Review on TRENDnet Wireless Gigabit Pre Encrypted TEW 812DRU by Howie Broyles

First let me say that you will see a lot of conflicting opinions about this router as the firmware is very complex for a typical consumer router. However, this is why it will be LOVED by power users and geeks alike. It also flashes with DD-WRT if you want even more features than what comes on it. For the current price, SPECIALLY refurbished, this router is an absolute steal. The physical design of the router itself leaves little to be desired. The plastic feels very cheap, and there are no "feet" to help hold the router upright, nor any weights. However, I hope you don't buy it for its looks! The control panel is very clear and straightforward. When you connect the router for the first time and navigate to the gateway IP address, you will be presented with an internet connection wizard after entering the administrator credentials. This is very short and only helps you to set up your internet connection. As far as I can tell, most of the router's default settings are pretty secure too. Of course, there's plenty of room to customize things to your heart's content. Some of the features that this router includes are: Wireless Access Point/Signal Booster Mode, Packet Health Check, Virtual Servers, VLANs, System Logging, Qo, Multiple SSIDs for each Access Point that are so advanced that a regular user cannot would be able to find out (for example, dd-wrt is lol). So this router is a great idea for those who are looking for a more advanced interface but aren't ready to take the plunge into DD-WRT just yet. Even with the stock firmware, this router is way faster than my old Netgear ac1200. However, DD-WRT makes it even faster. It's DD-WRT that REALLY brings out the magic of this router. Unfortunately, the version of DD-WRT available for this router does not include OpenVPN client configuration, but it does include PPTP. It also doesn't support a USB port for file sharing or a third guest WiFi network. However, as far as I can tell, the rest of the features are fully present. The developer says they need one of these routers to add all these features. that's all. All in all, this is a great router whether you're running OEM or DD-WRT firmware. It just depends on what features you want the most. I personally bought this refurbed as a toy and since I can't put the OEM firmware on it after flashing to DD-WRT I bought a second one. It's the first time I've bought two identical routers just because I liked them so much with both OEM firmware and DD-WRT, so that's saying a lot.