Well, I should have known better. I had a coupon from Micro Center for a free wireless router, and the ad claimed that it would be four times faster than wireless-G, the wireless router that I was currently using. The coupon was for a wireless-N router but didn't say the brand. When I redeemed the coupon, it turned out to be this Tenda model.

The router is small, flat, and white, and is light as a feather. It really feels like it has nothing inside of it, and apparently it doesn't! The router worked fine at first, but after a couple of weeks, my downstairs neighbor with whom I share internet started texting me a couple of times a week to say that the internet was down. The first few times, I cycled the modem and router (unplugged them and plugged them back in again) and was able to solve the problem. A couple of weeks later, the signal would go out at least once a day. Finally, a couple of nights ago, my cycling solution stopped working, so I switched back to my old wireless router and haven't had any problems since.

Through trouble-shooting, I determined that the problem with the Tenda router was in its signal. When I plugged an ethernet cord directly into the router, the Internet connection was fine.

I didn't bother to try to call customer service or anything like that to attempt to fix the Tenda router because the card that came with the router had only a Hotmail account to contact for help. Not even gmail? Was this thing made in 1997?

As the name describes, the Tenda router has four ethernet ports and is also supposed to emit a wireless signal. The package comes with the router, a power cord, an ethernet cord, and a set-up CD. After following the instructions on the set-up CD, I still wasn't able to connect to the Internet on my laptop, so I enlisted the help of someone more computer-savvy. He adjusted various Internet settings on my laptop to no avail. I said, "Why don't I try unplugging everything and then plugging it back in?" He said it must be something more complicated than that, but my solution worked.

So I was smug. For a while. Until my low-tech solution stopped working. I told my computer-savvy boy that I had gone back to my old wireless router because this new one is a piece of junk, and he said, "Oh, I knew that would happen."

Lesson learned: If a store is giving an electronics device away for free, they are trying to get rid of it for a reason.

Recommended: No

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