Отзывы о Wi-Fi роутер TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND (2010)

******This is a review of the seller of the product for now because it was only today that I had gotten the router to work. I will update with a product review after using it for four weeks*******I had suspicions that the product delivered was not new the second I opened the box - the top of the router was dirty and had many scratches - but I didn't mind because I was very excited to get it running based on the many positive reviews in and out of Amazon.com. But when I powered it up the login screen was NOT what the user manual says. It was an OpenWrt firmware, in fact, instead of the stock. No problem, I said, it should not be difficult to flash the stock firmware back. I couldn't be more wrong because after I logged in, I got only a blank page, no response, nothing!!!I could not return the package for a replacement because I had recently moved to Asia and the process would have been more trouble than it's worth, so I thought of giving it a fix. So, after many weeks of research and gaining the courage to fix it I finally got it to work (still with OpenWRT though, yet need to gather the courage to flash it back to stock).I gave the seller a 1-star rating because it was inexcusable for them to have repackaged a return item without first checking it. Had I decided to return the item, they would have most likely repackaged it and sent it off to another poor old chap who would have returned it... You get the picture. Also, I discovered from the serial number that the item was manufactured sometime early 2011, which means that it was over a year old when I received it. Given this fact, I wonder how many buyers before me had the same experience?As for the product review, as I mentioned above, I will edit this review after using the router for a few weeks...**************** 2013-01-04 update ****************I conducted three tests today:(A) Measured the gigabit port speeds,(B) Measured the WiFi speeds, and(C) Measured the receiver's sensitivity.Notes:The WR1043ND has the OpenWRT firmware installed, not the stock. I had not yet come around to flashing the stock ROM back.Also, I did not turn off the firewall and anti-virus software from any of the computers used in the test to give me real-world throughputs..(A) Measured two gigabit port speeds:(A.1) Max speed (GB/s) it can handle:Transferred a 5.44GB file from PC-A (with an SSD) to LT-B (with an SSD) - took 54s, which translates to 838Mb/s.Rating: 4 stars, though 838Mb/s is fast, it is not as fast as 904Mb/s (8% faster) I measured on a 2-year old Linksys Gigabit switch.(A.2) Some posts mentioned that the router breaks when transferring large files. So I decided to run the following:(A.2.1) Transferred 170GB from PC-A to LT-B --> no problem.(A.2.2) Simultaneously transferred 170GB from PC-A to LT-B + 71GB from PC-F to LT-B + 55GB from PC-C to LT-B --> no problem. The simultaneous file transfers completed after 1-1/2 hours.Rating: 5 stars, stable with large file transfers and extended duration..(B) Measured the WiFi speeds(B.1) Transferred 5.44GB from PC-A wired to the router and through to LT-B via WiFi to test the max transmit speed. Took 20mins+10secs for a speed of 37Mb/s.(B.2) Transferred 5.44GB from LT-B via WiFi to PC-A wired to the router to test the max receive speed. Took 20mins+26secs for a speed of 36Mb/s.Rating: 2-stars. Why? Because the product's ad claims "Wireless N - Extreme Speed ..." and 37Mb/s is NOT EVEN CLOSE TO EXTREME. This is false advertising. I also checked the different fora and it seems that 37Mb/s IS average for the WR1043ND..(C) Measured the receiver's sensitivity:I placed the WR1043ND next to a WRT54GL (running DD-WRT) which is my reference. I used an iPad mini to connect to each router one after the other. For each connect I took several Signal and Noise readings (in DbM) from the router (I read how good the router receives the signal from the mini). I made readings of the mini from two locations: 1m and 5m away.1m away (average result): WRT54GL : S=-45, N=-95 WR1043ND : S=-32, N=-955m away (average of readings): WRT54GL : S=-75, N=-95 WR1043ND : S=-65, N=-95Note: I did not take readings from more than 5m because I do not place my devices that far away from an access point. If I need coverage beyond 5m then I usually place another access point to cover the area (I set a max of 20mW Tx power for each access point).Rating: 4 stars. Performed better than the WRT54GL which I have been using since 2008 and am happy with it. So anything better than the reference deserves 4 stars..Next up for the following weeks is a stability test where I will see how the WR1043ND performs under normal conditions. This will not a scientific test as I will just merely observe how the router performs (does it slow down or hang after a while? Does it need to be reset once in a while? etc) so my conclusions will be subjective. Will post as soon as I am done....

