Pros: I wrote an update about 6 months ago after having used this router for a few weeks. I had basically no problems to report then, and I am glad to say that this is still the case. Through Newegg's eggxpert reviewer program, I have used 5 different routers in the past 6 months, and the only one I've used for more than a month is this one. I haven't had to even power cycle the unit in months. It has been absolutely awesomely reliable.

Cons: As far as daily use is concerned, there really aren't any. It just works!

Overall Review: My cable provider (Buckeye Cable System in NW Ohio) suggested that their equipment, made by Arris, does not work well with D-Link. I didn't think much of it, until I was power cycling my D-Link router every 2 days. I think that is part of the reason I am so happy with this router; because I haven't had a single issue with it.

Pros: I was a bit skeptical when initially removing the AC1750 from it's box knowing I'd be replacing my trusty D-Link DGL-4500 router with it. There were no visible, easily removable antennae as on my old router, just a simple square box, without even a simple stand to make sure it stays upright. However, once the initial configuration was complete, and the entire home network was plugged in and running, that skepticism all but disappeared. My home network consists of, but isn't limited to, one Vonage Voip router, Playstation 3, 2 laptops which frequently stream Netflix and/or Hulu, Facebook, e-mail, surf the web, and more, and 3 gaming PCs, running anything and everything as the laptops, in addition to anything from Diablo III, CoD, Battlefield, Team Fortress 2, Arma II, Left 4 Dead, (our Steam accounts alone have over 500 games each), and as many as 4 smartphones doing anything and everything a smartphone is capable of. It's in a 2-story townhome with one gaming PC and a laptop downstairs, the other s upstairs, and the router is located upstairs near the center of the building. All 3 PCs are wired in, as well as the Vonage router, all the rest run wireless, save the PS3, which more often than not swaps an ethernet cable with the gaming PC that's in the same room. My son has always perfered a wired connection with his PS3, it has nothing to do with this particular router. The AC1750 performs flawlessly, during simultaneous movie streaming (in HD, and sometimes on 2 or more computers), online gaming (at times all 3 PCs engaged in different shooters...e.g. Battlefield 3 on one, Team Fortress 2 on another, and CoD MW3 on the third), and Vonage service works as well as ever at any given time. The laptop located downstairs states 100% signal strength as well as the laptop upstairs, which I'd expect as it's located much closer and on the same floor as the router. Router setup was simple. However, 'simple' doesn't imply lack of options. Once you're initially up and running you have a wealth of options available to help secure your network(s), as well as control network access for those authorized on your network(s), among many other options. So I suppose 'simple' is a relative term...though for those just wanting the basic setup, the Setup Wizard option makes the process practically painless.

Cons: I prefer the option of simply swapping antennae for improved performance. The lack of easily removable antennae on the AC1750 make this all but a simple process. My relatively short experience using this router has yet to necessitate this option, but having the option available IF NEEDED, would be preferred. I've always employed the DHCP reservation list, however, I noticed on the TrendNet I had to manually enter the computer's address and name for each computer I wished to reserve. On my D-link, a simple drop down list would automatically fill in the necessary information for you and a simple click would save the information to the router (one could edit the information if desired, on the d-link, before saving). It wasn't a big deal, just a little easier on the D-link. I didn't see an option to e-mail the system log if so desired, or upon a specific type of error. I may have missed it somewhere, but if it isn't available, that option would be appreciated, though not absolutely necessary. The most glaring omission...a HELP button! My D-link router has a handy HELP button at the top of each configuration page. If you want more detailed information regarding any and all available options/commands, a simple click of that button brings up a detailed information page. I did not see that anywhere while perusing the AC1750's configuration pages. It's on the CD, but that means I have to access the CD, it should already be available right there in the configuration menus.

Overall Review: Overall I'm impressed with the AC1750, however, some of the configuration menus could use a bit more polish and detail, and a small stand for stability would be nice.

