TRENDnet TEW-633GR: 802.11n Draft 2.0 to the Rescue
by Kris Boughton on October 26, 2007 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Networking
Conclusion
While it's clear that 802.11n draft 2.0 performance is improving rapidly over its draft 1.0 predecessor, it's important to note that quoted maximum transfer rates are just that - maximum and not indicative of actual sustained transfer rates under a variety of conditions. This has always been the case with wireless networking, of course, where even half of the maximum theoretical performance is often unattainable. Hopefully operating efficiencies and improved interference rejection techniques will make their way into future firmware/drive releases. If so, maybe we'll find that we can get a little closer to that magical sustained 100Mbps point (throughout the home) where wireless performance finally matches or surpasses decade-old 100Base-TX wired technology.
Certainly, Draft 2.0 compliant products do breathe new life into this struggling standard, but there's still a ways to go before this technology is particularly relevant. In the meantime, for those that must go wireless there's no doubt that Draft-N 2.0 based components will provide you with the best possible experience. Consumers should feel fairly confident when making a purchase as there's no foreseeable reason that any draft 2.0 equipment they buy now should not be fully compliant with the final ratified 802.11n specification. A simple firmware update will be all that is required to update to the latest 802.11n standard - which likely won't be the case with Draft 1.0 products. One thing is for certain: the industry is pushing hard to make wireless N the new de facto standard.
As mentioned earlier, you would be somewhat crazy to run your network unencrypted and based on testing it looks as though there may not even be a performance gain by doing so. Keep in mind that WEP testing was not performed as we just do not believe that this is an acceptable method of encryption. Furthermore, since the wireless 802.11n specification does not support WEP encryption, choosing this option means that the router automatically falls back to legacy 802.11g/b mode thereby removing in one fell swoop any performance improvement you may have seen otherwise.
In the end, if you decide that wireless N is right for you, we strongly recommend that you buy your router and client cards from the same manufacturer. This is not because product lines from competing sellers are incompatible, but simply to avoid the inevitable finger pointing that results if you experience a problem. As we will see in the next article, this is a major concern for us after experiencing a few difficulties in this area. We can almost guarantee the first solution offered up during a friendly call to technical support will involve you running out to the store and buying their latest and greatest card and trying again. Plus, you will usually find that matched products do in fact work better together, at least to some extent. (We've found that some wireless chipsets appear to be "more compatible" with each other than others).
Even though we did not provide a direct performance evaluation against other 802.11n Draft 2.0 routers today, we can tell you that working with the TRENDnet TEW-633GR the past couple of weeks has reminded us just how good wireless performance can be. Future router reviews will build upon this base testing so that direct comparisons can be made between units along with a greater variety of test conditions. We hope to determine conclusively which manufacturer really deserves your money by the time we're through.
In the meantime, those that are in the market for a quality wireless Draft-N router will not go wrong by picking up TRENDnet's TEW-633GR and matching adapter cards. Our experience has been highly enjoyable - not once during our testing period did we experience any service interruption or anything less than outstanding performance from both the wired and wireless connected clients. This is something we certainly could not say last year about the earlier Draft-N products!
While it's clear that 802.11n draft 2.0 performance is improving rapidly over its draft 1.0 predecessor, it's important to note that quoted maximum transfer rates are just that - maximum and not indicative of actual sustained transfer rates under a variety of conditions. This has always been the case with wireless networking, of course, where even half of the maximum theoretical performance is often unattainable. Hopefully operating efficiencies and improved interference rejection techniques will make their way into future firmware/drive releases. If so, maybe we'll find that we can get a little closer to that magical sustained 100Mbps point (throughout the home) where wireless performance finally matches or surpasses decade-old 100Base-TX wired technology.
Certainly, Draft 2.0 compliant products do breathe new life into this struggling standard, but there's still a ways to go before this technology is particularly relevant. In the meantime, for those that must go wireless there's no doubt that Draft-N 2.0 based components will provide you with the best possible experience. Consumers should feel fairly confident when making a purchase as there's no foreseeable reason that any draft 2.0 equipment they buy now should not be fully compliant with the final ratified 802.11n specification. A simple firmware update will be all that is required to update to the latest 802.11n standard - which likely won't be the case with Draft 1.0 products. One thing is for certain: the industry is pushing hard to make wireless N the new de facto standard.
As mentioned earlier, you would be somewhat crazy to run your network unencrypted and based on testing it looks as though there may not even be a performance gain by doing so. Keep in mind that WEP testing was not performed as we just do not believe that this is an acceptable method of encryption. Furthermore, since the wireless 802.11n specification does not support WEP encryption, choosing this option means that the router automatically falls back to legacy 802.11g/b mode thereby removing in one fell swoop any performance improvement you may have seen otherwise.
In the end, if you decide that wireless N is right for you, we strongly recommend that you buy your router and client cards from the same manufacturer. This is not because product lines from competing sellers are incompatible, but simply to avoid the inevitable finger pointing that results if you experience a problem. As we will see in the next article, this is a major concern for us after experiencing a few difficulties in this area. We can almost guarantee the first solution offered up during a friendly call to technical support will involve you running out to the store and buying their latest and greatest card and trying again. Plus, you will usually find that matched products do in fact work better together, at least to some extent. (We've found that some wireless chipsets appear to be "more compatible" with each other than others).
