By Ki Grinsing

Overview

click for spec details

The prices of high-performance Wireless N router have already dropped since the introduction of new generation of wireless ac routers. If you’ve upgraded your wifi network with high speed dual band router from N600, N750 or N900 technology then it’s time you also upgrade your wireless client adapters to high speed as well. Especially if you have several multimedia devices such as Xbox, Blu-Ray, HDTV, etc. then it is better you use a wireless media bridge with multiport.

Trendnet TEW-680MB is one of popular wireless media bridge with multiple port.

What this product does

Almost all high speed TRENDnet adapters (including wireless gaming adapter, high speed USB adapter) including this TEW-680 bridges have the same model as seen in the picture, at a glance looks like a joystick.

Highlights

• Wireless N media bridge delivers high speed up to 450Mbps each band
• Includes four Gigabit Ethernet ports
• Advanced security with WPS support
• Eco-friendly technology

First dual band N900 media bridge

TRENDnet first released to the market the N900 wireless dual band router precedes other vendors; however in the end some of the other vendors’ products have richer features than the TRENDnet 692GR. One of the cons TRENDnet is the absence of USB port compared to other products that come with one or two USB ports.

Even so TRENDnet also released the wireless dual band media bridge TEW-680MB with N900 technology and also arguably the first N900 media bridge released in the market.

Includes 4 Gigabit ports

Compared to other wireless media bridge which only comes with a single Ethernet port, Tew-680mb TRENDnet has four gigabit Ethernet ports. it is very beneficial for those who have multiple Ethernet-based devices such as home theater and computers with gigabit NIC adapter.

Compare with Netgear WNCE3001 universal internet adapter dual band that has just one port only, certainly more favorable media bridge that has 4xgigabit port so it can be added device connecting as a wireless clients without having to buy a separate wifi adapter.

Networking diagram

Like normally what a wireless bridge does, you may connect up to four devices such as Blu-Ray player, XBOX, HDTV and more to the TEW-680MB and get them connected to the network wirelessly. The figure shows you wireless connection diagram that uses TEW-680MB and the TEW-692GR as the center of the wireless network in home.

The good thing with dual band is that you can use the 5GHz band clean network for high speed and high performance streaming high definition video and fast responsive online gaming instead of 2.4GHz band which is prone to interference.

Buffalo WLI-H4-D1300

The era of 5G wifi has come with the speed reaching the Gigabit wired adapter – the 802.11ac wireless standard (draft). If you think that the TEW-680MB is top speed a wireless bridge device ever made, think again. Buffalo introduces new dual band wireless bridge with four Gigabit ports and is based on this future wifi technology – wireless gigabit era. Buffalo offers this multi-port bridge in line with its 5G router – Buffalo WZR-D1800H wireless ac router.

More wireless ac products are coming to the shelves of the stores you may consider to upgrade your networking environment with this new 5G Wifi era.