Pros: 5 Ghz connectivity: In my neighborhood, there are over twenty 2.4 Ghz WiFi networks within range. When I installed this router, it was the only 5 Ghz WiFi network within range. Thus, decreased congestion is definitely an advantage in being an early adopter in the 5 Ghz space. As dual-band routers and devices become more commonplace and the 5 Ghz space becomes more congested, this advantage will dissipate. Internet speed: This router offers slightly improved bandwidth, from both the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz radios. My previous 2.4 Ghz router showed 29.34 Mbps down and 11.14 Mbps up; this router showed 30.4 Mbps down and 11.28 Mbps up on the 2.4 Ghz radio, and 31.47 Mbps down and 11.36 Mbps up on the 5 Ghz radio. This only represents a 7% increase, but it is worth mentioning. Intranet speed: When transferring files between computers, I found the 5 Ghz transfer speeds to be significantly improved compared to my previous router and 2.4 Ghz transfers on this router. On both 2.4 Ghz radios, file transfers occurred at approximately 64.44 Mbps. On the 5 Ghz radio, file transfers occurred at 187.27 Mbps. This improvement will benefit anyone who uses intranet connectivity, such as network-attached storage. Inter-band connectivity: Although the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz radios broadcast on different SSIDs, the radios are bridged internally. Thus device-to-device connectivity, including Windows file sharing, works seamlessly. I encountered no incompatibilities connecting devices that connected to the router on separate radios. Firmware: The router’s configuration software is very thorough, and offers many advanced options including QoS, guest networks, etc. The configuration is similar to DD-WRT in both interface and features, though I think the resemblance is only cosmetic since DD-WRT is not cited.

Cons: Range: One of the oft-cited disadvantages of the 5 Ghz spectrum is decreased range due to the increased impedance of 5 Ghz signals by walls and buildings. I found this disadvantage to be true, but only at some ranges. Below is a list of testing locations (ordered by increasing distance) and the signal strength (in decibels as measured from my laptop) of the previous 2.4 Ghz router, TrendNet router at 2.4 Ghz, and TrendNet router at 5 Ghz: - Desk next to router: -34 db, -25 db, -30 db - Living room: -41 db, -38 db, -50 db - Bedroom: -50 db, -47 db, -57 db - Den: -60 db, -60 db, -75 db - Porch: -70 db, -70 db, -81 db At every range, the TrendNet 2.4 Ghz radio is at least as strong, if not stronger, than my previous router. For the TrendNet 5 Ghz radio, signal strength is better than my previous router at very close range, but trails off quickly. At medium and long range, the 2.4 Ghz band offers measurably better signal. The decreased performance of the 5 Ghz band does not appear to be unique to this router by any means. However, if range is critical, then the 2.4 Ghz network may be more reliable, even if it suffers from greater congestion.

Overall Review: This router offers excellent 5 Ghz performance for both internet and intranet tasks. I also liked the highly configurable firmware allows that allows power users to tweak advanced settings. However, this router’s 5 Ghz band does suffer from the commonly encountered decrease in signal strength. As stated earlier, I don’t think this is the result of any deficiency in design or manufacturing, but simply an engineering limitation. However, users who frequently connect from the fringes of their router’s service area will likely want to use the 2.4 Ghz band, even if it means a decrease in throughput. Signal strength testing: Counts of WiFi networks and measurements of signal strength were performed using InSSIDer software version 3.0.5.80. Bandwidth testing: All bandwidth tests were conducted in triplicate, with the middle value cited. Bandwidth testing was performed on a desktop via a dual-band 802.11n PCI-Express wireless adapter with an external dipole antenna. I have chosen not to spring for an 802.11ac adapter since the standard is not yet finalized and their steep price. Previous router: The previous router cited was advertised as a “high-power” 2.4 Ghz 802.11a/b/g/n router that lacked a 5 Ghz radio.

