One of the nice things about the latest generation of the 802.11 wireless specification (802.11n) is that there is a lot of headroom available in it before there is a need to move to a new generation. When 802.11n first hit the market it was limited to around 150Mbps. This was due to quite a few factors, most notable of these was the use of spatial streams (breaking the signal into separate streams and reassembling them in proper order at the far end. Once this was combined with MIMO (Multiple In Multiple Out) things really took off. Now we are hitting the upper edge of the 802.11n spectrum with the 450Mbps routers and adapters. This new line is getting up there and finally pushing the upper limits of what you can do with this latest revision of the 802.11 protocol. We have another one of TRENDNet’s 450Mbps wireless routers in the lab. This time it is the TEW-692GR a 450Mbps concurrent dual band gaming router with a price tag of around $135. So follow along as we find out if this is really worth your time and money.
The Box and Goodies -The box the TEW-692GR comes in is like any other TRENDNet box. That is not a bad thing (in fact they do have one of the better packages in the consumer networking market), it is just that we have seen these before. You get the typical product shot on the front with the name of the product in nice bold letters. Other items of interest are the Dual Band 450Mbps logo and the graph showing you where this product stands with others on the market (which you probably could guess).
The back of the box has two diagrams one of the TEW-692GR (complete with labels) and another showing you where one would fit into a home network. Below that are some related products (which the marketing people are hoping you will buy too). Inside the box is a tray of recycled material holding all of the goodies (and the TEW-692GR). As with most network devices the items that are included are utilitarian. You get a power cord, an Ethernet cable, a stand, a quick start guide, and a utilities DVD-ROM. Not fancy but everything you need to get going.