[Edited on September 1, 2012, to add this observation: many people report poor experiences with this router. The review below is based solely on our family's experience with the unit shipped to us mid-August 2012. It worked right out of the box, works now (obviously, since it's the only connection to the Internet we have), and has never given us any problem of any kind. It's been a great product for us, but your mileage may vary.]Bought this router to replace a Netgear WPN834v2, that was itself an emergency replacement for an old, old Linksys that took a hit from lightning (right through a so-called surge protector). The Netgear seemed to be the best Walmart had at the time, but it never performed well in our environment. The Netgear's signal strength was mediocre at best, barely reaching from the router to devices one floor and 50 horizontal feet away and becoming unusable beyond that distance, in a stick-built wood frame house with cement-board siding. In addition the Netgear did not support WDS, and would not connect to RALink-chipset-based repeaters, nor to a Brother HL-2270DW wireless printer. The lack of connectivity to the printer was the stimulus to find a router that worked for us.I'm a little surprised at the many reports of setup and operation problems with the TP-Link TL-WR1043ND, given our experience. In our case we were up and running in about 90 seconds, with the printer connected and printing about 10 minutes after that. We have had no instances of slow throughput or freezing in the several days we've used the unit.Signal strength is better than with the Netgear, although still nothing to write home about. inSSIDER running on an Acer netbook showed the Netgear delivering -48 dBi at the most common use location, while the TP-Link delivers -40 to -42 dBi to the same location to the same device, a significant improvement. I've ordered some of the notorious +9 dBi stick antennas RP-SMA 2.4 GHz 9dBi WIFI Booster Wireless Antenna WLAN as well as some of the Alfa APA-M04 +7 dBi panel antennas Alfa 2.4HGz 7dBi Booster SMA Panel High-Gain Screw-On Swivel Antenna for Alfa - WUS036H, WUS036H1W, WUS050NH, AIPW610H, AIP-W610H, APA05, WUS036NH, WUS036NEH, WUS048NH, WUS036EW, WUS051NH AIP-W502U, AP48, AP51, R36, IMESH51, AIP-W502, AWAP601, and AWAP6... to see if either will help. Even with the stock antennas we're getting usable whole-house (including front porch) coverage with a minimum of 3 bars as shown in Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit running on Dell, Acer, and HP laptops, with the router in the same location as its predecessor.The TP-Link's gigabit wired hub is nice for connecting our desktops over the Cat5 wiring already in place. VPN passthrough to a remote Cisco gateway works perfectly. In fairness to other reviewers, we have not yet tried the USB port; it sounds as though that may be the source of some of the reported problems.@chiman414: if your unit arrived running dd-wrt, it must have been a repackaged return. It's unfortunate (really it's more or less criminal) that someone, whether at the manufacturer or at the reseller, took it upon themselves to repackage your unit without bothering thoroughly to test it first. It may be that some wanna-be hacker semi-bricked the unit, returned it as defective, and then someone in some returns department plugged it in, saw that it lit up, and repacked/restocked it. In my respectful opinion, this product should not be judged by your experience, and if I were you, even at this late date I would inform Amazon and TP-Link, and ask if there is anything that can be done.The TP-Link TL-WR1043ND has only 32 MB RAM while the ASUS RT-N16, for example, has 128 MB RAM. Some might say that the ASUS RT-N16 has more CPU and RAM than it needs, but for use under heavy load conditions, or for loading the mega versions of 3rd-party firmware, the ASUS is probably the better choice... but it also costs almost twice as much. Let your priorities be your guide.Bottom line: for the price, and for our requirements, the TP-Link TL-WR1043ND has thus far proved to be an excellent product, surpassing our modest expectations.[edit 31 August 2012]Wanted to add some observations in response to reports from other reviewers.Device: TP-Link TL-WR1043ND wireless routerPart number: 1750502027Serial number: 12590603217Hardware revision: 1.8Firmware revision: 120405The instructions provided with the unit I received are clearly written in U.S. English, not Chinglish. Like most such doc for consumer-level IT technology, the instructions are brief, and assume that the reader has a level of familiarity with computing concepts and processes that most end-users do not in fact possess.At an ambient temperature of about 71 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest temperature I was able to measure around the case of the unit, that had been in continuous operation for several days, was 84.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The instrument used was a cheap digital thermometer (intended for kitchen use) that measured

UPDATED REVIEW HEREAfter having more trouble with this router dropping network connectivity, I had a tech guy change from the updated firmware to a different firmware that some have stated worked for them. Unfortunately for me, it took awhile to get this done and I have run beyond the Amazon 30 day return window. I called the manufacturer for help, and I got a very friendly, but unhelpful person on the phone. She could not offer any help at all as to why the problems were happening, or any idea if the company identifies problems and fixes them. She refused to send me another one or accept my router being sent back, and told me I have to "send it back to the retailer you got it from".I have since emailed Amazon asking for help with this situation. I would absolutely love this router if it would work like it should. I hoped to get it replaced with one that works. As of now it's on the fence. What concerns me is having a product like this with a two year warranty, when the company refuses to actually warranty it. I would have purchased a different router with the same features, but they all have the same ratio of good vs bad reviews and I concluded that you can get a bad one anywhere... so I may as well just stick with what I have and hope to get a good one.My advice to anyone out there is to learn from my mistake. (my old router never dropped even once; and I'm back to using it now) If you get one and it drops your internet connection on you in the first 30 days, return it immediately. (I gave the product the benefit of the doubt and I might be out the price I paid. Lets be realistic.. I'm not going to court for $54.00. There is still the option of disputing my credit card, and I'm sure the giant etailor would love that.I hope this information is helpful to others. If not, at least it was free :)*original review below*After all the positive reviews and having specifications that would be just what I needed I decided to try this router in spite of any bad reviews. Why? Because I have my own free tech guy. The setup went fine and at first the router seemed to do what I needed it to do- stream live video feed, without dropping frames everyplace. I also now can access network attached usb drive with good speed. Bravo on these two points!Where two stars comes in is that in two weeks I have had two times where my network was down and I had to reset the router. Reliability is huge for me, as the purpose of this for me is to allow me to remotely access my storage disk and video stream when I'm not home. I can't reset the router when I'm 600 miles away. My old router had a terrible frame rate, but I never had to reset it and it was always working. In short it got the job done, if not with full 30 frames per second video playback. For those who wonder, I am using a 16 channel dvr to monitor the security of my property.All in all this would be a 5 star item in my application, if it would just be reliable. Like I said, I have a computer tech so I can't comment on the setup except to say it was uneventful for him. When the network goes down, unplugging and replugging the router in solves the problem.