Pros: This router gets it right where it matters: speed and reliability. Very fast, very reliable, virtually no problems whatsoever for me. Other reviews indicate some issues, and I can't attest to this router under all conditions, but with three phones, two laptops (wireless), a Roku (wired), and a PC (wired), this thing does fine. No lag, no issues, and thank goodness -- it put into retirement an old Belkin router that was obnoxious and could never stream video properly on any device except the Roku. Once this thing was set up, I was happy with this unit. If you have plenty of money for a home router where all you want is speed, this is fine. I think I can safely say the speed is guaranteed to be great. Range is decent, although this is in a small apartment, so I can't comment if you have a big house how well it would work there.

Cons: Now there are a few cons. Some of them are petty or minor. I'll go through those first. There is no power info on the router. When I have a box full of AC adapters and a million devices to attach them to, it's nice when the device tells me what it wants. The router is too light (compared to its size). Now, the big size is good for heat/airflow, but it's impossible to stand on its size. So be aware, it will need to take up the largest possible footprint unless you want to precariously stand it up. And it is big, seriously. Read the dimensions. And the guest network is enabled by default. I consider that the wrong thing. Feel free to disagree, but that's a peeve of mine. My other major complaint is the interface, software, features, etc. It's all basically one big complaint about how I have to interact with the router. I don't like installing third-party firmware, and it's more fair to judge the box by the firmware it comes with. In this case, it's worth an egg off the score. The time doesn't update itself. The firmware doesn't look for updates. LAN clients are always listed as having their lease expired, no matter what their actual status. Sometimes multiple leases are issued to the same client. Password must be alphanumeric only. Security settings seem over-simplified. In the end, I don't like the menu system at all. I have a 16" laptop screen and it's hard to see the menu without scrolling around. Places where I can type in (for example) port forwarding have 100 empty fields to fill in any forwarding I want -- even if they are all blank. Not a list of the 5-10 ports and "ADD A NEW PORT FORWARD" button. Software and features feel like they are second-rate or out-of-date. And it is VERY slow. This is a very expensive router. The software / web interface should be VERY well designed. This is worse than an old router, the router at my other place, and I'm really glad (frankly) that my old router is the one I have a server behind, because I'd hate to have to jump through hoops to set up all the port forwarding I need on this TRENDnet router. One final con, I don't need / use the USB storage option, but it's 2.0. Another thing that is decidedly anachronistic for a router that wants you to adopt the AC protocol (which is a part of this hefty price tag).

Overall Review: I experienced weird latency / packet loss readings on wireless tests, but I strongly suspect the readings were faulty. I do not have any AC protocol devices, so I can only speak to the router's B/G/N performance. Overall, for such a price, the software should be better, the features should be robust and transparent. Great hardware. Speeds excellent. Seems to be reliable after two weeks (although I can't speak to any longer term reliability than that). But the software / web interface is a bit clunky and it feels less than cutting-edge, to say the least. That's surprising, with this sort of price-tag. And I seriously appreciate the previous reviewers which note that 1750 is a completely asinine rating -- no single band has that speed. It's like advertising a 5-speed car that can go 240 mph by adding up its max speed in every gear.

Pros: I have already used this model for an entire week before submitting my review to really get a feel for its capabilities and in that week I have to say things started off great and only got better as I fine-tuned the router and became more aware of its capabilities and limitations (of which it has few). First and foremost it has a ton of user-friendly features like; a rear USB share port (printer, hard drive, etc...), dual band broadcasting (5GHz AC & 2.4GHz N), 1750Mbps Speeds (1300+450Mbps), included software that makes the initial setup a simple process and successfully avoids a lot of the frustrations that can be associated with new hardware for the general public (this is included on a disk or available via download on the company website), there is no ugly directional antenna to aim like some routers, it boasts a massive coverage area and generally delivers in this department. In my testing I put this thing through all the paces and it exceeded my expectations with flying colors, especially when you factor in that it's not the most expensive AC router on the market by a long shot, but I couldn't tell from my speed tests. The TRENDnet TEW-812DRU is a solid performing router with all the latest tech & options that anyone with a wireless home network will benefit from, even if you're upgrading from wireless N tech you can still benefit from this more than I expected. Wireless speeds rarely translate from "theory" to real world performance as many factors come in to play like interference, but the TRENDnet surprised me by coming a lot closer to the listed specs than I expected it would. (Anywhere from 30 to 95% depending on my varying distance and product used on the speed tests.) You'd be hard pressed to find fault in this unit when properly setup and used as I found non. In the 7 days I used it I only lost my signal once and that was because I was testing it's range limitations and in doing so traveled OUTSIDE of my home and halfway in-to the street. If I could I would really give this product 4.5 stars but my options are only 4 or 5. Obviously there are faster routers out there, but not many, and certainly not any at this price point and for that it gains an extra half a star in my book for value.

