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 TEW-692GR -The TEW-692GR looks like most of the other TRENDNet routers we have tinkered with in the past. It has something of a wedge shape to it with beveled edges on the front and an open back. When you first pull it out of the box it will be covered in plastic to protect it from scratches and fingerprints. Oddly enough it also ships with the antenna pre-attached (and non-removable) along the side instead of the normal removable ones along the back. Once you get the protective plastic off the surface of the TEW-692GR is sleek and glossy. The front has LEDs for everything; you get Power, Internet, four LAN LEDs and also two Wireless LEDs one for 2.4GHz and the other for the 5GHz channel. These last two have different colors to differentiate them (2.4GHz is green and 5GHz is blue).
The back is a little more normal with four GBe LAN ports and a single GBe WAN port. You see the large amount of dust? That is an after effect of the static from the plastic wrapping. I had just cleaned that before the picture and dust just seemed to fly towards it. Both sides of the TEW-692GR have decent sized vent holes for airflow. However, once you put this in the included stand the ones on the “bottom” get covers and air flow is a little more limited (but convection should still allow hot air to escape at the top).
As we have mentioned before the TEW-692GR is a dual band concurrent router. This means that it is capable of operating in both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time. This capability is great as it allows you to segment your wireless traffic internally into two different frequency bands and even channels if you have the right type of adapter. It is also a GREENnet product which is supposed to give it better power efficiency than many other off-the-shelf products.The technical specifications are shown below as copied from TRENDNet’s website.
Standards
LAN
4 x 10/100/1000Mbps Auto-MDIX port
WAN
1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Auto-MDIX port
WPS Button
Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) connects with other WPS compliant devices
LED Indicator
Power, LAN 1-4, WAN, 2.4GHz Wireless, 5Ghz Wireless, WPS
Power Adapter
12V DC, 1A external power adapter
Power Consumption
9.6 watts (max)
Dimension (L x W x H)
163 x 156 x 26 mm (6.4 x 6.1 x 1 in)
Weight
175g (6.2 oz)
Temperature
Humidity
Max. 90% (non-condensing)
Certifications
CE, FCC
Wireless
Frequency
Antenna
Modulation
OFDM: BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM DBPSK, DQPSK, CCK
Data Rate
Security
64/128-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2-PSK, WPA/WPA2-RADIUS
Output Power
Receiving Sensitivity
Channels
2.4GHz: 1~11 (FCC), 1~13 (ETSI) 5GHz: 36, 40, 44, 48, 149, 153, 157, 161 and 165(FCC) 36, 40, 44, and 48 (ETSI)
It is a nice product on paper, so now let’s see what it looks like in action.