My background: a guy who knows a bit about PC and networking, build my desktop using retail parts (wishing I can do that with laptops too). Home network, Verizon fios, 5 laptops, 1 desktop, 1 network printer (brother mfc 9320), 2 kindle fire, 1 WII, 1 network blu-ray (Samsung) player. Desktop and one laptop (for work) are hardwired to Verizon router, all others wireless. Three story home, router on the top floor (new router on the middle floor now).About a month ago, my Verizon supplied router started to show trouble with the wireless part (wired connection is still going strong after 4 years). Bought a new laptop that has very slow connection at the middle floor. Verizon router has only 100m wired ports. So decided to get a second wireless router to set up on the middle floor.Did extensive research, heard so many horrible stories. As one reviewer nicely put it, no matter what brand and product you look, as soon as the number of reviewers approaching 100, you will see 20% (+- 3%) one-star reviews. So it's like a 4 out 5 you will get a working product. So I picked this tp-link product for wireless N and gigabit ports, at a fair price.I got the router today. Took about an hour to setup (that includes the setup on all my PCs). I'd say it's relatively painless. One suggestion to all, before you start, use your existing internet connection to download the latest firmware (a file), and the moment you connect to this tp-link router, you should upgrade the firmware. Of course, if yours has the latest already, then this is not needed. The upgrade will most likely require a hard reset, which will wipe out all user settings (I learned in the hard way).After firmware upgrade and hard reset, I connected my desktop to this router using one LAN port, not the WAN port. I did NOT use the disc supplied. I did NOT follow any instructions (if you're not comfortable, then go follow them). All I did was looking for the login info, which was "admin" and "admin" (user name and password, changed later).Once the LAN cable is connect, and my desktop is NOT connected to Verizon router at this point, I started firefox, and type in 192.16.1.1, and enter. This takes me straight to the web utility page. I then go to network and LAN, change the ip from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.2 (Yesterday I already went into the Verizon router to have the 192.168.1.2 freed up). This requires an immediate reboot of the router, which also changes the login address automatically to 192.168.1.2 in the firefox address window.With this IP change done, I did the following: 1. diable DHCP. 2. Go into wireless, set the SSID and wireless security setting exactly the same as my Verizon router (this creates one continuous wireless network in my entire house). 3. set the mode to wireless N only, and channel to 6 (on Verizon, the channel was set to 11). Another reboot, all is fine.The new laptop (inter wireless N 2230) now connects at 300m, speedtest.net now shows full FIOS speed (used to be only 1/5). Older laptops use older hardware (Intel 5100agn) can only connect at 150m, or even lower at 130m/65m, regardless location (one at the basement connects at 150m). Tested the network printer, which still connects to the old router, all pcs can see it just fine. All PCs can see each other as well.Interesting thing about kindle fire is now both report excellent signal even though they are not connected to this new router. Did not test others as those devices will still connect to the old router.This is only the first day, so cannot report about reliability yet. If I run into problems (hopefully not), I'll update this review.UPDATE (6/5/2012): after changing some settings, now all my laptops, even the 4-year-old HP with intel 5100agn, can connect up to 300m. The lesson is that after a driver update, better recheck all settings. Because I also do a clean install of drivers, that resets the Intel 5100agn to factory default and limits the 2.4 ghz band to only 20mhz bandwidth. Changing this to "auto" instantly improves the connection speed.