Cons: Not many electronics (laptops, tablets, gaming consoles, & like items) can fully take advantage of this routers top tier "AC Band" connection speeds just yet, but keep in mind it also broadcasts current "standards" like wireless N band. This isn't a fault of the router though. Just know that until technology catches up and everyone starts making products that can take advantage of this new technology you'll most likely have to purchase a separate USB wireless adapter (or a similar product, but don't worry they're not too pricey) to take full advantage of its AC speeds on your laptop or various wireless devices. The router is a little "pricey", but so are all other comparable routers. That being said you really do get what you pay for, and in this case you're paying for a new technology that will really provide an upgrade over even wireless N routers. As a gamer & media buff this appeals to me since I look for every advantage I can get and constantly try to squeeze every bit of performance I can out of my products. And yes, it is slightly bulkier than other models but not by much and that's mostly because of the internal antenna, which I think cleans up the overall look of the unit, and for cooling purposes which will mean the product will last longer in theory. (We all know heat is the enemy when it comes to electronics.)

Overall Review: One thing worth mentioning is that this router boasts an "AC1750" band implying a blazing fast speed 1750Mbps wireless broadcast speed, which it is by all means technically capable of as it utilizes dual-band technology, effectively combining broadcasts of both a wireless N band (@450Mbps) & the new wireless AC band (@1300Mbps).

Pros: * Common format shape and size (small footprint though a bit fat) measuring 1.9 by 6.1 by 7.1 inches (HWL). * Lots of customizable settings and options through the web interface *Color coded LAN receptacles (not really necessary but it looks nice) * Worked great with my Comcast ISP and my Motorola Surfboard modem * Settings reset switch (Sets settings to default for when you biff it playing around with all those web settings) * 802.11ac format and gigabit hardwired ports with dual bands * Good price for a gigabyte router * Easy set up wizard. Setup was super easy. I plugged everything in and turned it all on. Then I ran the setup wizard (only two steps) and voila! Internet connection available. It took about 2 -3 minutes total. * Secure guest network * USB drive/printer share * No random disconnects or pauses, just a good solid internet connection * Came with firmware version 1.0.8.0 dated Feb 23rd 2013. This was the current firmware version as of May 2nd 2013. No update necessary! * Pretty good all-around router, and I would recommend it to my friends. * The web interface is chalk full of settings and things you’ll likely never use, or want to for that matter. If you are a network IT guy with micro managing habits and control issues, this router would be great for you. * The nine front LEDs represent the status of your power, USB connection, WPS, LAN, WAN, and wireless activity. Yea! Blinky lights!

Cons: * Wired connection a little slower than my Netgear gigabit router * Extremely light (I can blow it over with no problem) * Lightness due to being made of all plastic suggesting questionable durability if you tend to manhandle things. * Gets pretty warm. Not hot, but very warm. * Poor ventilation (thus the warmth) * No DLNA Media Server built in. I was using this on my Netgear router to transfer stuff to my Tivo. Guess I’ll have to buy the Tivo desktop software to do that now if I want to use the Trendnet. * No pretty graphical app to show your network off. But guess what, Netgear’s free Genie app works great with the Trendnet! * No built in friendly parental controls (but you can manually enter in IP addresses you want blocked) Better to use a DNS service like OpenDNS.com for this.

