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I did however need to call support to help me change the IP address etc to get it set up. I purchased this with the idea of only using it as a wireless access point. For that, it is awesome and I have no problems. That went farely well (India) but after 15 minutes, it was working like a charm. Great product, small form factor, no hassle after initial set up, just what I needed (stability).
The TRENDnet TEW-430APS is a great little device. (this is the part that took me a litte time to figure out). |control panel | network connections | right click on Local area connection - select properties | cick on Internet protocol TCP/IP - then click on properties | change "obtain an IP address automatically" to "use the following IP address"ip address 192.168.1.50subnet 255.255.255.0click OKNow you can activate Internet Explorer and type [.]. I know the TEW-430APS stands for Access Point or Bridge so I ordered it. From here follow the instructions in the manual for changing the device to AP Client mode. It works great. I couldn't run a cat5 cable from my router to my Panasonic BD-60 blue ray player, so I needed a wireless bridge. Reconfigure you IP address to 192.168.1.50 by doing this.
The only problem I had with the setup it this.First connect the Trendnet to your router with lan cable. Connect your computer/laptop to the router with lan cable. into the url address and access the trendnet page. Don't forget to reconfigure your Local Area Connection IP address back to what it was.This device worked well as an access point also.
He was extremely helpful. Note that currently I can only provide internet to one or the other at a time with this device. Turns out, the documentation is wrong and I needed to set my static IP to 192.168.1.15, and leave default gateway blank. It only has one ethernet port on the back. I ended up calling TrentNet technical support. Now that the device is up and running, it works as expected. It doesn't mention using a default gateway, but typically you would fill this out.
Getting it set up was a bear though. My DSL modem and router is upstairs in the office, and since I am renting I don't want to go to the trouble of running ethernet to the living room. The instructions you might as well set on fire as soon as you have them in your hands. As I said, he was very helpful.So bottom line, the product works as intended.
I am using this product to extend my wireless network and deliver internet connectivity to my DirecTV receiver and my X-Box 360 down in the living room. I entered 192.168.1.100, which is the default IP of the access point. None of this worked. I was on hold for all of 5 seconds, when a nice man from India picked up and got my problem solved in maybe 10 minutes. You have to set your computer up with a static IP in order to access the management software on the device. But he asked me what I wanted to use the device for, and he went ahead and walked me through the rest of the settings. I would need a switch/hub to split the signal to both devices. After doing this, and doing a hard reset of the access point (via the reset button on the back), I was finally able to log into the access point.
They were outright wrong. The manual says to give your computer a static IP of 192.168.1.x, with x being a number between 2 and 254. That was all I was calling about, because I was fairly sure I could set up the rest on my own. The documentation is absolutely worthless, and the tech support at TrentNet is top notch (in my experience).
I bought this for use with a new Panasonic Blue Ray disc player that was Web-enabled. When I tried that, and changed a couple of more IP settings, it worked, and has continued to work, quite well actually.I would say that if you are not experienced with network addresses and TCP/IP settings, you stay away from this thing. I tried to explain that was a major feat since the router was clear across the other side of the house.
This sounded like it would do the trick, at least on the surface, and it eventually did.However as several other people have pointed out about this unit the documentation with the unit is woefully inadequate and that which comes on the DVD even less so. After I cleared the security hurdles (my network is locked down with 128 bit WEP encryption) I kept fooling with settings. I wanted to take my existing home wireless signal and pass it to the Blue Ray without the necessity of running a Cat 5 cable from the router to the DVD player.
He kept repeating that and said to call back when I had done so, and gave me a case number.I went back at it on my own. After much reservation I finally broke down and made a call to their Tech Support, reached a guy that barely spoke English (so common these days) who could not understand what I wanted to do (simple enought, use this to connect my Blue Ray DVD to the Internet). He kept telling me to run a direct Cat 5 to the DVD to see if that worked first.
There is a setting that lets you use this as a "repeater" rather than an access point (the instructions don't say much about that, go figure). It will do what you want it to do, but you may never figure it out.
It also does not play well with Bit Torrent. This router is no good if you're a power user. It gets overwhelmed all too easily if you're running multiple applications communicating with the Net from multiple computers. I had to replace it finally after it stopped handing out IP addresses and would not allow me to establish a connection to it from any PC despite trying all possible methods. You get what you pay for in routers I think.
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