[Revised based upon results testing new firmware]Overall, this specs as a probably good router. It has one gigabit ethernet upstream port, and four gigabit ethernet downstream ports, so it can support the full 300Mb/s 802.11n mode in either direction, and you can connect wired ethernet devices to it.Unhappily, for me, it is a router. The TL-WR1043ND pretends (poorly) to be an access point if you turn off the DHCP server and set the upstream 'wan' port to some bogus network and only connect its LAN ports, but it does not seem to like having resources (DNS server, NTP server, and so on) on the 'lan' side. It has no place to put a name, and half the time the web interface refers to itself absolutely by IP address (so causes problems with certain browser restrictions I prefer to enforce). Most of the interesting features (bandwidth limitation, firewall, access rules, and so on) only apply to use as a router; even the statistics option seems to do nothing the way I am using it. The only feature I have found that has an effect on my use is the wireless side supports MAC filtering.It claims a 300Mb/s connection to a laptop, and a 1000Mb/s connection to my primary network switch, but the transfer rates are poor. The new firmware (3.13.4 build 110429 rel 36959n) improves it significantly, bringing the sustained transfer rate (in 802.11n mode) above what I get on an old 802.11a access point. A few benchmarks transferring and then checking a file set (20359811840 bytes in 1944 files), by connection method, between the same PCs (the server is always on gigabit ethernet but the client changes connection method):Local on client: 494 seconds, 600Mb/s peak, 314Mb/s avg, check at 324 files/sec1Gb Ethernet: 731 seconds, 500Mb/s peak, 212Mb/s avg, check at 160 files/sec100Mb Ethernet: 2235 seconds, 95Mb/s peak, 70Mb/s avg, check at 114 files/sec10Mb Ethernet: 19276 seconds, 9.5Mb/s peak, 8.1Mb/s avg, check at 59 files/secother 54Mb 802.11a: 5976 seconds, 35Mb/s peak, 26Mb/s avg, check at 29 files/secthis 300Mb 802.11n: 2195 seconds, 100Mb/s peak, 71Mb/s avg, check at 30 files/secthis 54Mb 802.11g: 10877 seconds, 22Mb/s peak, 14Mb/s avg, check at 34 files/secThe new firmware brings the sustained data rate in 802.11n mode above the performance I see with my old 802.11a bridge, but the 802.11g mode is still comparatively quite poor. In both modes, though, the session setup/teardown rate is rather better that it was, and now exceeds that of my older wireless bridge (though compare both wireless devices to even 10Mb/s ethernet). It still seems slow -- comparable to a 100Mb ethernet connection in its '300Mb' 802.11n mode, and almost twice as fast as a 10Mb ethernet connection in its '54Mb' 802.11g mode. Under further observation it still seems to suffer significantly higher latency than the other access point -- it can take what seems like several times as long for short IP packets (such as a single keystroke in an SSH session) to get through it, but I don't have a good way to measure this aspect.Setup as a router is little more work than plugging it in, if you want it to be the primary device between your connection to the Internet and everything you own. Anything more complicated (or trying to drop it into an established network without major upheaval) will at best require some time and patience, likely an exercise in frustration though maybe not quite futility. Configuring it as a bridge instead of a router (still) seems to be impossible; even with all my tinkering it still insists upon having a stub network on the wan port (and it insists that the wan port is the sole path to the rest of the world!).The range is excellent. Where I can barely reach my old access point, this router gets a clean connection (at good quality, but see benchmarks above). Even reducing transmit power, I get good reception at least as far away as I would like and the transfer rates do not drop significantly.I have not tried the USB hard disc connection option. I have a file server and printers with built-in print servers, so I don't need some additional device serving files. I will give a little credit though, since they seem to have a way to add users in the new release of the firmware, instead of being stuck with only an 'admin' user and a 'guest' user.It has no particularly useful diagnostics (at least when only bridging). There is a page that shows the wireless PCs connected, but it does not show anything more useful than tx/rx frame counts and the connection mode. No error counts or information, tx/rx signal strength, current channel(s) information, or similar. No information at all about what is happening on the LAN ports (wired) on the back. Since I'm not using the wan port, I don't know if it tells anything useful about that, but I don't see any place to look for it. If it had some diagnostics, perhaps I could figure out how to tweak the performance a little.Overall pros:* reasonably cheap* works for the default case (easy s

I love this router. In fact, I own three of them. However, there seems to be a major flaw in all versions prior to v1.10. The earlier versions have a tendency to drop off-line and then come back on-line. This appears to have been fixed in v1.10. At first I thought re-flashing them with DD-WRT had fixed it, but then after awhile they continued dropping off-line. I don't know if it's because someone was trying to hack into my networks, or there was some other interference that was knocking them off-line. Anyway, I'm going to re-flash them back to the OEM firmware and then contact Amazon to RMA them.For anybody who wants to experiment with WLAN, I highly recommend this router. First of all, it is compatible with DD-WRT, a Open-Source community firmware that turns this $50 router into a $600 router's worth of functionality (including operating it in "client" mode, so that I can access the landlord's Access Point to obtain free Internet service). Also, the TL-WR1043ND is extremely "hackable," both in terms of its software and for making hardware mods. In fact, once I can exchange two of my routers for the latest version, one of those routers I will then mod to replace the RP-SMA antenna connectors with "N"-style. My goal is to hook up some 15dBi outdoor antennas to the modded WR1043 using Andrew LDF4-50A 1/2-inch Heliax cable. My current pigtails lose 50% of the signal before it reaches the antennas. (See my review here: TP-LINK Outdoor Omni-directional Antenna (TL-ANT2415D) ). The LDF4-50A allows a greater cable length with significantly less signal loss.For security reasons, I'm going to run all three TL-WR1043NDs through a Linux box (a used Dell Dimension 2400 running Fedora 17) running an excellent IPSec package called "StrongSWAN". The idea is to block all traffic coming from the router until the client has authenticated itself to StrongSWAN and created a VPN in the process. What this achieves is: a) Some script-kiddie cannot hack into my outdoor WLAN to poach my Internet access, because even if s/he gains access to the router, they still have to get through the Linux box (and good luck with that!). Secondly, the Linux box will also be running (among other things) the Apache web daemon, operating as a proxy server. Therefore, b) all web-surfing, email, whatever, from my Droid Razr Maxx goes through an encrypted tunnel to the Linux box's web proxy, so even if someone is sitting in range with packet-sniffer recording my traffic, they're going to have to break the VPN's encryption before they can figure out what articles I'm reading from the Drudge Report. NOTHING gets exposed to the outside!

