Product Review: Tenda 300Mbps Wireless N Easy Setup Router

With an increase in gadgets requiring Internet access in our home, we finally decided to go wireless. And out of all the existing routers available, we picked one on the lower end of the cost spectrum. The entire product cost around PHP 1200 and comes with a one-year warranty.

This package comes with an installation CD, an Ethernet cable for connecting the router to a desktop computer, manuals, a power adapter, and of course, the router itself.

Setup of the physical connections of the router was pretty easy. Just hook up port 1 to the desktop (where your DSL modem was originally connected), and hook up the DSL modem to the WAN port at the back of the router.

Detecting the router proved to be slightly challenging even though I was already using Windows 7. Even though I went to 192.168.0.1, I wasn't going into the router's management interface. I had to pop-in the router setup CD, and after running setup, I was given an option to CONFIGURE the router.

The first page you see will allow you to change the SECURITY KEY, which will hopefully prevent unauthorized access to your internet connection.

First order of business is to change the admin password which is the same as the admin username. You can do this from the TOOLS tab at the top menu then choose CHANGE PASSWORD from the left side menu.

In case you forgot to change the SECURITY KEY, you can go to the HOME tab at the top menu and change it from there.

Next, configure the type of internet connection. You can do this from the ADVANCED tab at the top menu then choose INTERNET CONNECTION SETUP from the left side menu. Our internet provider uses DHCP instead of PPPoE so I chose DHCP.

After doing this, our wireless gadgets were able to connect to the internet. But the desktop was not able to. The reason for this was because the DSL modem was also configured to the address 192.168.0.1 by default. This was conflicting with the router's default assigned address. This was probably the reason I couldn't detect my router initially and why I needed the setup CD.

To solve this problem, simply assign a different address to the router. Do this from the ADVANCED tab at the top menu then choose LAN SETTINGS from the left side menu. Assign a different IP Address for your router. Try something like 192.168.5.1.

After changing the IP address for the router, my desktop was then also able to connect to the internet.

There are some additional features that I haven't explored yet, and I'll most likely try tweaking those in the future.

So far, I'm pleased with this product and would recommend it especially if its your first time to configure a wireless internet connection at home.