TRENDnet TEW-711BR Review

So I needed to get a router for my grandmother-in-law after finding out her PC was directly connected to her cable modem. She only has one device (her computer) which is only used for email and web browsing. She doesn't need wireless, but obviously needs something that can be set and forget. I went for a gamble and picked up a TRENDnet TEW-711BR, it was on sale at Newegg for $15.99 with free shipping and I had yet to have bad luck with TRENDnet products so far.

The router was held securely in the box in a cardboard tray. Almost everything it was shipped in was recyclable which is nice. Received hardware version 1.0R. Shipped with firmware version 1.00b31, updated and tested with 1.01b09.

For my testing I applied a "load" using iperf. Power measurements taken with a Kill-a-Watt. I used the web GUI to disable the WiFi radio.

Router Status	Power Usage
Idle (Wifi on)	1.6W
Load LAN-WAN (Wifi on)	2.0W
Load WLAN-WAN (Wifi on)	2.0W
Load WLAN-LAN and LAN-WAN (Wifi on)	2.2W
Idle (Wifi off)	1.1W
Load LAN-WAN (Wifi off)	1.6W

Routing

Iperf testing shows that this router is limited only by its 100 Mbps WAN port. Using two client and two server processes I was able to sustain just under symmetrical 100 Mbps speeds between LAN to WAN(~94.3 Mbps, just under 190 Mbps bi-directional). Refreshing Steam servers multiple times while playing Team Fortress 2 showed no impact and no issue with browsing on a different system. Ping times remained low throughout this as well. I measured the max simultaneous connections at 3973 - so this is likely around 4096 total connections. Overall this router offered impressive performance for its low-end price point.

Wireless

Wireless coverage is average for a low-cost, single-antenna device. Performance is acceptable - iperf testing showed real world throughput of around 38 Mbps at a distance of a few feet - Windows showed a connection speed of 130 Mbps. Separating myself by about 2 stories I had much poorer signal, but could still browse the web and stream video without issue. 40 MHz channel width testing was not possible due to the crowded 2.4 MHz spectrum in my location. Wireless performance was certainly acceptable.

GUI

The Web GUI is fast, simple, and intuitive. All the usual features found in modern routers are present. One very neat feature is the ability to capture packets from either the WAN and LAN interfaces. When you stop a capture, the packets can be downloaded in a standard Wireshark .pcap file. I'm not sure what the limit is as to how long you can capture for, but this was a pretty neat feature for such a cheap device. The normally common feature of a Guest wireless network was not present.

Other

Device is light, but has rubber feet to keep it sliding around. 5 year warranty is admirable, but I hope I never have to use it. Through all the testing/loading the max temperature reached was around 92F at the top of the enclosure measured by an infrared thermoeter (~77F ambient). Normal operating temp was much lower at around 80F. I never had to reboot or power-off the router during testing

Conclusion

Highly recommend for the light user or someone not needing the latest and greatest WiFi coverage. Fantastic bang-for-your-buck at the price point I paid. At a normal price of around $25 there are likely better options out there.