Even though we did not provide a direct performance evaluation against other 802.11n Draft 2.0 routers today, we can tell you that working with the TRENDnet TEW-633GR the past couple of weeks has reminded us just how good wireless performance can be. Future router reviews will build upon this base testing so that direct comparisons can be made between units along with a greater variety of test conditions. We hope to determine conclusively which manufacturer really deserves your money by the time we're through.
In the meantime, those that are in the market for a quality wireless Draft-N router will not go wrong by picking up TRENDnet's TEW-633GR and matching adapter cards. Our experience has been highly enjoyable - not once during our testing period did we experience any service interruption or anything less than outstanding performance from both the wired and wireless connected clients. This is something we certainly could not say last year about the earlier Draft-N products!
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smn198 - Monday, October 29, 2007 - link
With the backlash against HDD manufacturers quoting a GB as 1,000,000,000 bytes instead of 1,073,741,824 bytes or maybe more relevantly, broadband speeds not being up to their advertised rates, how long will it be before we see suits against WiFi equipment manufacturers (unless it has already happened and I missed it)?
Jedi2155 - Sunday, October 28, 2007 - link
Did someone from the D-link Gaming Router (DGL-4x00) design team get hired by Trendnet? The interface looks extremely similiar as well as the options.rslayer - Saturday, October 27, 2007 - link
It's great to have throughput numbers, however it would be nice to also get latency information. When using chatty protocols such as SMB/CIFS, the latency of a network has a huge impact on the actual bandwidth. This also brings up the fact that while you describe the direction the files were transferred, you didn't describe what protocol was used to make that transfer. If you are using SMB/CIFS, then you might want to try using HTTP to get real bandwidth numbers.legoman666 - Saturday, October 27, 2007 - link
While I agree that latency is important over wireless, why would you want to use HTTP to transfer large files over the network? When you want to copy 4gb from 1 computer to another computer on the network, do you fire up Apache and HTTP it over or do you use windows file sharing (Samba?). Or maybe you'd use FTP, but either way, why on earth would you use HTTP?eek2121 - Saturday, October 27, 2007 - link
SMB is not an efficient protocol. It was designed for 10 Mbps networks. SMB 2.0 is out now with vista, but you have to be transferring to other SMB 2.0 computers. Therefore copying files over LAN is not a good way to measure throughput, hence why they should use HTTP or FTP.siberus - Friday, October 26, 2007 - link
I wonder how much abuse this router can handle. I go through routers so fast. My general outlook on routers is terribly pessimistic. I'm on a 3 person network. I don't do anything too fancy just surf,game and BT the other two users just surf. I've tried multiple Brands and even bought some expensive models hoping I would "get what I paid for" but they've all been disappointing. My current linksys is already starting to bite the bullet but it's lasted almost a year which is better then the previous 4 routers. I really don't care about performance anymore reliability is way more important. My experience with wireless is even worse. Each new wireless router I get seems to be getting less and less range. I thought the Belkin N1 would be able to get at least some acceptable speed all the way up in my room but I couldn't even get a connection so I switched back to the linksys that im using now. Best range I've had so far was with D-Links Gamerlounge and after a few months that router just stopped being able to hold a connection. (the msn reconnecting sound drove me insane >.>)I've disabled wireless all together and opted to just use an Asoka plug to get stable connection in my room.notposting - Saturday, October 27, 2007 - link
The best solution is to roll your own router, I use a P3-450 with 128MB booting off CF card (CF->IDE adapter). A friend uses a headless P3 laptop. Even a Pentium 100 w/16 MB would be sufficient though, honestly.Then you just use the wireless device as an AP, which they should be able to handle--no NAT translation or firewall duties at that point. I have a crappy Motorola router--range sucks but I live in an apartment and it's stable now that it's just in AP mode.
Check out http://www.brazilfw.com.br">http://www.brazilfw.com.br -- it's basically a descendant of Coyote firewall. 2.30.1 is the last version that you can cram onto a floppy and boot.
bob4432 - Saturday, October 27, 2007 - link
i am still using a linksys wrt54g ver 2 running v4.30.1, HyperWRT 2.1b1 +tofu13c firmware. i have had this router nearly 2yrs and its longest uptime was ~450days (current uptime is 49days - i had to change my computer room set up and it was on the battery too long as i forgot about it), it is on a ups and runs 4-5 computers w/ 1 being on 24/7 w/ ftp, http w/ never a hiccup. w/ the 3rd party firmware you can up the power on this particular unit allowing for good coverage of our condo, both inside and outside w/ decent speeds (for a 'g' router).atm if this one died i would grab another one and see how it worked out, that sucks you are having such issues w/ your equipment :(
Foxy1 - Friday, October 26, 2007 - link
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JarredWalton - Saturday, October 27, 2007 - link
Sorry - "Karen" (that's me now, I guess) was out of town attending some meetings for a few days. I don't know that the article was any less valid, but I did make a few grammar/typo/whatever changes. I can state that personally, running one of the earlier Draft-N products, I will be very interested to hear which WiFi 802.11.n routers are best.Right now, all I can say for sure is that I would *not* recommend the NETGEAR RangeMax Next WNR834M. When it works, it's quite decent. However, I get periodic crashes, sometimes the WiFi network "disappears" (requiring a router reboot), and other oddities. I have a lot of (too many!) wireless devices (using different chipsets) and the drop-outs are irritating to say the least. Running a high-traffic BitTorrent client usually crashes the NETGEAR within a couple hours. And it doesn't have Gigabit Ethernet either, so I have to have a separate switch. At least the wired network doesn't crash.