Overall Review: The TEW-812DRU's wireless throughput is FAST! Unfortunately, the USB 2.0 11ac adapter I was using has a limited bandwidth created by it’s USB 2.0 interface! DOH! I’ve seen other people get numbers as high as 300Mbps using USB 3.0 11ac adapters… so be sure you take note of this when getting your adapter! I live in a two story house, not huge but a good size medium one with my router upstairs in the bonus room. I used my smart phone and an app called WiFi Analyzer to measure the wireless signal strengths of my 3 routers. Strengths all came in about the same, and the 2.4Ghz channel was constantly stronger than the 5.0Ghz channel by about 15 points. (-1 to -60 excellent, -60 to -85 good, -85 to -100 weak) Right up against the router = -13 Arm’s length from router = -33 Upstairs Bedroom = -62 Downstairs all over = -64 My downstairs TIVO showed the routers all at 85 to 88% signal strength which it said is “excellent”. I would also note that router placement (angle and direction it faces) had very big effects on signal strength for the Trendnet router. I used a program called Qcheck to test speeds between my two computers on a wired connection. First thing I have to say is GIGABIT SPEEDS ARE CRAZY NICE! As a quick example for real world transfers, on my old non-gigabit router, I could transfer a single movie file sized at 568MB from one PC to the other in 49 seconds (11.5MB/Sec). With this Trendnet router it took only 6 seconds (90MB/sec)! If you are using a backup system or NAS to backup through your wired network, gigabit is the only way to go. Here are some Qcheck numbers I tested with my 3 routers through a wired connection: A Linksys non-gigabit router, A Netgear R6200 gigabit router and the Trendnet TEW-812DRU router. TCP Throughput for Linksys: 91.954Mbps TCP Throughput for Netgear: 727.27Mbps TCP Throughput for Trendnet: 615.385 Mbps UDP Throughput for Linksys: 41.02Mbps UDP Throughput for Netgear: 156.86Mbps UDP Throughput for Trendnet: 133.333Mbps As you can see, the Netgear was slightly faster than the Trendnet router. I’m not an expert on the Qcheck program, so I’ll leave it to you to translate these numbers. Testing internet speeds using Bandwidthplace.com, Speakeasy.net/speedtest, Toast.net and Speedteset.net resulted in faster speeds using the Trendnet router over the Netgear router by about 10% average. I’m not sure why and I can’t explain this one either because the ISP and routes to the websites should be the bottleneck. But numbers are numbers! As a last point of interest, I’ve noticed that downloading emails from my Comcast provider were much faster, if not seemingly instant with the Trendnet router vs. the other two routers. Again, no idea why.

