Introduction

Since the introduction of wireless networking (back in the days of direct path microwave), people have been looking for better, faster and more secure ways of doing things. When the wireless network hit the home it was slow; there is no other way to describe it. It was slow and clunky. Today, while wireless is still not as fast as wired networks, we are seeing pretty big leaps in speed. The n specification brings us up to 300Mbps (that is 150Mbps each direction).

The problem is that the actual n specification does not max out at 300Mbps. The top speed you can get with the n spec is actually 600Mbps. This is using MCS 31 (Modulation and Coding Scheme), 64-QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation) modulation over a 400ns (guard interval) 40MHz channel with four spatial stream (usually four antennas, too) and a Coding Rate of 5/6. While we are not seeing that quite yet, what we are seeing is one step down. This is the MCS 23 with three spatial streams, 5/6 coding rate, 40MHz channel with a guard interval of 400ns.

When you put all this together you get 450Mbps. This is what the TRENDnet TEW-691GR brings to the table. So let's power up the WiFi, get on our tin foil hats and see what this baby can do.