Discuss (25) -
Posted at 4:09 AM on Tuesday 11/13/07 by
Ben
Hotness UNHOT
Buy.com has the CP Technologies WBR-3406TX Wireless Router for $41 - $31 rebate = $10 with free shipping. Features 4 workstations can be connected to this router by 4 Ethernet ports that support 10/100 Mbps data transfer rate and auto MDI/MDIX function. [BizRate]
  • 21
    dave_c - Posted 4:02 pm PST 11/13/07 (17698 Posts)  Report Spam

    I bought this for a friend of mine from buy.com two months ago. what follows is my post for that deal but as an addendum
    I found it worked fine as a router at good speed, as did my friend who would've definitely bitched if it had any problems. The main drawbacks are an ugly interface and shorter wifi range than some. I definitely prefer my Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 running DD-WRT a little more for it's features and longer range, but it was about $65 instead of $10 and this router may meet some people's needs. It has a less common default IP address of 192.168.123.254

    If I needed another router I'd buy another now, and again put a heatsink on the network processing chip and open up the casing holes which is easier on this than on most router casings, though I suppose with a power drill anything is possible.

    VV Prior Post VV

    Gotta luv it when buy.com gets an order out fast. Router arrived 2 days after placing order.

    Some details about it for posterities' sake.

    12VDC, 1A unregulated wall wart style PSU. (less likely to fail than the switching warts that come with some routers, but also adds a tiny bit more heat to the router itself (very small % of total heat).

    Casing does have rather minimal ventilation and should have the vent holes opened, IMO, which is easy as they're already 70% perforated but just tiny slits - opening the holes would increase the area by over 500% and combat the main problem with many cheap consumer grade passively cooled routers.

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  • 22
    dave_c - Posted 4:09 pm PST 11/13/07 (17698 Posts)  Report Spam

    Labeled hardware revision 2.0
    Processor is Amrisc 10100
    Appears to have minimal memory (not enough for a custom linux kernel and not supported by Tomato, DD-WRT, etc). IE - 1MB flash, 2MB DRAM

    It appears to be VERY similar to other rebrands. Identical to LanTech WL54G-BR, similar if not identical to Safecom SWBAR-5400, similar if not identical to MSI RG54G3, and close enough to Zyxel P-320W (same chipsets) that it should be firmware compatible. I have no idea whose firmware is best nor how it performs in general as I have no intention of using it, is for a remote client's (person not just "client" system) use.

    The main (Amrisc 10100) processor doesn't get very hot, but this is with the case open in moderate temp environment. No heatsink on it, while other companies like ZyXel do put a heatsink on theirs so if you had lockups it might be a good ideal to heatsink it in addtion to opening up the casing holes as mentioned above.

    It seems that with any router, some people have problems and others don't. AFAIK my friend doesn't do any heavy P2P activity so he's not giving it much of a workout but he had router problems with other makes previously and this did the trick. YMMV, but it's only $10.

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  • 23
    botte1 - Posted 5:42 pm PST 11/13/07 (1467 Posts)  Report Spam

    not bad for $10

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  • 24
    sforce2014 - Posted 6:06 pm PST 11/13/07 (1090 Posts)  Report Spam

    I haven't heard of this brand, I suggest getting the trendnet deal rather than this one. I have a trendnet router and it works well.

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  • 25
    gpeek - Posted 12:50 am PST 11/21/07 (486 Posts)  Report Spam

    Look for a good deal on a wifi router from D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, or Buffalo on Black Friday. I'd be very cautious about buying a router made by a company no one has heard of.

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