Pros: Setting up this router was very fast and straightforward. There really isn't much configuration necessary to start using it. I connected my laptop and cable modem to the wired ports, pointed my browser at http://192.168.10.1, used the initial configuration "wizard" to select DHCP as my internet connection type, and that was it. (As it turns out, DHCP was the default. I later performed a factory reset and found that I didn't need to do any configuration at all to get an internet connection over wired or wifi). The router was stickered with a (presumably unique) SSID and WPA2-PSK key for wireless access. It's probably a good idea to change these, but it's very nice to see encryption enabled by default. I have configured a half dozen wireless routers and this is the first one I've used that did NOT default to an unencrypted, open network. Unlike other routers, I feel that I could give this to a non-technical user and A) they would be able to quickly get their computers online, and B) they would NOT end up with an unencrypted, open network. If you choose to go beyond the initial "wizard" for configuration, you'll find independent configuration for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz network bands, support for up to 4 SSIDs, and the ability to create isolated "guest" networks in each band. Don't let that fool you into thinking you can use 4 channels though. Although the router can communicate on one channel (frequency) in the 2.4 GHz band and another channel in the 5 GHz band simultaneously, multiple SSIDs in one band will have to share the channel assigned to that band. You might wonder why multiple SSIDs are a good thing. Previously, I had two routers, one with a crazy long password for our home network, and another with a simple password for guests. Using two SSIDs, I can replace both of those with this router. I can even assign separate SSIDs to each network band (e.g. home_2ghz, guest_2ghz, home_5ghz, guest_5ghz). This way, if my laptop is connected to one of the 5 GHz SSIDs, its bandwidth to my wired desktop won't be affected by someone moving large files on a home theater PC connected to a 2.4 GHz SSID. I found the range and throughput of the 2.4 GHz band to be comparable to other MIMO 802.11n routers. I placed this router next to my other routers near the front of my home, assigned them all to non-overlapping channels (1, 6, and 11), and walked about the house and surrounding area with a laptop doing speed tests to confirm. All three covered the entire house and the detached garage behind it, with the connection becoming marginal about 10 to 20 feet into the back yard. Since my other two routers have external antennas and this one doesn't, achieving the same range was a pleasant surprise. I used this router for a week before posting this review, including 24 hours of "ping -t" across the router to confirm continuous uptime. Reliability was solid, with no reboots, lags, or other signs of instability during this time.

Cons: he User's Guide on the CD is complete but lacks quality. There are many grammatical errors, copy/paste mistakes (e.g. Samba server text in the FTP server description), and at least one unfinished sentence ("The LED indicator will be"). The default "auto" frequency selection in the 2.4 GHz band decided to use channel 1, which was already in use by my guest network. It was simple to change it to channel 6, but I would have thought that "auto" would choose a channel that was not in use. Although the warranty is 3 years, for some reason the power adapter is only covered for 1 year. I expect that most people don't buy this to be a file server, and that's good. It has a USB 2.0 port and advertises file sharing capability, but I found that capability to be very weak in terms of both speed and security. I performed some speed tests of this router's file sharing capability with a 32 GB flash drive and a 700 GB hard disk, each capable of sustaining greater than 20 MB/s writes when connected directly to my laptop. Using a gigabit wired connection between the laptop and the router, the transfer was a tortoise-like 3.1 MB/s when writing and 7.2 MB/s when reading either media, and it was the same speed using SMB and FTP. For comparison, I copied the same large files across this router to a different computer and measured 16 MB/s when writing. While casually evaluating the built-in FTP server I stumbled across something I'd consider to be a bug in TRENDnet's firmware. Using Firefox, I went to the URL "ftp://192.168.10.1" to bring up the FTP server, and accidentally clicked on "Up to higher level directory" instead of "sda0" (the name it gave to my USB disk). There, at "ftp://192.168.10.1/../", was a directory listing of some of the router's own configuration files, including "smbConfig" and "ftpConfig". Those two files contain the plain-text usernames and passwords for the SMB and FTP server. The next higher level directory, "ftp://192.168.10.1/../../" is the router's root filesystem, including /dev, /proc, and /www. I did not test if these files could be altered, but the FTP server really shouldn't be exposing anything other than the USB disk. Since the FTP server is enabled by default after you connect a USB disk, I recommend that you disable the FTP server (this setting is under Administrator->File Sharing) if you are going to use the USB port for file sharing, or at least use a strong password.

Overall Review: The TEW-812DRU performs very well as a router and wireless access point, and that's the primary use of this product. I'm giving it four stars, with one lost for the quality of the documentation and the weak file server. I measured power consumption of 10W and 24VA with a Kill-A-Watt. It gets a little warm but not at all hot. The product arrived with firmware version 1.0.8.0 which is the most recent available at this time (April 24, 2011).

