X-bit labs

300Mbps Wireless N USB 2.0 Adapter: TRENDnet TEW-624UB Review (page 3)

Category: Other

by Platon Scheblykin

[ 02/26/2008 | 10:43 AM ]

Bundled Software

An important thing for every wireless adapter (and for other device types as well) is the driver and accompanying software. The latest driver I could find at the TRENDnet website is dated December 2006, which means that the adapter indeed offers support for the first version of Draft N only. I used this driver for my tests.

There is a special tool that replaces Windows Zero Configuration for the TEW-624UB. This tool, called TEW-624UB Manager, appears in the System Tray when you connect the adapter to your PC. The Manager performs such typical functions as showing information about the current connection, searching for access points, establishing a connection, etc. There are five tabs in the Manager window where you can do something or just view adapter-related info. The tabs are in the left part of the program window while the contents of each tab are displayed in the main part of the window.

The Link Info page provides basic information about the current wireless communication session: session SSID, channel number, frequency, encryption, etc. The two graphs on this page, updated in real-time mode, show the data reception and transmission speeds. Although the graphs are not very precise, this feature is a nice addition to the rest of the information provided on the page.

The Configuration page shows those settings of the adapter that are going to be useful if the adapter is used in ad-hoc mode.

The Advanced page offers traffic encryption options.

The Site Survey page displays a list of access points that have been found after scanning through the entire operating frequency range. A list of all connection profiles defined manually by the user or created automatically on the first connection to an access point is shown here, too. The list and the profiles are editable.

On the last page, About, you can find information about the driver and utility and look up the adapter’s MAC address.

Summing everything up, the TEW-624UB seems to have average functionality. Besides the real-time speed graphs, the manager doesn’t offer anything exceptional to you. It doesn’t have serious flaws either, though.