TRENDnet's 300Mbps Wireless Easy-N-Upgrader won't put your router out of a job

If you've been at it long, you're probably tired of forking over $100 or so every year for the latest and greatest in wireless networking. The TEW-637AP, thankfully, takes a different approach. Instead of chucking your current router, the 300Mbps Wireless "Easy-N-Upgrader" just jacks into an extra Ethernet port on your existing router, and relies on that old box to do the "routing" part. The TRENDnet unit deals with blasting the 802.11n with MIMO, for theoretical speeds up to 300Mbps. Seems a bit silly, but the $64 pricetag certainly bests your average 802.11n router, so it might work out for you if you've got a good thing going with your existing setup, and just need a little extra push in the bandwidth department.

[Gremlin @ Feb 6th 2008 1:44AM]

Isn't this just a 802.11n wireless access point?

[Linoth @ Feb 6th 2008 7:45AM]

But we called it a "Easy-N-Upgrader" so that's different.

Commercialism and taking advantage of technical ignorance ftl...

[guns @ Feb 6th 2008 1:46AM]

WRT54GL + OPENWRT + TEW-637AP FTW!!

[Lingra @ Feb 6th 2008 1:51AM]

How does one manage "300mbit" of throughput, when it connects via 100/10 Ethernet????

[Scott @ Feb 6th 2008 5:16AM]

Read up on gigabit ethernet, most modern routers have this.

[E71 @ Feb 6th 2008 5:32AM]

Actually it's because the stated wireless speeds are all BS. When they say 300Mbps, they mean a third to a half of that is your actual speed.

[Linoth @ Feb 6th 2008 7:54AM]

@scott
Linksys' BEFSR41, their bread and butter wired router and most likely router to be purchased by Joe Sixpack: 10/100.
Linksys' WRT150N, one of their Draft-N routers and certainly more expensive than a WRT54G: 10/100.
Dlink's WBR-1310, a fairly run of the mill 802.11G router: Not clearly listed, but 802.3u means 10/100.
Netgear's WGR614, another run of the mill 802.11g router: 10/100.

What I'm getting at here is that most modern routers DO NOT support gigabit ethernet, unless you're buying higher end network equipment. If you're just buying the standard unit for around $50-70, you're only getting 10/100. And you know what? That's fine. Gigabit ethernet won't provide a tangable difference for the common user. Where-as this product is blatently aimed at making the average person think "Oh, this way I can get the fastest wireless without buying that $120 router over there. What a deal!" But they don't even realize that their ethernet port isn't fast enough to match the access-point-with-a-pretty-name.

Intentional deception by hardware manufacturers.

[NewJohnny @ Feb 6th 2008 2:23PM]

My usb flash drive states 'Up to 480Mbps'.

[keithhh @ Feb 6th 2008 1:52AM]

I'll have to try that out... my internet lags too hard lately.

[mac @ Feb 6th 2008 2:01AM]

If anything, I'm pretty sure this would increase your latency slightly but could potentially increase your wireless bandwidth, of which I'm sure you're not really using all of it anyway.

[frogbat @ Feb 6th 2008 2:07AM]

mmm i'm in need of an upgrade to n draft + but i'm considering a replacement for my modem/router so not to have yet another gadget suck electricity

[Roy @ Feb 6th 2008 2:15AM]

I got the extreme router n from linksys and it sucks. Have my g one piggy backing off of it so that we can get reception in all the house.

[Carniphage @ Feb 6th 2008 4:41AM]

Hmm....
If this is just an ethernet 802.11n bridge. Perhaps this is the best way of hooking an XBox360 up to the internets - and to some HD content on my media server.

[Bob-o @ Feb 6th 2008 4:51AM]

So this is still draft N? When do we get the real N?

[John @ Feb 6th 2008 8:43AM]

when there's a real N standard...

[Mark @ Feb 6th 2008 9:10AM]

I'm close to getting one. My entire network is now gigabit so now my wireless connection is the bottleneck when I shuffle files around.

[Randy @ Feb 6th 2008 9:22AM]

Of course, For that speed boost, you still have to shell out money for N cards. Will an 802.11g see any speed improvement when using an N WAP? I doubt it.

[Rupa Schomaker @ Feb 6th 2008 10:04AM]

Nice, but... No 5Ghz radio so don't bother.

[Adam Plante @ Feb 7th 2008 1:07AM]

"Read up on gigabit ethernet, most modern routers have this." Obviously you haven't been to an electronics retailer lately. I work for Best Buy and the only two consumer routers we have in our store with gigabit are the Linksys WRT-350N and the Dlink Hi end wireless N one (Cant remember the name, its white with MIMO and three antennas). The technology has been around for a while but you really gotta look cause products you expect to have gigabit often dont. And for all you guys out there who think Wireless N is in someway going to magically speed up your broadband connection that is probably capped at 25Mbps anyway you are living in a dream world. The only real world application for N is for sharing files across a network or streaming media from a home server to a UPNP enabled set top box etc.. If you are trying to do any of these things you will probably want to get yourself a decent N router like the WRT600N and use a good firmware like DD-WRT. That is really all I have to say about that.