Pros: Why you want this router: Solid Wireless Performance in both 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands. Best in class AC performance if you need it. Gigabit Ethernet ports. Good enough looking for the living room; important if you want the best speeds close to where you need it most. Under the hood hardware suggests thoughtful engineering choices (rather than blind copying of someone else's reference design.) The 2.4Ghz radio is rock solid, and competes well with any decent access point. If you've got lots of neighbors, and take care to choose the best channel (google "choosing wifi channel" and "inSSider") you'll do well. If you've got no close wifi neighbors, the 40 Mhz setting will give you outstanding coverage and throughput, if you've got devices that can make use of it. (eg, not Apple stuff.) The 5Ghz radio is equally good, but of course the range is somewhat less. And if you've got AC devices (best if they are close) speed is impressive -- over 100 mbps real throughput is no problem. You'll appreciate this speed when you're backing up your AC enabled laptop to your network drives (NAS). Guest networks are de rigeur these days, and the router does not disappoint. Useful if you've got sensitive stuff stored on your network (like Network shares) that you don't want your hacker cousin to see when he comes over for dinner and asks to connect to your wifi. Internal antennas are also a pro, see other thoughts.

Cons: Why you might want to wait: The firmware seems solid with more than adequate features, but it is V1 and may have some minor bugs that could make some of the more advanced features an adventure. Other reviewers have found some minor nuisances -- although, none of them seem to be deal killers for most users. I think all new AC routers will have similar peccadillos. AC wireless is still in "draft" status, which means some minor features and optimizations may change as it becomes finalized. Its possible future firmware updates will not be able to comply. That said, early reports of interoperability with other brand devices has been good. (This was emphatically not the case when wireless N was in draft. I think lessons were learned.) The integrated USB hard drive host works well, and can be configured for both shared drive and FTP access. NTFS drives are a bit slower than they should be, but fast enough to stream a typical HD mp4 movie. (This issue is related to the router's Linux based firmware.) I clocked 5MB down and 3MB up with a WD Essentials USB drive with windows sharing, a bit faster with FTP. You might see an improvement if you format your drive as Linux ext2/3, if you know what that is. Occasionally, the web configuration console was slow to respond, and many minor change required 30 second "waits" while the changes were committed. This may not be a con if you are patient. There are some missing enthusiast features you might see in a high end ASUS or DDWRT router. Features that you might miss: VPN hosting (pass-through works fine), Access Point mode (if you want to disable the routing features, and use it as an add-on to an existing network. That said, the system shares the same Broadcom hardware that many of the hackable routers are using, so its possible DDWRT will someday be available, if you’re into that kind of thing. :)

Overall Review: I mentioned being impressed with the engineering. I very much like the use of internal antennas -- as an engineer, I know internal antennas are much easier to optimize and can have better range and sensitivity than typical external (dipole) antennas. I know some like the option to replace external antennas with aftermarket high gain versions, but I find they are often poorly tuned (which can create significant SWR/matching problems that cancel out the benefit and can kill radios over time.) Results are often variable. External antennas also have to do double duty as 2.4 and 5 Ghz, which is not easy to do well and requires a bit extra circuitry. This router claims 6 internal patch ("f" quarter wave) antennas -- 3 smaller ones for 5Ghz and 3 larger ones for 2.4. A quick look inside the box show there are actually 9 antennas, although the other 3 may not be in use. This type of antenna can be tuned well and often result in better performance than external ones. These seem to work very well. This, by the way, is why the router has an "upright" design, and is not intended to be laid on its side. Also, the Broadcom chipset is capable of beam forming (google it) -- which can improve range considerably. It’s easier to do well with internal antennas. Note: TrendNet doesn't brag about doing beam forming, so they may not have implemented it yet. Other engineering thoughts: Cooling is trick; they use ceramic (look like stones) heat sinks. Very cutting edge. The 2.4 Ghz radio is on internal miniPCI card, and the 5Ghz band uses 3 separate amplifiers. Idle power consumption is around 9 Watts, averaging around 14 Watts under data load. Max power consumption is claimed at 18 Watts. Although higher than a modern N only router without gigabit Ethernet (think 6 watts), it’s still respectably low compared to others in its class. At the end of the day, the most important feature of any router is rock solid wifi. This router appears to deliver.