hooking up and configuring the router. Along the way, you'll be specifying a password to access the router, a (hopefully strong) password for accessing the wireless network, a name for your new network, deciding whether or not to broadcast the SSID (network name), and a choice of network security - WEP or WPA. WPA is preferred unless you need to connect older hardware.
On the other hand, if your equipment is all very recent and capable of draft N connections, you can go into the modem settings (as is well described in the manual on the CD) and turn off mixed environment mode. This refers to the router providing a mix of A, G, and N connections. A slight performance benefit will be provided by specifying N only.
At this point, the installer program sends the programming to the router. It warns that "This may take a moment." Actually, it may take several minutes. When you see the activity light on your modem flash, the router setup is almost half over.
The installer also offers to install a trial version of Network Magic, a home network manager by Pure Networks.
Next: Wireless Performance, Testing Method, Testing Results, and Conclusion