This router is a high quality product. i got it for $24.99 after a $20 rebate(hasn't sent the mail-in yet). but even for full price. its worth it. i get excellent signal over 2-3 walls and 25 ft. which is really good. its a good solid unit. and reboots really quick! good DOWN/UP speeds.make sure you turn off the Wi-Fi while setting it up. and use the default password first. then change it from the firmware.(DON'T INSTALL DD-WRT on this router. gives you wireless G as default with 54 MBPS. and less range with less signal on 20 MHZ channel instead of 40 MHZ on the OEM firmware) and you will get connection problems when you install DD-WRT.Whats good about it!1- Range.(you would probably get a good signal over 50 FT away. maybe more)2- Speed.(Faster than D-LINK routers I've used before this one and very consistent)3- Fast Reboot.(takes about 30 seconds which is really fast)4- Solid unit with many LEDS(LED indicator for about anything)5- Easy to use QOS(Bandwidth limiting is easier to use than the usual 100 options you get in regular routers)6- Adjustable antennas(Can set up the antennas to get the best range/quality possible)Whats not good about it!1- Per device monitoring(Does not show devices connected and monitor them just a brief monitoring )2- The first time you set it up its pain in the a**(Don't click any of the options that pop up and don't put a name for the network from Windows/Mac or network location when you connect the Ethernet for the first time to set it up. Use the CD to set it up and ignore the other options that the computer Pop-up for you)Overall, this is a high quality product that worth every penny you spent on it. if you have a small home to a medium-size home and have laptops mostly i recommend this router over all other routers in this price range!UPDATE: 3/29/13been using it for about 2 weeks now and its perfect. no problems at all after setting it up. and i just hooked up a Portable HDD on it and its working like a network drive. just perfect. though need to set up the drive to add it to MY COMPUTER, you need to go to my computer then click MAP NETWORK DRIVE then type file://192.168.1.1/ in the folder box. then click Browse then click on the check box on the file://192.168.1.1/ thats shows in the browser and select the main file for the HDD. and you are all set. you will find it at MY COMPUTER.

tl;dr The performance of my unit was so unsatisfactory that it is possible I got a lemon. But from the recent string of bad reviews here on Amazon (at the end of Aug and beginning of Sept 2012, after I made my purchase), it seems the quality of this product or at least their quality control has gone downhill.I bought this model based on the low price, good reviews, gigabit speed, and option of installing dd-wrt (for added functionality and stability).Experience:I set up the unit and immediately updated to the latest firmware. In the first 2 weeks after installation, I would lose my internet connection (both wired and wireless) and have to power cycle (unplug the power, wait 30 seconds, plug the power back in) about once a week. This was still an upgrade from my old router, which was on its last legs and regularly required a power cycle every few days. In weeks 3-5 of ownership, the new router would lose internet connection with increasing frequency until the longest I could go was 0.5 to 2 days.Pros:Very fast transfer speeds. I was able to transfer large files (>1GB) between my PC and NAS (Synology DS412+) at 85-105 MBps (according to Windows Explorer).Cons:Runs hot.Inconsistent connection.Lack of customer support. I contacted TP-LINK customer support (whose English skills were somewhat lacking) and they only recommended to install a beta firmware update, which I did not bother doing.DD-WRT:I was desperate and curious enough to see if dd-wrt might solve my disconnect problem. I preface my experience with a warning that incorrectly flashing dd-wrt may brick your router (i.e. render it completely useless). I soon learned (and I'm paraphrasing from the research I did weeks ago) that TP-LINK updated more recent units (after Aug 2012) with firmware that reboots WAN after a firmware flash. If you try to flash with dd-wrt firmware, the WAN shuts down but never starts back up so you can't establish an internet connection. You will be able to tell if the WAN IP address shows 0.0.0.0 using the automatic/dynamic IP setting. As another reviewer mentioned, you have to flash with German firmware first that does not reboot WAN, then flash to dd-wrt. This did not work for me either. I had to revert the stock firmware to an earlier version before going to the German firmware then to dd-wrt in order to get it to work (per someone's instructions in the dd-wrt forum). Despite all the effort, my unit still required frequent power cycles after successfully installing dd-wrt.Conclusion:Lesson learned. I ponied up and bought the more expensive but highly rated and regarded Asus RT-N56U dual band N gigabit router (with more features than most users will need, such as shared network drives), and never looked back. I updated to the latest firmware and it has been rock solid since installation.

