Introduction

As draft 802.11n products gain in popularity, we see attempts to position similar products for different markets. Enter TRENDnet's TEW-633GR Wireless N Gigabit router. Although it's very similar to the D-Link DIR-655 (reviewed here), it's black, which may indicate it was intended for the gaming market. TRENDnet is not consistent in their naming of the router, however, sometimes referring to it as a gaming router, and sometimes not. Not that it matters anyway, since the "gaming" moniker is for marketing purposes only.

The TEW-633GR is essentially a rebadged U-MEDIA WRT-390U. It shares many of the same features and interface characteristics with the DIR-655, so if you're comfortable/familiar with that router, you should find the TEW-633GR easy to use.

Figure 1: Rear view, showing connectors

The TEW-633GR measures 6.4" wide x 5.9" long x 1.0" high, and has four LAN ports and one WAN port, as seen in Figure 1. All of the ports are gigabit, which is nice. And nicer still that the LAN switch automatically supports jumbo frames up to 9K, although Trendnet doesn't officially spec this. The rear panel also houses the power connector and a factory defaults reset button.

The little bump on the top of the router in Figure 2 is the WPS button, which enables Wi-Fi Protected Setup. The switch on the side in Figure 2 is used to turn the WLAN radio on or off. Note that this is the only way to enable and disable WLAN functionality. This is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because it's nice to set this option physically, so that it can't be tampered with via the admin interface; it's a curse because it means you have to put the router somewhere accessible if you plan on using the switch often.

Figure 2: Side view, showing the WLAN on/off switch

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Tags: 802.11n, Trendnet, WiFi, Wireless Reviews,

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