TP-Link N300 Wireless Extender Wi-Fi Router

Pros: * While it worked, it had extremely great range and speed. * The product almost never needed a reboot and was easy to setup. * People (like me) are amazed with this product’s initial performance and give it sterling reviews. Heh, but in half a year… Cons: * WiFi constantly disconnects. It probably fried. *READ THE COMMON CONS IN REVIEWS PEEPS*. Too hot, and not enough area to dissipate heat. WiFi bandwidth has dropped to 10mbps from ~100 initially when it does work. * Support is among the worst I’ve ever seen. I have been trying to reach tech support by phone for TWO WEEKS. 90% of the time the number does not even RING. Try it: 866-225-8139. The other 10% of the time nobody picks up – can’t even leave a message. * I finally managed to get some numbers they don’t publish and they let me talk to someone. They told me to try some obvious troubleshooting, and send an RMA request if that didn’t work. It didn’t help and I sent the email. The email address supplied was INVALID. * Called again and managed to reach someone. Again the rep refused to transfer me anywhere and gave me an email. This time it went through, but she said she would reply immediately…still waiting. * Regular support emails have gone unanswe Overall Review: * I am a technician, and I see products fail due to luck of the draw all the time — I expect it and forgive it. * However, when companies that happily took my money fail to live up to their warranties…and THEN give you the run around, it makes me LIVID. * Take the positive reviews with a grain of salt. Most people do not have their product much longer than a few weeks before leaving a glowing review (like I did). The product impresses initially, but let’s see how they feel when they have a product that dies and they meet TP-LINK’s “support.” I was unsure of this lesser known brand but took a gamble. Boy I learned my lesson. Hope you don’t have to make the same mistake!

Pros: Great price, good signal strength, easy configuration. Since this 300Mbps dual-antenna model is only $5 more than the single-antenna 150Mbps speed TP-Link model, it’s a great deal. Have used 25+ of these and so far no failures or DOA units. Cons: Signal strength and speed ARE little less than some of the more expensive models I’ve used, but for the price it’s hard to beat. Overall Review: Keep in mind it’s only $25 when you buy it and don’t expect the top-of-line performance you would get from a $300 high-end wireless router. I’ve been an IT tech for 25 years and have used just about everything from Linksys, Cisco (real Cisco-not Linksys!), D-Link, NetGear and others. To be fair the high end models do offer features and performance better than this one… but you pay for it. If all you need is a simple wireless setup to surf the Internet, this one is hard to beat. Even if you buy 2 of them for different areas to get the coverage you need, that’s still cheaper than a high-end router. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about tech support, but honestly I’ve never had to use it so I can’t comment on that. But, if you’re wanting a complicated setup, you shouldn’t expect free training from tech support though – that’s not their job. Call a local computer tech to help instead of expecting tech support to train you and do it for you for free. For a product in this price range, it’s geared for a simple home user; not a business setting… and tech support is probably trained for that type of user – so don’t blame them it they aren’t able to help with high-end setups for a low-price product. I’ve been Cisco certified for years and if I have a problem and call their tech support, they are geared for business support because their products are very expensive. I don’t expect the same level of support for a $25 router that I would get from a $1,000 router.

Pros: Great price. Very easy to install as part of a network. Makes an excellent range extender by running a hard wire from main router to this home router. Access speed and connection are great with no disconnects so far. Cons: None Overall Review: For the price of this router it works just as well as the more expensive ones available on the market.