Joined on 02/07/04
Wireless Performance
Pros: - Advanced functions available such as beacon interval and more... - GUI Navigation using Google Chrome works very well (see cons for IE) - GUI is good for beginners, pretty much plug and play networking - 5Ghz signal strength is significantly better than my other (major brand) routers (using the auto channel) - 2.4ghz range is on par with my other routers - Slight warmth (doesn't get quite as hot as my other routers) - Reliable, my VPN never dropped while remaining online for a week straight - Fast, no speed issues here, keeps up with my needs at every corner of the house (and to the mail box) - Advanced security features such as Guest accounts and various combinations of encryptions and WPS - USB file server using Samba and FTP for inside and outside access - Port address translation (PAT), good if you have several servers you want to remote, TN calls it "virtual server" - Gigabit LAN is always a bonus - DMZ and Port forwarding work well (see below for a firewall related con) - Dual band support with 20, 40, and 80 MHz Channel BandWidth options - 802.11ac means up to 1.3 gigabit wifi! - Applying settings is slightly faster than previous routers I have used
Cons: - Making certain minor changes can reset your connection without warning - GUI Navigation using IE 10 extremely slow at times, or pages don't load at all (see pros on Chrome) - Lacks keyword URL filtering (I use very heavily for my kids on my linksys/cisco) - No DD-WRT support at this time (see "Other" below) - DynDNS setting did not work, going to the website my record was stale - DDNS settings do not give any indication of success or failure when applied - Port forwarding does not have an option for UDP and TCP combined and it doesn't have any common presets - No option to change "Internet NAT redirect" (or loopback) in the firewall (DMZ does not seem to fix this either), blocking the ability to test a port forwarding rule from inside your network.
Overall Review: When it comes down to it, Wireless Performance is all that really matters... - I have owned some of the best to the worse routers, this one ranks as one of the better ones despite my complaints. I have just about every brand of router, overall features vs performance the stronger 5ghz signal and faster speeds makes this one a winner. - I have a two story 4 bedroom house, none of my other routers would work completely throughout the house, but this one does on both 2.4ghz and 5ghz signals. With every router I have ever owned I had to set the channel of my signal to a specific number to even work remotely well, with this router right out of the box the auto setting for channels demonstrated better quality. - Make sure you keep in a ventilated area, it gets slightly warm, I could imagine it overheating if placed somewhere with no airflow. - I prefer dd-wrt firmware, it opens up the routers potential and in some cases fixes stability issues, I noticed that several Trendnet’s are listed from TEW-410 to TEW-673, so there is still hope it will be released in the near future. - Real world wireless speeds with wireless N (at 8 feet from router): Sustained 22MB/sec (176Mbit) transfer on 5GHz Sustained 11MB/sec (88Mbit) transfer on 2.4GHz - NOTE: I was unable to test 802.11ac speeds since I did not have a compatible device, but the overall speeds of N were snappy and stable, that's all I care. File transfers were from file server to laptop with a SATA III SSD, no delays were experienced in file transfers.
Works
Pros: Was fast enough to keep up with continous shooting on a 10mp at about 3 per sec.. jpeg. Did not die on me and make me loose any photos
Cons: slowed down within the first year, thought the camera was having issues, and got the busy signal often, bought new camera that the specs say can shoot 60 on a regular CF, but when this card is in it can only shoot 15, my FREE card that the camera came with can shoot over 200 jpegs continuous, so this card is failing in under a year, shame
Overall Review: when I bought it, it claimed to have a lifetime warranty, so my hopes are they will replace it. as always, newegg is awesome
NOT as pictured
Pros: None
Cons: Feels cheap, haven't tried it yet, but looks like junk Does not match photo yet the box shows the right photo
Overall Review: Mine was all black, cheap plastic head (not the cork shown in the picture), super light, afraid it will easily fall with my DSLR on it. The box shows SUNPAK 6601UT with the correct picture of the all black product, so not sure if that is what it is or if their are several different sub-models. Disappointing.
Sound good, but the mic is aweful
Pros: -Sound is decent
Cons: -Bulky -Mic causes echo -When you adjust mic low enough to not echo, its too quiet for other players to hear you
Overall Review: -wish i could return with no cost -if you adjust the mic on your PC, it won't echo, can't say much for PS4 or Xbox, I would not buy this again. -The thumper was barely noticeable (has an on/off button near mic), definitely not worth it for that -if it had a mic mute button, it may have worked ok... press to talk is the only way you can use this in a game
Not great
Pros: -Hardware x264/x265 encoding (but so is the 960) -Supported Hardware Plex Streaming (but so is the 960) -Stable (but so is the 960)
Cons: -Not noticeably faster than my 960 -Twice as much $$ as a 960
Overall Review: -I would recommend buying an older 960 for just gaming, better bang for the buck, unless you need hardware x265 encoding with look ahead. -I only play a few games (Americas Army, Fortnite, Trackmania), they get relatively the same frame rate as my other machine with the same CPU and Ram and GFX Settings with a 960, so I am not really impressed at this point, just a waste of money.
Decent headset
Pros: - Comfortable - Clear sound - Loud mic* - Two mic options (boom & in-line) - Flat cables - Solid feeling
Cons: - Not as good as my Klipsch, but on sale, much better deal - Mic is not as loud when using a splitter (but boost can compensate) - Doesn't come with a splitter for mic in/speaker out
Overall Review: * Mic was nice and loud on my PC with single jack (like cell phone), but when plugged into another PC using a splitter (tried a couple splitters) , no matter what I had to go into the settings and boost it, which produced noise, but Teamspeak removes all the noise and it still sounds better than my last headset. But nothing beats my Klipsch headset. And I did not try it on the Xbox as I do not have one, I am using this on my PC.
Will not return calls or emails
The item says in route to carrier now for over 2 weeks, I sent an email and called several times with no answer or reply (also left voice mail). For a company that has such good reviews, it seems hard to believe... maybe they are starting to go under??? I normally do not give bad reviews to companies, hope this gets resolved soon.