Testing
TEW-691GR is said to be a Gigabit router so I set out to find out just how fast can packets travel across the network. The Advanced Network Test has an instance of a “Server” running on a computer on side of the network, and an instance of “Client” running on the other side of the network. The data transmission rate between the two were 948.8 Mbps or .9488 Gbps. This value is perfectly acceptable given signal degradation.
Below you will find a graphical representation based on the speed/unit of time for the testing period of the 20 sec. Speeds over WiFi were dependent on the distance away from the router. While communicating to my laptop I was able to achieve a total of 79 Mbps at a distance of 10 ft away from the router. One of the main issues I ran into while testing for the WiFi is that the maximum throughput speed is highly dependent on the hardware. For the max speeds to be achieved triple antennas required. Most laptops, however, do not come with a triple antenna and therefore will not be able to achieve maximum performance.
Conclusion
The TEW-691GR form TRENDnet definitely packs all the features of the big boys. But does it pack enough features to match its $149 price? In short, yes. While most laptops on the TER-691GR’s network, will never be able to reach the blazing speeds of 450 Mbps, it has enough features to compensate for others’ lack of hardware. The menus are intuitive and need very little explanation and the unsuspecting user will be manage to set up the router and go online without ever touching the any of the Advanced menus.
Features that we liked:
- Multiple SSIDs
- QOS
- Multpile Security Modes
Could use:
- USB port for networked storage
