By Ki Grinsing

Overview

I was wondering why Trendnet didn’t introduce wireless N750 dual band router, the router that can serve you different bandwidth in each band with up to 300mbps in 2.4GHz band and the other 5ghz band delivers up to 450mbps like its competitors Linksys, Netgear and Belkin. Finally I realize that Trendnet would like to be the first manufacturer that ships the fastest router delivering the high speed up to 450Mbps each band concurrently. It’s not a wireless N750 but the first wireless N900 router.

The competitors

Linksys launched the new E4200 N750 router series in January 2011 and shipped the router before Netgear did its WNDR4000 dual band N750 router into the market. Around April 2011, Belkin also shipped its new generation Belkin n750 DB router. After being showcased in CES 2011, Trendnet launched the first wireless dual band 450Mbps each band concurrently in Jun 2011.

What this Product Does

The TEW-692GR is the first router with the bandwidth up to 450Mbps in each band that works concurrently. Many of you are familiar with the N300, N450, N600 and N750 routers, but this one should be the first N900 (450Mbps + 450Mbps) router in the market.

WPS feature

In the past you would have difficulty in connecting the computer to the router using the Windows Connect Now (WCN) or connecting manually by selecting security parameters that frequently contributes mistakes in filling the columns field. For that WPS was introduced to simplify the connection securely with just a push of a button.

Like other new generation of wireless routers, the TEW-692GR supports Wireless Protected Setup (WPS) to help you connect the clients (with WPS enable) to the network by just pressing a button. It supports the strongest wireless security encryption up to WPA2-Radius.

Gigabit interfaces

Of course you expect that your router features the fastest wired connections besides the fastest wifi connection. For the current consumer needs the fastest wired speed is 1000Mbps alias Gigabit, 10 times much faster than the standard fast Ethernet. No worry the router is equipped with the features your expectations.

Multiple Guest Networks

This is interesting, the TEW-692GR supports up to four (4) virtual networks (SSID) each bands for totally eight SSIDs it can support. We know that Netgear supports guest network each band for totally four SSIDs. Linksys and Belkin support up to 3 SSIDs.

The drawback

Unfortunately, the router doesn’t support USB port to help you share storage or printer. Like its competitor Linksys E4200 and WNDR4000 that support the shared storage with built-in media server, with the absence of USB shared storage you need to manage the storage differently. This is the drawback side of this router so far.

Pros:

• Total bandwidth up to 900Mbps
• Gigabit LAN and WAN interfaces
• Up to 8 SSIDs

Cons:

• No USB port

Comparison

Even though we know that this router is ultimate speed, but it’s worth comparing with other N750 routers. The table shows a comparison table just main spec features for Tew-692Gr Vs Linksys E4200 Vs Wndr4000 N750 routers.

Networking solution

Following Trendnet with its TEW-692GR N900 router, Netgear also introduces WNDR4500 N900 router with two USB ports.

The figure shows networking diagram for TEW-692GR in home with multiple home theater devices. Linksys WES-610N is used to connect multiple devices as the wireless clients to the wireless N900 network.

click here for TEW-692GR manufacturer’s description and spec details.