Having owned a wireless router at school for nearly four years, we’ve loved it. It’s a fantastic device, and now we’re on the verge of pulling up all the wiring to go 100% wireless. That device is quite reliable and has worked for ages. It was the DLink Model 624 and I upgraded the firmware once. I’m always wary of upgrading firmware because of unexpected problems and the risk of having an expensive plastic box as the result.
So I rushed out and bought a Dlink 524 Model to have the same at home on our home network. What a reliable company I thought! Was I wrong? The 524 was similar in design but hugely flawed. The network was strong and reliable but the system would experience brownouts in surfing. You could connect to the box, but the box would not connect to the Internet. Sometimes you could get connected if you rebooted the box, but each connection period would get shorter and shorter. In all, it was a piece of junk compared to its older brother. Reviews on other websites indicated that the device was flawed, and many users experienced the same problem.
Today, I finally had enough. The aerial at the back broke off. For no reason. Just broke. So I took it to the garbage dump. I’m now in the market for a new device, and Buy’s Sale showed up an interesting candidate for me: TRENDnet TEW-432BRP 54Mbps Wireless Firewall Router. It seems to have everything I need, plus a decent connection speed. At only $16, I can’t expect too much from a box like this, but in a recessionary period, if it’s reliable enough, it will certainly exceed my expectations. After DLink’s second box, that will be easy enough. If you’re a beginner or this is your first box, it might be better to spend a little more money. Do consider whether you get a decent guarantee with it, so you can get it fixed or exchanged, should you experience problems. That’s something I wish I had done in the first few weeks of ownership of my DLink524.