The router works will for just a basic router to a computer for internet surfing. However, if you plan on using this router with a PS3 (PlayStation 3) or with a smart phone like an android or iPhone you may want to choose another router.1St, With the PS3 you will not be able to use UPnP, it will just not work and shows "not available" with both wired and wireless connections. Also, more important if you try to use this router wireless to your PS3 you will be lagged off the PlaySation network very often. I have contacted TP-Link and they have tried to help and even sent me a beta firmware to try but did not help. The last update for the firmware was 4/5/2012 as of today 3/24/2013. I own a computer repair store and have been a computer tech for 18 years and can not get this router to work no matter what I try. I have even sent this router back and received another router of the same model and it also suffers from the same issues.2nd, with the smart phone and most internet applications like Facebook you will suffer from items not downloading properly. Lets use Facebook for an example. Facebook may alert you that you have a new message or notification but when you click to read or view the notification it will not load or let you read it. You can disable your WiFi and use just your data plan on your phone and all messages will work just fine.With all that being said, I am sure there may be more issues with this router that I have not run into yet but I would not recommend this router to anyone. I have used some other TP-Link routers which have similar issues so I have decided not to sell this brand router in my comptuer store anymore. I hated to pull this product from my shelves but I can not sell something that will just keep causing issues to my customers. If TP-Link improves I would love to carry their product again because they have a wide wide variety of network equipment.

I like it when it works, in fact I LOVE IT. Range is Great on Wi-Fi Signal and it seems to handle flow of data great BUT....... Saw this on a great deal @ Amazon, bought it and set up FIRST delivered Router. This first unit would drop the internet connection and need to be re-set initially about every other day. It then began to lose the internet connection several times during the same day. Amazon sent out replacement and I've had this one "running" for about 6 days. Initially it seemed to be good as it went for 3 days holding the Internet connection. Now I'm back to losing the internet connection for my system about every day and a half. If this continues for another couple of days this unit is going back for refund or replacement with a different brand/model. Looking at blog/comments/review and this unit seems to have a widespread problem with losing the Internet and having to be reset. Thought about doing DD-WRT but on one of the DD-WRT forums - with a lot of techies on it - it seemed as if these were the same issues with DD-WRT installed.Update 4/8/2013. Will second unit is a bit more reliable as it will hold Internet connection for around 34-36 hours. (Started keeping a log). Again this morning, just about 36 hours from last reset, sure enough woke up to No Internet Connection. Re-set so it should be up for probably 34-36 hours. Tech service on Friday was of no big help as they basically told me to re-install the unit which I had already done three times last week. Thank Goodness for Amazon Returns...........giving me full credit for my returns (first one paid for, second one replacement). Have ordered a different router that shows better reviews. Hoping it does better.

I read another review about the DD-WRT firmware, but before upgrade to DD-WRT I wanted to test the TP-LINK firmware first.I install the last version of TP-LINK firmware, but indeed, I had to disable N mode to stabilize the connection. If it was in mixing mode the signals drops constantly. You can use it only N, but my blackberry Bold 2 doesn't support N. iPad, and my laptops support it, but old stuff like Blackberry don't. Then decide to stay in BG mode because to be honest 54Mb of bandwidth is more than enough.What made me decide to risk me with WRT was a simple test coping a big file from one computer to another in my LAN. One of the computer was wired in a Gigaport. What a shame!!! With Bandwidth Meter I saw peaks and for moments no data at all. 2Gb took like 15min to move from one computer to another at 10 to 15Mb. Even I test only N mode. Same behavior.Then I decided to test DD-WRT before return the router.Men I have to tell you, this rocks!!! Sadly, you need some knowledge that not everybody have to upgrade the router. Is not a simple task, but also is not rocket science. If you can install an operating system on your computer, probably you can install WRT. In fact is much simpler.The other person that made a review about DD-WRT, in his comment published a link with simple step to follow, and it is very simple and very accurate. Now I tell you no risk at all if you follow it exactly.What he don't say is after that, you will have to configure your router. Because DD-WRT allows you to do almost everything with your router you will be overwhelmed with the freedom to do what you want. Yes it is the price of the freedom!!!But I have to tell you, to setup your wifi router with security it is a simple task, probably you don't have to touch anything in Basic Setup (time and the name of your router) and just change Wireless /Basic Settings and Wireless Security. With that, you at least will have your router secured and working with no problem. Please take a look the Status Tab, it is amazing all the stuff it has.One advantage of DD-WRT is that the documentation is awesome. Is not like the manual of tp-link that says exactly the same that is in the Admin page. It describes everything in detail.Now I can have my router with NBG mode, and coping a file is constantly at 40Mbs with peaks of 65mbs and take less than 4 min for a 2Gb file.I give 4 start because the TP-Link firmware. But with DD-WRT it would be 5.0 with an happy face.

Worked fine, - that the two starts for - except that it drops Skype and Google+ hangout connections. After I set the router up, Google+ worked the first time (didn't try Skype), until I turned on the SPI Firewall – enabled H.323 and RTSP ALG, left all the other Security Settings on default, left DoS protection off too. I could connect on Skype and Google+, but get disconnected after 5-15 seconds, and internet access is blocked to that client as well – I got dns error. All other clients connected to the router has internet access. If I tried another pc to connect to Skype or Google+, the same thing is repeated – get connected, then a few seconds later got disconnected, no internet. The only way to restore connection is to reboot the rooter. Now, the bad part is that the same thing happened AFTER I turned off the SPI firewall, going back to the same setting where it worked before, but it was keep disconnecting. Then I tried an earlier firmware, to see it is a firmware bug, but the same thing was happening again. Amazingly there was nothing in the logs either, so that is when I gave up. After I mailed it back I thought I should have done a full reset, but then again I was getting tired chasing down a bug on a cheapee router. Kinda disappointed, because this router had the best - or least negative - reviews in this price range. Until the replacement D-Link arrived I put back my old, dying D-Link, and everything worked again.Amazon’s return policy and it’s return process is amazing!

