EDIMAX BR-6428NS IEEE 802.11b/g/n 300M Wireless Broadband Router with Built-in 4 Switch Ports, WPS Button, iQ-Setup for Hassle Free Installation, and WISP Mode Connection Supported EDIMAX BR-6428NS IEEE 802.11b/g/n 300M Wireless Broadband Router with Built-in 4 Switch Ports, WPS Button, iQ-Setup for Hassle Free Installation, and WISP Mode Connection Supported

Pros: It is fairly cheap.

Cons: The user interface is very unintuitive.
The unit drops packets like crazy under high-volume file transfers from a file server. (I had two of them and they both exhibit the same problem.)

Other Thoughts: While this unit was fine under light load conditions, the moment the bandwidth was maxed out - like when transferring a large file from a file server - it drops so many packets that it eventually leads to a timeout condition and the file transfer fails. I am not talking about downloading files from the WAN connection, but rather creating network traffic on the LAN side. I would venture to say the chips do not have adequate heat dissipation and overheat under a heavy load.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

We are sorry for the difficulty you are experiencing.

Can you please try the latest firmware on www.edimax.us site?

The problem happens while you transfer large files in local network rather than downloading files from Internet. Indeed the local file transfter may use lots of bandwidth. Do you use wireless connection to transfer the files? Can you make sure you use WPA2 AES encryption and make sure our BR-6428nS use Auto 20/40MHz than 20Mhz in the wireless Advanced Settings. Can you also please check your wireless adapter has the latest driver in system?

Please feel free to contact our tech support at 408-496-1105 or write an email to " support@edimax.us ". Our tech support team will investigate this issues. We look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

Best regards,
Edimax Tech Support Team

Pros: Easy to set up as a wireless bridge, directions on the Edimax website. I have a Dlink DIR-655 and have 2 of these in other parts of the house with wired devices going into the Edimax. Everything plays nicely together

Cons: Was almost unusable with the delivered firmware.

It was a struggle to get the new firmware off the Edimax site, perhaps it was just a temporary glitch with the website.

Other Thoughts: In the "readme" file for 1.28, it just says "turned off green features" apparently that's what made all the difference.

I mean really, how much electricity does this little thing use in a year?

Pros: I was able to use this as an wired/wireless AP and route a Galaxy S III 4G hot spot as a main connection to the WAN.
Read my other review about limitation, as being forced to enable the wireless routing and automatic DHCP to make use of WISP.

Cons: When mapping MAC addresses to IP machines cannot resolve with default/automatic DNS. However, I was able to cache the MAC address and start the machines in specific orders to have them with specific IP address when connected to the LAN. Since I do not reboot them machines for couple of months, then this is not of annoyance to me.

Other Thoughts: Nothing sturdy, it is made of plastic, like the Bic plastic disposable razors/pens.

Connecting machines to the LAN work, but machines will disconnect and fail their network connectivity if moving huge file via ftp. Attach a gigabit switch and it will solve the problem: hence add to the cost the price of a switch.

I will wait to see when it will fail requiring reboot. Read many reviews about Zyxel: excellent customer service, excellent firware, but their low end products as this one, have high failure rate down the road.

Pros: I configured with as AP to share my 4G data. Do not use the back ports of the device for your LAN network, attach a gigabit switch to one of the back port for your local network - using the back ports showed a random disconnection when ftp'ing use files.

Cons: You need to enable wireless to be able to use WISP, so I cannot disable WIR as AP. Well you cannot expect to get everything from such a small gizmo.
Mapping MAC address to specific IP when using WISP AP worked but default DNS was not setup for machines on the LAN, you need to enable DHCP w/o mapping MAC to IP.

Other Thoughts: I needed to subnet and have my machine(s) on a LAN rather then going directly to my Galaxy S3 4G data host, hence I can disconnect my phone without affecting the networked machines. This gizmo served as a WISP AP (access point). Just play with it and you'll figure it out.

Lovely gizmo.

Pros: Works as described so far. Good wifi range. Bargain! Small and slick looking. White. LEDs are dim. (I like that)

Cons: It's not dual band, but you knew that. When I ran the set-up wizard it disconnected my network. LOL! Firmware was out of date by like 2 years on the one I got. Manual configuration needed.

Other Thoughts: If you can manually configure a router, then this will work. Make sure to do a firmware update after the installation - the update added about a 50% speed increase to my wifi download Mbps. I had the best speed with WPA2 as the encryption type.