For at least 8 years our internet setup was Motorola DOCSIS2.0 modem and Belkin54g router. That seems to work OK, but not great. When we tried to watch some movies on newly acquired smart TV, the setup just could not deliver. Somebody suggested to replace modem to DOCSIS3.0. Replacing modem did help a lot with internet speed, but the Belkin router could not keep up and would choke once about every hour. After short research we decided to replace the router with b/g/n type. There are plenty of b/g/n routers out there. We had very good experience with TP-LINK router at my parents house and that was the deciding factor. Plus we always wanted network storage, and this router has USB port to connect external hard drive.The router comes with everything you need, installation is pretty fast and easy. If you ever used wireless router, this router will not offer any ugly surprises. It has all the features you expect in high class modern router. We connected Toshiba 1TB USB drive to it and the network storage works excellent. Dynamic DNS is supported, IP binding works great for our Linksys Wireless Printer Server. Oh, and the internet speed is about 50% higher with this router compared with old Belkin54g. In about 3 weeks we have it, no dropped connections. Video streaming, Skype on multiple computers simultaneously. Overall, looks like very good router

First I will admit to not being tech savvy, so forgive me if I don't use the correct terminology. I have had this router for over 11 months. During that time I have lost connection with the internet an average of probably once a week at least. The first time it happened I tried all of the suggestions in the user manual with no results. I tried calling the help desk several times and never got a person to talk with. After emailing customer support I did receive an answer and was given instructions that were not listed in the manual (disconnect power, hold reset button for 5 seconds, reconnect power without releasing the reset button and continue to hold the reset button an additional 10 seconds). This did reconnect me with the internet after waiting a couple of minutes for the router to perform it's magic and worked every time I lost connectivity after that until recently. A couple of weeks ago I lost connection and could not reconnect. I disconnected the router and connected directly to the modem. After several days I decided to try this router again before ordering a new one. I connected the router and it magically began working again. This lasted 2 weeks and now it has stopped working again. This time I am going to buy a different brand since I have tired of losing my connection so frequently. It is especially aggravating when watching movies on TV or using my Kindle to have to go into another room and reset it again.

Overall, I rate this as a solid router. The initial setup was straightforward, and the range and signal strength (as measured by inSSIDer) compared favorably to my older WRT54G's. After figuring out that I needed to configure my wireless client to use the full 40MHz channel width, my connection speed was pretty consistently at 150 Mpbs. I'm not sure why I couldn't get the full 300 Mpbs, but I suspect this is due more to my wireless adapter than the router.I was a little disappointed with the actual transfer speeds. When moving a large file over wifi, I observed rates around 4 MB/s, which was only about twice what I was seeing with my older G routers. However, after installing DD-WRT and fiddling with their settings, I started seeing files move at closer to 10 MB/s which I was happy with.However, the increased speed and flexibility of DD-WRT came at a price. In the first month of usage, the router (running DD-WRT v24-sp2 revision 19519) has crashed about once a week requiring me to unplug/plug-in the router. From browsing discussion groups online, I do not appear to be alone in experiencing these crashes. And, from the fact that the reports go back a few years, there doesn't appear to be much hope of a fix anytime soon so I am left with a performance vs. stability dilemma. I'm choosing performance.Bottom line: I'd recommend this as a reasonably priced Wireless-N gigabyte router for just about anyone, and if you are technically inclined and willing to invest some time installing DD-WRT, it's a pretty decent performer, although not 100% stable.

Highly configurable both out of the box and even more so if you choose to go with either DD-WRT or OpenWRT. I had used DD-WRT and was curious about OpenWRT so that was the direction I went initially. In a moment of great frustration I reflashed to DD-WRT only to realize that I was worse off there. Eventually I found my mistake and the router performed admirably.Pros:Configuration, Features, Reliability. Design and Quality both seemed high.Cons:A few quirks with OpenWRT to get the most out of the configuration I wanted but nothing detrimental.Without going to a dual band router, spending more money, upgrading all my other hardware, this router was a really good fit for me, it had the features and configuration I needed. Whether you choose to go with the stock frimware, DD-WRT or OpenWRT all are very functional and vary based upon the depth of configuration you need. There is a lot of information out there regarding this product and I was always able to find an answer in any for any of the three frimware options.

I use this at my home for my cable internet. It has a simple setup procedure. I opened the box, followed the instructions and it worked which is great! I love being able to plug my usb printer into the back of it which allows me to print wirelessly from my laptop even though it's a "wired only" model. I've used the free Win8 drivers for it and they work very well!I would recommend this router to anyone who can read instructions and follow them.Pros:-Linux based router (I've only used the factory TPLINK, but it's changeable to OpenWRT, DD-WRT, etc)-Very stable router compared to previous wrt54g (factory firmware)-USB Network print/scan server (my wife loved not needing to plug in every time!)-USB network storage (I haven't tried)Cons:-The router interface is slightly confusing, because I couldn't find where to set QOS settings-The Win8 driver says "printing paused" which is confusing, because it still prints perfectly.-Apparently OpenWRT does not have a "drop in" build, otherwise I would have used that instead... (It uses more advanced linux features)

Upgrading from a Buffalo 802.11G series router that had grown increasingly problematic, requiring multiple resets daily. Setup of this unit was a little tricky, as the unit kept giving out a false gateway IP out-of-the-box (192.168.0.1 instead of its purported default of 192.168.1.1 from the quickstart guide). Resets, reboots w/saved changes to settings would not make the problem go away. Once I managed to upgrade the unit's firmware to the latest revision, the false gateway problem went away and it has been working superbly ever since. (DD-WRT and Tomato open source firmware are viable options for this router, which I may try someday.) Nice options; currently using all ports and am loving having gigabit speeds on my home network. The USB print server option works just fine with TP-LINK's installed software (Win7 64-Bit version) on my Brother LaserFAX. I have yet to try the on-board USB port for ftp or file sharing, as I have my drives connected to other equipment for that purpose. If/whenever I do, I'll update this review accordingly.

I've had this product for a while now and for most people (using DSL or cable internet) this would be an adequate choice for a wireless router. The signal strength is strong throughout my house. The router is located on the second floor and my signal strength is still full in the basement. The router setup was easy.I have fiber optic internet, so I got this wireless router in hopes of taking advantage of my high internet speed. The wired connections work fine and gave me full speed, but the wireless connections top out around typical DSL or cable speeds. I talked/emailed their customer service several times and they were not particularly helpful. Part of the problem was a language barrier, I think, though sometimes they wouldn't even answer. I finally gave up trying to resolve the issue.The router will also stop communicating with my modem once or twice a month so I have to cycle power on the router to fix it. I haven't figured out the cause yet and there doesn't seem to be an obvious pattern.

I don't recall not having any issues with previous routers during installation process, unlike this one.Complete installation takes less than 30 minutes including telecon with manufacturer's tech support, who seemed to understand exactly what need to be done to correct unforeseen problems arising from different operating system, running on Windows 8. I'm so relieved that I won't be needing to upgrade to the latest firmware, as unit was already updated at the factory, nor do I worry about installing some third party firmware due to lack of performance which I'm reluctant to touch as it will automatically void the warranty and customer support.With TP-LINK Wireless USB adapter I already own, I now have full signal at maximum throughputs, almost everywhere in my 2,600 square feet interior living space, and lose of only one bar at the sitting area of the back yard. Can't complaint of its performance as well as its consumer friendly price of $34, minus $20 rebate. I wonder why I ever paid so much for name-branded router that required constant resetting of the router.

I already own an older hardware version of this router, and I bought it specifically because I knew I could put DD-WRT firmware on it. The wireless range has always been really good on this router, far better than any Netgear or Linksys routers I've owned. It's got 32MB of RAM, and is more than capable of handling large numbers of WiFi users at a time (I've had at least 6 active devices at one using it without any problems).The original firmware isn't bad, and for most users it will suffice. It's not worth using the CD that comes with it to set it up. The default username/password is: admin/admin - so you should at the very least login to the router (192.168.1.1) once you've hooked it up and change the password.The lights on the front aren't too intrusive, but unless you're very close to it, it's difficult to tell which ones are lit up, and there are a LOT of LEDs on the front.Some people (like myself) had problems with the WAN (internet) port after installing DD-WRT for the first time. If you do a little searching on the DD-WRT forums, you can find some instructions on how to reflash it so that the WAN port works perfectly. It's a little bit of a headache, but it's worth the trouble if you like the power and control that DD-WRT provides.All in all, it's a good router, and does what it should. I just wish it was a little more robust with the stock firmware.

I had a long review written for this thing. . . but that got lost with a computer issue. So, let's make this short and to the point.We had another TP-Link router that was excellent. . . and the price was incredible. However, when moving up to the the wireless N, we've had issues with an HP g70 laptop that keeps dropping the signal. This is a similar issue others have had.I've done all the possible fixes -- TP-Link's customer service fixes in general are useless; however, you have to give them credit for trying.The possible fixes that might work are1. Disable Win7 from being able to put the wireless adapter to sleep -- do this in the device manage>properties for your wireless card.2. Set "transmit power" to low -- router settings, wireless, wireless advanced.The problem seems to be an issue with the Atheros card. . . .It never has been totally fixed, but works better with those two settings; however, since I get better speed wired, I've wired the laptop up to the router.The Dell Inspiron I17R laptop has not had any issues, nor have our Android devices, smart TV, or anything else.For the price it's a good router. . . if you don't have this disconnect issue!

Simply put I've NEVER had a problem with this router in the 2 years I've owned it. Kicks 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 4 weeks a month, 12 months a year........Have it in my condo which has at least 15 other 2.4Ghz signals around and it does great. Have it on low signal power as well. Firmware is a BIT complicated but lets you do everything you needs and then some. In my opinion every bit as good if not better than something like DD-WRT. Router practically sets itself up for you so that's simple. In terms of range I've compared it to a WRT54GL with Tofu Firmware and Extended 8dBi antennas and this went just as far. I have Comcast so it sees about 20-25 Mbits of speeds no problems. Best of all and most importantly, it is stable which is something everyone should look for. Why bother with a top of the line router when it's not stable? And it cheap! Excellent.